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John Edwards and wife have legally separated: report

Disgraced former presidential contender John Edwards and his wife have reportedly legally separated after he admitted he is the father of a baby girl whose mom he repeatedly bedded during his 2008 White House run.

After spending Christmas together with their three kids, Edwards and his wife quietly parted ways.

Edwards, 56, divides his time between a place the family calls “the barn” and the couple’s beach house about 160 miles away from Chapel Hill, NC, People magazine reports in its current issue out today.

Edwards’ wife, meanwhile, lives in the couple’s Chapel Hill home where she’s been licking her wounds.

ABC News reported in its Web site today that the couple has legally separated.

“[Elizabeth] said, ‘I’ve had it. I can’t do this. I want my life back,” Elizabeth Edwards’ sister, Nancy Anania, told People.

“A long marriage is a tough habit to break, and when you throw in incurable cancer and young children, it makes you waver,” Anania added. “But I hear peace in her voice that i haven’t heard in a long time.”

The couple has three children, Cate, 27; Emma Claire, 11; and Jack, 9.

People, however, reported that Elizabeth, 60, who is still undergoing treatment for breast cancer, has had divorce papers ready for nearly a year and had not yet filed the paperwork.

Elizabeth even gave her husband’s baby Christmas presents.

“She gave it a lot of thought, wrapped up a bunch of Christmas presents, took them to the baby and was so pleased when Quinn made a beeline to the toy carriage and doll,” Anania told People. “She even said to Quinn, ‘Go stand next to Daddy.'”

The revelations of the couple’s separation come as a former aide to John Edwards says in a new book that the former North Carolina senator told him he thought about leaving his wife — but also cited his love for her as a reason to keep details of an affair hidden.

The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site that Andrew Young claims Edwards asked him to go into hiding with Edwards’ mistress because of his wife’s health.

Young wrote that Edwards concluded “that if I helped him, I would make Mrs. Edwards’ dying days a bit easier. ‘I know you’re mad at her, Andrew, but I love her. I can’t let her die knowing this.'”

Young’s tell-all book details how Edwards asked him to help cover up the affair and promised to take care of him in the future.

Edwards admitted for the first time last week that he fathered a child with Rielle Hunter.

The book, “The Politician,” is not due out until Saturday, but the newspaper said it purchased a copy at a Washington-area book store.

Young provides an unflattering portrait of Edwards, talking about his obsession with campaign donations, his fixation with his hair, his disapproval of “fat rednecks” at state fairs and the lengths he went to hide the affair.

A longtime aide to Edwards, Young describes the discovery of a videotape showing Edwards and a naked Hunter.

“It was like watching a traffic pileup occur in slow motion — it was repelling but also transfixing,” he writes, according to the newspaper.

With AP