Family While at UNC, he met
Elizabeth Anania. They married in 1977 and had four children (Wade in 1979,
Cate in 1982, Emma Claire in 1998, and Jack in 2000). In a
widely-publicized extramarital affair, he fathered a daughter in 2008 with Rielle Hunter, a staffer on his
2008 presidential campaign. Edwards denied being the father until 2010. Wade was killed in a car accident when strong winds swept his Jeep off a North Carolina highway in 1996. Three weeks before his death, he was honored by
First Lady Hillary Clinton at
The White House as one of the 10 finalists in an essay contest sponsored by the
National Endowment for the Humanities and the
Voice of America for an essay he wrote on entering the voting booth with his father. Wade, accompanied by his parents and sister, went on to meet North Carolina Sen.
Jesse Helms, who later entered Wade's essay and his obituary into the
Congressional Record. Edwards and his wife began the Wade Edwards Foundation in their son's memory; the purpose of the non-profit organization is "to reward, encourage, and inspire young people in the pursuit of excellence." The foundation funded the Wade Edwards Learning Lab at Wade's high school,
Needham B. Broughton High School in
Raleigh, along with scholarship competitions and essay awards. On November 3, 2004, Elizabeth Edwards revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She was treated by
chemotherapy and
radiotherapy, and continued to work within the Democratic Party and her husband's One America Committee. On March 22, 2007, during his campaign for the 2008 Democratic nomination for the presidency, Edwards and his wife announced that her cancer had returned; she was diagnosed with
stage IV breast cancer, with newly discovered
metastases to the bone and possibly to her lung. They said that the cancer was "no longer curable, but is completely treatable" and that they planned to continue campaigning together with an occasional break when she required treatment. In June 2010, Elizabeth published a book called
Resilience. Her book is about the struggles of her marriage and how she was affected by
her husband's affair. In the book, Elizabeth talks about how long she was in the dark about the affair and how many times her husband lied about the details of the affair. She never addresses John's mistress by name but calls her a "parasitic groupie" and claims that she is "pathetic". Elizabeth also opens up about how she tried to forgive her husband after she first learned of the affair but struggled to find forgiveness when he continued to lie. After Edwards's January 21, 2010, admission that he fathered a child with his
mistress, Elizabeth obtained a
legal separation from him and intended to file for divorce after a mandatory one-year waiting period. On December 7, 2010, Elizabeth died of
metastatic breast cancer, aged 61.
Residence In Washington, D.C., Edwards lived on
Embassy Row, at 2215 30th Street NW. In 2004, he sold his house to the
Hungarian Embassy to the United States.
Extramarital affair In October 2007,
The National Enquirer began a series of reports alleging an
adulterous affair between Edwards and former campaign worker Rielle Hunter. By July 2008, several news media outlets speculated that Edwards's chances for the vice presidency as well as other positions such as the attorney general were harmed by the allegations, which now included that he fathered a child with Hunter and had visited her and the baby girl at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in
Beverly Hills, California. The story was not widely covered by the press for some time, until, after initially denying the allegations, Edwards admitted the affair. In an August 8, 2008, statement, and an interview with
Bob Woodruff of
ABC News, Edwards admitted the affair with Hunter in 2006, but denied being the father of her child. He acknowledged that he had been dishonest in denying the entire
Enquirer story, admitting that some of it was true, but said that the affair ended long before the time of the child's conception. He further said he was willing to take a paternity test, but Hunter responded that she would not be party to a
DNA test "now or in the future". Initially, campaign aide Andrew Young claimed that he, not Edwards, was the child's father. Young later renounced that statement, instead alleging that Edwards always knew he was the child's father and had pleaded with him to falsely accept responsibility. Young further claimed to have set up private meetings between Edwards and Hunter, and that Edwards once calmed an anxious Hunter by promising her that after his wife died he would marry her in a rooftop ceremony in New York with an appearance by the
Dave Matthews Band. On January 21, 2010, John Edwards issued a press release to admit that he fathered Hunter's child. On February 2, 2010, Young released a book detailing the affair. Young also began working with
Aaron Sorkin on a movie about the affair based on the book
The Politician. On February 23, 2012, an Orange County, North Carolina, judge ruled that Young and his wife could not publicize the movie. The judge also ruled that an alleged "sex tape" of Edwards and Hunter be destroyed by the court. The judge also allowed only the materials already in the public domain to be used for public purposes. All other photos and materials not yet released can be used for family purposes only. Reports surfaced in late 2011 in
The National Enquirer and
RadarOnline.com that Edwards asked his former mistress to move into his North Carolina home, where he had once lived with his wife. In 2012, Rielle Hunter announced her breakup with Edwards the same day she released a book about their relationship. In response to the scandal involving Edwards's extramarital affair and attempts to cover it up, he has stated "I am a sinner, but not a criminal."
Legal troubles In May 2009, newspapers reported that Edwards's campaign was being investigated for conversion of campaign money to personal use related to the affair. Edwards said that the campaign was complying with the inquiry. The relevant US attorney refused to comment. In the same month,
George Stephanopoulos of ABC News reported that members of Edwards's staff had told him that they had planned a "doomsday strategy" to derail Edwards's campaign if he got close to the nomination.
Joe Trippi, a senior advisor to the campaign, said the report was "complete bullshit". In August 2009, Rielle Hunter appeared before the
grand jury investigating this matter. On March 15, 2010, Hunter broke her silence during an interview with
GQ magazine and provided new details about the affair. In March 2011, voicemail messages allegedly left by John Edwards were obtained, which Young says prove that Edwards arranged the cover-up of his affair with Hunter. On May 24, 2011,
ABC News and the
New York Times reported that the
U.S Department of Justice's
Public Integrity Section had conducted a two-year investigation into whether Edwards had used more than $1 million in political donations to hide his affair and planned to pursue criminal charges for alleged violations of
campaign finance laws. On June 3, 2011, Edwards was indicted by a
federal grand jury in North Carolina on six felony charges, including four counts of collecting illegal campaign contributions, one count of conspiracy, and one count of making false statements. After postponing the start of the trial while Edwards was treated for a heart condition in February 2012, Judge
Catherine Eagles of the
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina scheduled jury selection to begin on April 12, 2012. Edwards's trial began on April 23, 2012, as he faced up to 30 years in prison and a $1.5 million fine. In a related development, on March 13, 2012, the
Federal Election Commission ruled that Edwards's campaign must repay $2.1 million in matching federal funds. Edwards's lawyers claimed the money was used, and that the campaign did not receive all the funds to which it was entitled, but the Commission rejected the arguments. Twelve jurors and four alternates were seated, and opening arguments began April 23, 2012. Closing arguments took place May 17, and the case went to the jury the next day. On May 31, 2012, Edwards was found not guilty on Count 3, illegal use of campaign funding (contributions from
Rachel "Bunny" Mellon), while mistrials were declared on all other counts against him. On June 13, 2012, the Justice Department announced that it dropped the charges and would not attempt to retry Edwards. ==Return to law practice==