John Edwards assured his mistress that they'd be together after his cancer-stricken wife died, according to a new bombshell report.

Just before the former presidential contender confessed his adultery to ABC News on Aug. 8, he secretly flew Rielle Hunter and her 6-month-old child, Frances Quinn, from California to the US Virgin Islands, according to the National Enquirer, which first exposed their affair.

And after the interview, in which he denied loving Hunter or fathering the baby, he called her to say, "We'll be together when Elizabeth is gone," the tabloid reported.

For her part, Hunter bragged that Edwards is "a real good lover," the Enquirer said.

And after she joined him in New Orleans in 2006 for the official launch of his candidacy - which Elizabeth skipped - Hunter told a pal that "it was one of the happiest nights of her life," according to the Enquirer.

"She felt like she was his first lady," the tabloid reported, quoting a source.

The Enquirer, citing sources, also reported that 55-year-old Edwards:

* Slept with Hunter the night they met in a New York City bar in 2006.

* First told Hunter, 44, he loved her during a trip to Africa. "I broke down in tears," she told a friend.

* Flew to Boston on the same plane with 59-year-old Elizabeth and Hunter, who was the campaign videographer, right before his wife learned of the affair.

* Said he "wouldn't hear of" an abortion after he impregnated Hunter in 2007.