Jazziette:
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Elizabeth Edwards learned of John's affair 'slowly,' stayed for the kids
BY MICHAEL SAUL
DAILY NEWS POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
Wednesday, August 13th 2008, 11:43 AM
John Edwards did not confess his adulterous affair to his cancer-stricken wife, Elizabeth, until after he officially launched his presidential campaign in December 2006, a new report in People magazine revealed.
"He told the truth slowly," one source close to the couple told the magazine.
Elizabeth Edwards was furious and distraught about her husband's betrayal, but she decided to keep her marriage in tact, in large part, because of her terminal cancer and the prospect that her children will one day be motherless, those closest to her said. In 2007, doctors diagnosed Elizabeth with incurable cancer.
The fact that she was living with a terminal disease, "the uncertainty of her own mortality," forced her to make a decision, her younger brother, Jay Anania said.
"She couldn't say, 'Well, maybe we'll work through this for years, or maybe we should separate for two years,' " said Hargrave McElroy, Elizabeth's friend. "(The cancer) forced her to choose whether to move forward."
Last Friday, John Edwards confessed on national television that he had a "short" affair with Rielle Hunter, a videographer for his campaign, but he insisted that Hunter's daughter, born in February of this year, was not his.
In the interview on ABC, Edwards insisted that the affair took place in 2006 and he specifically pointed out that his wife's cancer was in remission during that time.
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She chose to stay with her husband, to a large degree, because her children would one day be without her. "That was an extraordinary burden for her," McElroy said, "and that's why it's so painful for her to see the father of her children become a pariah."
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I read that she learned of the affair on New Year's Eve 2006. I read that he didn't confess...but that she confronted him with it.
I think I believe this.
Amazing Grace:
I have only included the passages that are relevant to my comments here. This is the problem I'm having with the spin from this article. Elizabeth did not know she had terminal cancer until Mar., 2007. It appears from the timeline that she made the decision to go forward with the marriage & support his presidential campaign 3 months prior to that--i.e. he confirmed his affair with Hunter Dec. 31,1006. I understand a person should not make a decision to dissolve a marriage without giving it some period of serious thought, but she should have known at that point that the presidential campaign had a serious problem hanging over its head. The announcement of the return of her cancer in a terminal form would have been the perfect time to gracefully withdraw from the campaign &, by doing so, make sure the affair & all marriage problems truly became a personal & private matter. They would have limited the sacrifice of time, energy, passion, commitment, & money that others made for them. And they could have devoted their time to repairing their marriage instead of investing it in a campaign that was doomed to failure due to his indescretion. Of course, I also will acknowledge that hindsight is 20-20. It's pretty easy for me to play armchair quarterback as a totally uninvolved party completely removed from the situation with the luxury of having a somewhat more complete overview of the situation than any one of the individual major players had at the time.
I also want to mention that every time I see these photos on the news with Hunter sitting next to John on the plane or the ones of her in the background or hanging around the edges with John in the forefront I want to slap her & him both. It makes me want to puke.
Detiny:
Your right on all your points Ag. Gosh, I wish you would stop doing that! If he had withdrawn when she was rediagnosed this whole thing probably wouldn't have happened. But they decided "together" that he would continue. I totally think it went on longer than he is admitting. I do however think Elizabeth thought it was over, before it was. Heck, it still might not be.
LOL Destiny! AG does have a habit of hitting the nail on the head doesn't she? hahaha But then ... so do you!
Now if we could just get you to drink the kool aid! Then you would be able to reach the door knob, Alice! hahaha
It's interesting how caught up we all are in this Edwards thing. There are so many more important things in this world we should be more worried about...more centered on. But how can we help but obsess on this? After all, we were ALL very big Edwards supporters who trusted him completely! We were devastated that he didn't get the Media coverage we felt he deserved! We were devastated when he suddenly suspended his race after vowing to stay in it until the end. And we ignored the National Enquirer for months, not even dignifying it with the smallest of mentions, as we vigorously prised Edwards for the noble spirit we thought him to be. And the John and Elizabeth Edwards Love Story was one we all cherished. Just look at the wedding photo of them under the John Reid Edwards topic here on this site. We loved the Edwards family. Pure and simple!
For those of us who were Obama supporters it was heaven on earth the day that John endorsed Obama! John was so eloquent in his speech that day in Detroit! He and Obama looked so good together on stage! They seemed to really like each other and their presence together was electrifying! We all had great hope that Obama would choose Edwards to be his running mate.
All our hopes and dreames dashed! And rightfully so. And so we grieve. And in our grieving we are sometimes angry. Angry at John. Angry at Elizabeth. Angry at the 'other woman'. Angry and Hurt! These are natural emotions. Natural emotions one goes through as a part of grief......as a part of healing.
This wasn't just some little thing with us! We really trusted John with all our hearts! He was the first politician I trusted in years and years and years! And I trusted him and believed in him completely. I will admit that after he suspended I found out about the hinted affairs and felt it might even be true but it just didn't matter to me. I didn't completely believe the story. I felt there might be some element of truth to it but it all sounded too weird to be true. The woman, the webisodes, the fact she was pregnant, that Andrew Young claimed to be the father, that his wife had her over for dinner? It was all too sensational for me to believe. But you know what they say about truth being stranger than fiction.
I don't know what is going to happen next with John. I sometimes try to imagine what is going on in the Edwards household right at this moment. I am certain he feels disgraced and I hope he feels ashamed. I think he probably is the father of Rielle Hunter's child and I don't think he ever really did end the affair. But I only think this because of all I have read. I know nothing for a fact other than what I saw him say on TV. I don't think he was telling us everything. Why he didn't tell us everything is something only he knows. Perhaps there were legal reasons. Perhaps he wanted to save Elizabeth a tiny bit less humiliation. But at any rate he failed. He failed bigtime. To those of us who loved him and trusted him......it was an incredible disappointment and hurt. That is why we are still obsessing! And we have every right to obsess and to grieve. Many of us gave money to his campaign when we couldn't really afford to and we feel cheated. We feel betrayed. We want to know the truth and all of it!
For me personally, my feelings have greatly wavered back and forth. From feeling sorry for John to feeling sorry for Elizabeth to wanting to not think about it any longer or read about it anymore to researching all I could find on Rielle Hunter and what kind of person she really is/was to thinking it was Elizabeth's fault and blaming her to thinking John must have had a nervous breakdown to thinking it was all caused by the death of their son Wade, to thinking John needed someone after knowing he was losing Elizabeth to cancer to......to now.
Now, today (and I can't tell you how I will feel tomorrow) I feel great sorrow and compassion for all involved. I really do! I don't even care about the money or what campaign laws were broken or what is going to happen tomorrow. I know that in the end John and Elizabeth and Hunter will all have paid a price that we cannot ever even imagine for what has happened.
I just can't find it in my heart to be angry with them any longer. I know that they are all suffering at this moment. I don't think a lot about Hunter. No, I take that back. I do. I think that she probably loves John very much and is in great distress wanting to be with him. That's what I really think about her. What kind of sordid past she may or may not have had doesn't matter to me.
As for Elizabeth I can only imagine the deep hurt she is feeling. I can't blame her for wanting her husband to continue in his race for the Presidency. She knew her illness was terminal. In her mind she thought the affair was over. Without going into the Clinton fiasco, it appeared the precedent had been set. So why should she or John have decided he couldn't run for President after that?
I don't blame her! But I do blame John for continuing the affair (if he did) while he was running for President. He should have had more self-discipline.
I guess that's it. Someday the truth will come out. It won't be like the JFK Assassination where we will maybe never ever know. Someday we will know the whole truth........but I don't think it will be until after Elizabeth has passed on.
I wish this hadn't happened but it did. And I can't help but feel compassion now for all concerned. Especially the two little children of the Edwards. They are the ones who are there who hear their parents. They are the little ones who will suffer the most from this. They will lose their mother as well. What a tragedy!!!!
As for the Hunter child. She will be well taken care of I am assuming for all her life. She won't have known anything about this from the start so she won't be as affected but it does bother me that this little innocent child is being denied .......
Okay....that's it. I have more I would like to say, but that's it for now!
I fully understand how AG feels! I fully understand how betrayed she feels. Her post was revealing and sensitive.......
