John Edwards Admits to Affair But Denies Fathering a “Lovechild”

August 8, 2008

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

The John Edwards extramarital affair story has blown up faster, and larger then any news story in recent memory - and rightfully so, this tragic narrative takes the all too familiar “politician cheats on wife” scandal to the next level of shock and awe. We have put together a collection that includes initial reports, statements from both John and Elizabeth Edwards as well as video of the highly anticipated ABC interview between John Edwards and Bob Woodruff. We also have put together some information dealing with the who, what, where and why of Edwards mystery lady, Miss Rielle Hunter.

The Associated Press is reporting that former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards on Friday admitted to an extramarital affair while his wife was battling cancer. He denied fathering the woman’s daughter.

Edwards told ABC News that he lied repeatedly about the affair with a 42-year-old woman but said that he didn’t love her. He said he has not taken a paternity test but knows he isn’t the father because of the timing of the affair and the birth.

ABC said a former Edwards campaign staffer claims he is the father, not Edwards.

Edwards was a top contender for the Democratic nomination for president, pursuing his party’s nod even after announcing that his wife, Elizabeth, had a deadly form of cancer.

He placed second in the Iowa caucuses last January but dropped out of the race a few weeks later. He has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential choice for Barack Obama. The former North Carolina senator was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004.

In 2006, Edwards’ political action committee paid $100,000 in a four-month span to a newly formed firm run by Rielle Hunter, who directed the production of just four Web videos, one a mere 2 1/2 minutes long.

Hunter’s daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter, was born on Feb. 27, 2008, and no father’s name is given on the birth certificate filed in California.

The payments from Edwards’ One America Committee to Midline Groove Productions LLC started on July 5, 2006, five days after Hunter incorporated the firm in Delaware.

Midline provided “Website/Internet services,” according to reports that Edwards’ PAC filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Midline’s work product consists of four YouTube videos showing Edwards in informal settings as he prepares to make speeches in Storm Lake, Iowa, and Pittsburgh, Pa., prepares for an appearance on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” and travels in Uganda in 2006.

Edwards’ PAC paid Midline $100,000 in a four-month span in 2006, and followed that up with two smaller payments totaling $14,461, the last on April 1, 2007.

*UPDATED*

Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of the former North Carolina Senator has since issued a statement via a blog post over at the DailyKos in which she asks that both the public and the media grant her and her family privacy and continues on to reaffirm the notion that her husband had in fact come clean about the affair back in 2006:

“Our family has been through a lot. Some caused by nature, some caused by human weakness, and some – most recently – caused by the desire for sensationalism and profit without any regard for the human consequences. None of these has been easy. But we have stood with one another through them all. Although John believes he should stand alone and take the consequences of his action now, when the door closes behind him, he has his family waiting for him.

John made a terrible mistake in 2006. The fact that it is a mistake that many others have made before him did not make it any easier for me to hear when he told me what he had done. But he did tell me. And we began a long and painful process in 2006, a process oddly made somewhat easier with my diagnosis in March of 2007. This was our private matter, and I frankly wanted it to be private because as painful as it was I did not want to have to play it out on a public stage as well. Because of a recent string of hurtful and absurd lies in a tabloid publication, because of a picture falsely suggesting that John was spending time with a child it wrongly alleged he had fathered outside our marriage, our private matter could no longer be wholly private.”

To continue reading the statement in its entirety you can do so here.

As far as Rielle Hunter goes (the mistress) her story is quite interesting. She was hired by the Edwards campaign to do videographer work with John, a striking decision seeing as though Hunter had absolutely no experience in this field. None the less she got the job, and went to work - which we all know now included “work” in more ways then one.

Rielle Hunter filmed a series of short documentaries which are commonly referred to as “webisodes” for the former senator before his Democratic presidential campaign began. Below we have attached a handful of these clips, which are quite telling in the way Edwards and Hunter are interacting with one another:

Episode #1: “Plane Truths”

Episode #2: “Golden Rule”

Episode #3: “Plight of Uganda”

Episode #4: “Plugs”

All things aside, the videos are actually pretty interesting to watch. If you are a political junkie and love seeing what goes on “behind the scenes” then this little mini series is right up your alley.

That said, the situation still stands for what it is - a tragic tale of a man who rose to power, inspired people across this country, appealed to people who up until Edwards hadn’t found a politician that spoke for “them”. However personal desire, and undoubtedly a series of events and situations that neither you nor I know of unfolded causing Edwards to act - well - human.

Edwards ABC interview aired earlier tonight and be sure to check back periodically for the sit down in its entirety. We plan on having it up the second it is made available.