Updated 08/09/2008 12:02 PM
Elizabeth Edwards: 'John made a terrible mistake'
By: News 14 Carolina Staff
John Edwards, Rielle Hunter
RALEIGH -- John Edwards admitted to an extramarital affair with a campaign filmmaker on Friday but said based on when the woman became pregnant, it's not possible he is the father of her newborn child.
Edwards repeatedly called initial reports of the affair by the National Enquirer "tabloid trash." But in a statement he released Friday around 5 p.m., he admitted to the infidelity.
Elizabeth Edwards
"I made a serious error in judgment and conducted myself in a way that was disloyal to my family and to my core beliefs," the statement read. "I recognized my mistake and told my wife that I had a liaison with another woman, and I asked for her forgiveness."
Edwards released the statement after ABC News reported that he admitted the affair in an interview with reporter Bob Woodruff.
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.
The pain of the long journey since 2006 was about to be renewed.
John has spoken in a long on-camera interview I hope you watch. Admitting one's mistakes is a hard thing for anyone to do, and I am proud of the courage John showed by his honesty in the face of shame. The toll on our family of news helicopters over our house and reporters in our driveway is yet unknown. But now the truth is out, and the repair work that began in 2006 will continue. I ask that the public, who expressed concern about the harm John's conduct has done to us, think also about the real harm that the present voyeurism does and give me and my family the privacy we need at this time.
The former Democratic presidential candidate also apologized to his friends and supporters in the statement.
"It is inadequate to say to the people who believed in me that I am sorry, as it is inadequate to say to the people who love me that I am sorry," the statement said. "In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic."
Edwards has not taken a paternity test, but he said filmmaker Rielle Hunter’s baby is not his based on the date of the baby’s birth, Feb. 27. Edwards said he had ended his affair with Hunter in 2006 more than nine months before her baby was born.
In the statement, he did say he was willing to "take any test necessary to establish the fact that I am not the father of any baby."
Edwards said in ABC's interview that he did not love the 44-year-old Hunter, who was paid $114,461 for her work making a documentary about Edwards’ campaign. In all, Hunter produced just four videos about Edwards campaign, and according to The News & Observer, one of those videos was only 2 and a half minutes long.
In Friday's statement, Edwards said he never made payments of any kind to the woman or apparent father of the baby.
Former Edwards campaign staffer Andrew Young has told several news agencies that he is the father of Hunter’s baby. On the baby’s California birth certificate, however, no name is given for the baby’s father.
Edwards said in the statement that he has nothing more to say about the affair.
"If you want to beat me up -- feel free. You cannot beat me up more than I have already beaten up myself," the statement said. "I have been stripped bare and will now work with everything I have to help my family and others who need my help."
Political experts said there is little chance he will speak at the Democratic National Convention this month.
"Right now he's just radioactive," Dr. David McLennan, a political science professor at Peace College, said. "He represents things that the Democrats don't need to focus on."
Former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton had little to say about the issue.
"My thoughts and prayers are with the Edwards family today and that's all I have to say," Clinton said
The National Enquirer broke the story in October and Edwards denied allegations of the affair for months until the mainstream media started pushing Edwards for either an admission or a stronger denial in the weeks leading up to the Democratic National Convention.
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David Perel, the editor of the National Enquirer, said at one point, their reporters got advanced warning that Edwards planned to meet with Hunter at the Beverly Hills Hilton hotel. When they confronted Edwards at the hotel, Perel said Edwards ran away and tried to hide in a men’s bathroom.
In the ABC News interview, Edwards admitted that he visited Hunter at the Hilton but denied reports he paid to keep her quiet. He did say it was possible that his friends could have paid her without him knowing it.
The Enquirer posted a photo of what they said is Edwards with Hunter’s child, and the Enquirer maintains that the baby is indeed John Edwards’ child and not Andrew Young’s.
Perel said Friday’s admission just proves what his paper has been reporting for months. He said he expects the rest of the story to break in the coming weeks and stands by the National Enquirer’s reporting that Edwards is the father and that Edwards paid to keep Hunter quiet.
• Birth certificate of Rielle Hunter's baby
• Rielle Hunter's production company Web site
Webisodes from Hunter's company
• Webisode 1 (See below)
• Webisode 2
• Webisode 3
• Webisode 4
Timeline
Spring 2006 – Rielle Hunter meets former Democratic Sen. John Edwards in a New York City bar and proposes the idea of filming him in a documentary.
Summer 2006 – Edwards' One America Campaign hires Hunter's company, Midline Groove, to produce Webisode videos featuring John Edwards.
Dec. 28, 2006 – Former Democratic Sen. John Edwards announces he will run for president in 2008.
Fall/Winter 2006 – Edwards said his wife, Elizabeth, found out about the affair.
Dec. 31, 2006 – Rielle Hunter, a filmmaker who produced videos for Edwards' campaign, finishes her 6-month contract with the campaign.
March 22, 2007 – Edwards announces that Elizabeth's breast cancer has returned three years after her initial treatment for the disease. They will continue Edwards' campaign for president.
Oct. 10, 2007 – National Enquirer publishes story claiming that Edwards was having an affair with Rielle Hunter, a filmmaker who produced videos for his campaign.
Dec. 2007 – Campaign staffer Andrew Young claims to be the father of Hunter's daughter.
Jan. 30, 2008 – Edwards ends his campaign for president.
Feb. 27 – Rielle Hunter's daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter, is born.
July 21 – According to the National Enquirer, Edwards visited Rielle Hunter and her child at a hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. Enquirer reporters said they approached Edwards about the story, but he hid in a bathroom to avoid their questions.
July 23 – Edwards dismisses the Enquirer story as "tabloid trash."
July 30 – Edwards avoids reporters at a speech at the AARP Foundation Symposium on Poverty and Aging in Washington.
Aug. 1 – The News & Observer publishes a story revealing that the birth certificate for Frances Quinn Hunter lists no father.
Aug. 7 – According to the Charlotte Observer, Democrats were pressuring Edwards to address the allegations of his affair. The story said his chance to speak at the Democratic National Convention was in jeopardy.
Aug. 8 – In an interview with ABC News, Edwards confirms that he had an affair with Hunter, but said he is not the father of her child.
SOURCES: The Charlotte Observer, The News & Observer, National Enquirer
Video shot by Hunter's company of Edwards
In 2006, I made a serious error in judgment and conducted myself in a way that was disloyal to my family and to my core beliefs. I recognized my mistake and I told my wife that I had a liaison with another woman, and I asked for her forgiveness.
Although I was honest in every painful detail with my family, I did not tell the public. When a supermarket tabloid told a version of the story, I used the fact that the story contained many falsities to deny it.
But being 99% honest is no longer enough. I was and am ashamed of my conduct and choices, and I had hoped that it would never become public. With my family, I took responsibility for my actions in 2006 and today I take full responsibility publicly.
But that misconduct took place for a short period in 2006. It ended then. I am and have been willing to take any test necessary to establish the fact that I am not the father of any baby, and I am truly hopeful that a test will be done so this fact can be definitively established. I only know that the apparent father has said publicly that he is the father of the baby. I also have not been engaged in any activity of any description that requested, agreed to or supported payments of any kind to the woman or to the apparent father of the baby.
It is inadequate to say to the people who believed in me that I am sorry, as it is inadequate to say to the people who love me that I am sorry. In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic.
If you want to beat me up -- feel free. You cannot beat me up more than I have already beaten up myself. I have been stripped bare and will now work with everything I have to help my family and others who need my help. I have given a complete interview on this matter and having done so, will have nothing more to say.