John Edwards Admits to Fathering Illegitimate Child

By Sam Brand Posted Jan 21st 2010 12:33PM

Few, if any, politicians have risen so high and fallen so low. John Edwards was Senator of North Carolina for six years and John Kerry's running mate in 2004. His name was smeared and his career was smashed in 2008 when he admitted to have lied about keeping faithful to his cancer-stricken wife. Today, as an investigation continues into whether Edwards used campaign funds to hide mistress Rielle Hunter from public view, the former presidential hopeful has finally admitted to being the father of her child.

"I am truly sorry," Edwards said In a statement released today. "I am Quinn's father. I will do everything in my power to provide her with the support she deserves."

The admission comes almost two years after Frances Quinn Hunter was born to film producer and 2008 presidential campaign staff member Rielle Hunter, and less than two weeks before the release of an aide's inflammatory tell-all that is widely expected to name Edwards as the father.

The former senator had repeatedly denied the child was his. In August 2008, after nearly a year of rampant tabloid speculation, Edwards admitted to have been engaged in an affair with Hunter, who he met in 2006 and who made several short films of his 2008 campaign for president.

"I made a very serious mistake, a mistake I am responsible for and no one else," he told Bob Woodruff of ABC News. But he said his affair with Hunter ended before he announced his candidacy for president, at least 14 months before Hunter's child was born.

"It was wrong for me ever to deny she was my daughter," today's statement reads. "Hopefully one day, when she understands, she will forgive me."

Frances Quinn Hunter will have to forgive Edwards for outrageous wrongdoings. Not only did the former senator deny he was her father, he allegedly coerced friend, aide, and married man Andrew Young into publicly and falsely admitting to being Quinn's father.

In The Politician, set to hit shelves on Feb. 2, Young asserts that Edwards promised to "'take care of [him] for life' in return for falsely claiming he was the father of the baby carried by Ms. Hunter."

According to the New York Times, the book also claims that Edwards promised Hunter "that after his wife died, he would marry her in a rooftop ceremony in New York with an appearance by the Dave Matthews Band."

Edwards has a lot to be sorry for. Today's admission is one small step towards a public and political recovery that will almost certainly never be fulfilled.

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Comments

(3)

Thursday 21 January

By D. Justice

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If his affair with Rielle ended 14 months before Quinn's birth that would be news. A scientific annomaly.

By Darin

Yep...Just like a politician...Lie..Lie..Lie and then admit to wrong doing. Why not Castrate the SOB and drop his ass from politics altogether.

By mare

IT AWAYS AMAZE ME HOW THESE PEOPLE LIE. JOHN KNEW WHAT HE WAS DOING AND SO DID HIS HONEY, JOHN IS ONE OF THESE PEOPLE WHO THINK LIFE IS ALL ABOUT HIM. THESE PEOPLE NEVER CHANGE.THXS

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