John Edwards’ former mistress is getting a tough lesson in surviving celebrity after her racy photospread with the April issue of GQ Magazine hit newsstands on Monday, leaving the 45-year-old mother shaken with shame.

The campaign videographer who has a child with the former Democratic presidential hopeful posed in series of glamourous shots for the mag and spoke candidly for the first time about her romance with Edwards.

But Hunter was “in tears” when she saw the “repulsive” images of her that made it to print. According to Barbara Walters, who spoke with Hunter early Monday, the former actress “thought that having one of those photos was okay and would be sexy and that there were others that were just beautiful headshots, but that GQ picked photos to hit one note.”