John and Elizabeth Edwards: The Ties that Bind

October 14, 2009

Edwards Sex scandals in American politics are nothing new. Andrew Jackson after the death of his wife, was reported to have been involved with a married woman. Grover Cleveland, the only American to be elected to two non-consecutive terms as president, was often accused by his Republican opponents of hiding from the public a love child.

Of course in the last dozen years sex scandals have rocked American politics with the seismic regularity of California’s notorious San Andreas Fault. From the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, to the recent disappearance of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, who having claimed he went on a soul searching solitary trek through the Appalachian Trail, was revealed to be in a passionate affair with an Argentine woman in Buenos Aires.

Just below the surface of this ever bubbling cauldron of misbehavior is the sad case of John and Elizabeth Edwards and the former senator’s lover, Rielle Hunter. Given the fact that Edwards public career would appear to be at an end, the story might have gone away by now, but there are several glaring factors that keep this story on the public’s radar screen, not the least of which is the fact that it has been followed faithfully by the tabloids.

First is the fact that Edwards might be close to making a long anticipated confession that Hunter’s young daughter is indeed his child. Second, Edwards and his 2008 presidential campaign are being investigated for improperly funneling donor’s funds to Hunter. Third, and most grippingly, is the fact that Elizabeth Edwards continues to battle an incurable form of breast cancer.

The Edwards story has long been one of triumph and tragedy. Elizabeth, 60, four years John’s senior, earned her law degree, as John did, from the University of North Carolina. Starting in 1980 with the birth of their son, Wade, John and Elizabeth had four children, two sons, and two girls. During the 1980s John used his charm and intellect to turn himself into the most dominant trial lawyer in all of North Carolina. In a variety of legal actions against major corporate opponents, the poor son of a Southern mill worker made millions.

Then in 1996 tragedy struck as Wade, then age 16, was killed in an automobile accident. Two years later, in the hope of giving their lives new direction, and as a novice politician, John ran for a US Senate seat and stunned North Carolina by his victory. Six years later, in 2004 he was selected by John Kerry as his running mate, and John and Elizabeth Edwards became familiar faces in American homes.

In 2005 Edwards left his senate seat and began to lay plans for a 2008 presidential run. Considered an early front runner in the race he found himself between two superstar candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. While he outlasted the rest of the Democratic field, he was out of the race by early March, long before the conclusion of the primary season in June.

Life for the Edwards went from bad to worse, first the revelation early in John’s 2008 presidential run that Elizabeth’s cancer had returned and was incurable. Then well before Obama claimed victory in June, the stories about John’s affair with Hunter bubbled to the surface. Not only had he betrayed a cancer stricken wife and the mother of his three surviving children, but he had deeply disappointed his supporters. The timing of the scandal, disillusioned supporters bitterly complained, could have torpedoed their party’s chance to retake the White House in 2008 if their candidate had indeed succeeded in winning the nomination.

Today, in a $6.7 million estate in the famously liberal community of Chapel Hill, John and Elizabeth live far more private lives with their two youngest children, Emma Claire and Jack. Cate, the oldest surviving child, graduated last year from Harvard Law School.

In May, Elizabeth released a 224-page self-help book and memoir, “Resilience,” in which she discussed her diminishing health and her husband’s affair. She explained that she was trying to “make room” for her husband to “earn the trust that he squandered.” In August she opened a 700-square-foot furniture store, Red Window, in downtown Chapel Hill. In her book, she explains that this new endeavor is an attempt to gain a little independence. “In this world, I am not John’s wife,” she wrote. “My name is not in a tabloid. I am Elizabeth buying for a small store.”

Tabloid photographers, nevertheless, have kept up with the Edwards family, photographing John in jeans and a blue T-shirt moving furniture into Elizabeth’s new shop. Symbols of their old lives are fading. The former national campaign office, located in a nearby shopping center, is now occupied by a UNC dermatology clinic.

Neighbors try to give them some sense of peace and distance as day by day these two brilliant and resilient people attempt once again to redefine their lives both separately and together.

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