Elizabeth Edwards: Trust Is Biggest Hurdle

DETROIT — The wife of former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards says her husband's extramarital affair has allowed her to focus on the importance of her children and health reform as she goes through "an ongoing process of finding your feet again."

"There's a lot of adjustment to make," Elizabeth Edwards told the Detroit Free Press for a story published Thursday. "When you mention trust, that's probably the most difficult hurdle."

The interview came more than a month after her husband acknowledged that he repeatedly lied about having an affair in 2006.

Elizabeth Edwards, 59, had been quiet about the affair, only discussing it in a brief statement last month in which she pleaded for privacy and said her husband confessed the affair to her in 2006.

Edwards, who is being treated for breast cancer, spoke to the newspaper ahead of a visit to Detroit next month to talk about coping with life's setbacks, including the loss of her teenage son in an auto accident and her 2004 cancer diagnosis.

She also said she wants her children _ Cate, 26, Emma Claire, 10, and Jack, 8 _ to have an image of their father as "an advocate for poverty, not for this current picture of him to be the only one they carry with them, as young people and as adults."

"I have to prepare for the possibility if I die before they are grown," she said, of helping them "function without an involved, engaged and admiring parent. So I need to create the picture for them that I want them to have."

Audience members asked no questions about her private life, and Edwards did not mention the affair. She did not return a message left Thursday by The Associated Press.

John Edwards has canceled all of his public events until after the election, saying in a statement through his publicist he doesn't want to be a distraction to his party's ticket.

He said in early August that he had an affair with a woman hired to produce videos of him doing advocacy work as he laid the groundwork for a presidential campaign.

___

Information from: Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com

Comments

[coryco]

Elizabeth, please, for the next 40 days, please speak about the country getting behind Obama. There will be time after to talk about yourself and your husband. The country needs your voice.

[Whinger]

Once a cheat always a cheat, don't become a doormat Elizabeth.

[gba]

Read the story. She hasn't

[Whinger]

I did, and good for her!

Just free advice and support.

[Okieborn]

VERY VERY TRUE !!!
Now if someone can explain that to the conservative right , but of course Sen. John Mccain is above being accountable for anything he does or doesn't do !!!

[jhNY]

Had he become the nominee, the affair would have come to light, and the Democratic Party would have lost another presidential election, all the swell ideas about the poor and health care drowned under the relentless din of the commentariat. Sorry Mrs. Edwards is ill. Hope she recovers. But deciding it was a good idea for John to run after she found out about the affair is not what I call putting party first.

[gba]

Oh yes of course. The GOP candidates were all fabulous role models for good family fathers and husbands..­..

[nighttimelady]

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to send her a HUGE bouquet of pink roses!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh say about 48 huge pink roses with just a blush of white on the petals.

OK so sue me but when I have hard times and things are out of whack - I buy flowers!! If I knew where to send them they would already be on the way!!

SUCH A LADY!!! WOW!!

[Cherubim]

You can hear audio excerpts from Elizabeth Edwards talking about her marriage here:
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880917128

[Tom95134]

What a classy lady.

[Cherubim]

I wish John Edwards would be made U.S. Attorney General, so he could help
fight the corruption on Wall Street.

[disgusted48]

One thing that elizabeth edwards can take comfort in is that unlike herself, hunter is not that pretty and not that special.

[IronMikeHouston]

LOL, neither one is very attractive. You might need to get your glasses updated! I appreciate you bringing a smile to my face this early. Hunter looks like some worthless c*nt that probably can't cook, can't clean, can't make a decent living (yoga instructor) and probably can't perform in bed!

[rmetz74]

Wow.

We may not know much about Hunter (despite your list of baseless assumptions), but we sure learned something about you.

[Okieborn]

I guess you are saying if she would have been beautiful and charming it would have made a difference !!!!

[apoyo]

My prayers are with you Elizabeth. You are doing the right thing by keeping your family together.

[BadmotherinAK]

We can't talk about the Republican VP nominee and her bizarre family issues, but we are still dragging this PRIVATE family through the mud.

Weird.

[ScandalousCandice]

I would love to dish on P-alin. Anyone who brings their f-amily issues to the forefront and then says they are out of bounds is fair game.

I think Elizabeth needs to quietly go away is all.

[gba]

She won't. Today she was in a panel in Congress witnessing about health care together with, among others Gov. Corzine.

[Annlindgk]

Something in the Edwards chronology still doesn't seem right here.
John Edwards claims he told Elizabeth the truth in late 2006; however, there is a picture of the two of them supposedly taken at a campaign rally on December 30, 2006 --and Rielle Hunter can be seen in the background with her video camera. If he had told Elizabeth the truth when he claims, would he have risked the possibility of an encounter between the two women? I don't think even he is that self-serving (not to mention downright stupid). Granted, he might have told his wife *really* late in 2006, as in the last few hours of the last day of the year.
I really believe that IF John told Elizabeth anything in 2006, it was that he had a one-night stand or, at most, a weekend fling--i.e­., something that, were it to come out in the media, would not be perceived as the career-stopper that a long-term affair would be.
There is also the very real chance that he never even admitted to any extramarital activities until this summer, and that her part in any cover-up is to say that she's known since late '06 and that everything is back on track. Why would she be willing to do this? Perhaps for the same reason she hasn't entertained the idea of divorce--with her health situation, she doesn't want to endanger the two younger kids' relationship with their father.

[ScandalousCandice]

That is so wrong. H-uff-p-ost deleted all of our comments and debates on whether she should be considered a hero or not. That's BS c-ensorship. You don't get on board and call a l-iar a hero and you get your comments deleted. That's even more sick that her covering up for her husband.

[standard]

H-uff-p-ost often deletes comments based on certain, specific content. Try to criticize by name prominent supporters of Mrs. C-linton (who blog here and are still pushing for her to be put on the ticket or who say exceptionally nice things about McCain) and you might as well be reciting George Carlin's "seven words". That's just sad.

[benne]

God bless, Elizabeth.

[jeanruss]

I was a supprter of Edwards and would still vote for him if he was running. If McCain is viable, so is he. I have always felt that sex was off linits as long as it didn't break any laws. Too many Americans a re too immature about sex. Most of our leaders have had affairs. Some of them are considered our BEST leaders. It seems that alot of people want a Jesus figure to lead them. They are certainly in the wrong country. They should move to Iran if they think religious leaders are the way to go. The entire purpose of our Constitution was to keep theology OUT of public policy. Even our brilliant founders would today be considered en-electable. It is beyond absurd.

[sparafucilli]

I love these two people and it's a shame to see them out of it over what is purely a very complicated and personal matter that became a train wreck that made headlines and sold papers but accomplished little else of true worth.