Disgraced former presidential contender John Edwards has finally ‘fessed up — admitting yesterday that he is the father of a girl whose mom he repeatedly bedded during his 2008 White House run.
His statement came just ahead of a juicy tell-all book, set for a Feb. 2 release, written by his former campaign aide Andrew Young — who worked with the candidate on an elaborate plan to pass himself off as the baby’s dad using faked medical tests.
After nearly two years of denials, the married Edwards, 56, yesterday admitted that Frances Quinn Hunter, born in 2008 to campaign videographer Rielle Hunter, is his daughter.
“I am Quinn’s father,” the Democratic former North Carolina senator and 2004 vice-presidential nominee said in a prepared statement.
“I will do everything in my power to provide her with the love and support she deserves.”
His wife, cancer-stricken Elizabeth Edwards, 60, described her family as “relieved” by the public declaration — although it’s unclear whether they will remain together.
“If somebody has a crystal ball, they can let me know,” she told The Associated Press.
“My marriage shouldn’t be on anybody’s radar screen except mine.”
Her husband, who had campaigned as an upholder of family values and who cultivated an everyman “aw, shucks” image, finally confirmed the extent of his hypocrisy yesterday.
He said about his love child, “I have been able to spend time with her during the past year and trust that future efforts to show her the love and affection she deserves can be done privately and in peace.
“It was wrong for me ever to deny she was my daughter, and hopefully one day, when she understands, she will forgive me.”
Edwards said he has agreed to pay child support, and concluded, “To all those I have disappointed and hurt, these words will never be enough, but I am truly sorry.”
Edwards’ statement seemed designed to take the reins of the story amid damning disclosures in the book “The Politician,” by his former aide, Young.
“Get a doctor to fake the DNA results,” Young claimed Edwards advised him, according to excerpts from an interview he gave to ABC News.
“And he asked me . . . to steal a diaper from the baby so he could secretly do a DNA test to find out if this [was] indeed his child.”
Young had claimed that the child was his when word broke that Hunter, now 45, was pregnant. Quinn was born on Feb. 27, 2008, meaning she was conceived in mid-2007.
By then, Hunter had stopped working for Edwards’ campaign, a job that consisted of shooting footage of him on his plane and on the campaign trial.
But the time of conception was after John and Elizabeth Edwards — who have four children — revealed she had terminal cancer, and renewed their vows.
Elizabeth Edwards had urged her husband to continue on with his campaign. And he did, despite evidence of the affair.
Despite Young’s insistence that the child was his, the story started to unravel — especially after the National Enquirer got pictures of Edwards visiting Hunter and holding the baby.
Hunter’s lawyer, Michael Critchley, called the move by Edwards “good for everyone,” but said his client wasn’t talking.
Edwards admitted to the affair in August 2008, but steadfastly denied he was the dad and even volunteered to take a paternity test — which he never did.
Since then, he has stayed mostly out of sight, and Elizabeth has issued denials that her husband was Quinn’s dad.
The feds have been investigating the use of campaign funds by Team Edwards, and Hunter testified before a grand jury recently.
A longtime family friend said an agreement to pay child support was the final element before Edwards could go public.
But the affair and the publicity around it was a central piece of the Edwards camp’s focus, according to “Game Change,” a book by political journalists John Heilemann and Mark Halperin.
They write that in the summer of 2008, Edwards was still floating his own name as a vice-presidential hopeful to Barack Obama even as he knew reporters were digging around on the Hunter affair story.
And he lied repeatedly about it, insisting to his staff that damaging stories that weren’t true were being written.
Elizabeth, meanwhile, comes off as crazed and vindictive, paranoid that staffers were leaking news against them.
Even after John was photographed holding the baby, Elizabeth continued to maintain it wasn’t his, the book says.
“I have to believe it,” Elizabeth said. “Because if I don’t, it means I’m married to a monster.”