The National Enquirer’s cover story this week is yet another epic John Edwards piece. You will remember that the Enquirer was the outlet to break the Edwards affair story, getting the first published photo of John with his love child by Rielle Hunter. The Enquirer has spent a lot of time and money covering the Edwards saga – they have sources deep within the Edwards camp, I believe, and they have consistently broken news about the Edwards family, and all of the legal stuff that surrounds this mess.

Okay, so let’s get into it. First, a piece of information that was widely reported and verified, but that the Enquirer reported first: Elizabeth left John out of her will. Just a week before her death, Elizabeth had a new will filed with her lawyers, and she left all of her money and possessions to her three children. People Mag points out that John is currently living in the home they shared in North Carolina. Now, since the Enquirer story is epic, I’m just going to do bullet points:

*John Edwards proposed to Rielle Hunter just three weeks after burying Elizabeth, while on holiday with Rielle and his kids. He pledged his love to Rielle and promised that eventually they would all “become one big happy family,” says a source.

*During the holidays, John introduced his children to Rielle. Rielle told the children to “call me Mommy.”

*All of this is in direct violation of Elizabeth’s dying wishes. A source says: “This is the absolute last thing in the world Elizabeth wanted… Rielle is the woman she once labeled ‘pathetic’ and ‘a home wrecker’ and a ‘blackmailing golddigger.’ She did not want John to introduce their kids to his love child – let alone Rielle. She never wanted her kids anywhere near that woman!”

*Elizabeth’s estate is worth an estimated $53 million, all of which is left to her children. Elizabeth also tried to revise her will to ban John from letting their kids meet Rielle and daughter Quinn. Elizabeth and John’s daughter Cate is charged with making sure Elizabeth’s wishes are honored.

*While John did spent Christmas day in Chapel Hill with Elizabeth’s family and his three oldest children, just a few days later, he packed up Cate, Jack and Emma and drove them to Charlotte, NC to meet Rielle. He invited Rielle and Quinn to dinner with the other kids, and introduced them.

*A source says: “John had convinced Cate that the meeting was inevitable – and better they get past it now than wait… Rielle cried with joy when she saw all the children together for the very first time. She had been waiting for this meeting for a very long time – but knew it wouldn’t come until after Elizabeth’s death.”

*The reactions? “It all went off without a hitch. Before you knew it, Jack and Emma were playing with Quinn, and Cate was civil toward Rielle.”

*To cap off the occasion, John proposed. “John pledged his undying love… but nothing is official yet.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition]

Ugh, what is there to say, really? John Edwards is a piece of crap, a moron, a jagoff, and whatever other slur you want to throw at him. But I have to say one little teeny tiny thing… while I understand why Elizabeth was so adamant that her children never meet Rielle or Quinn, I have to admit, it’s not a completely rotten idea for Jack and Emma to meet their half-sibling. Better to be honest about that kind of stuff, especially since Quinn is just an innocent little girl. However, all of the Rielle junk… Gawd, this bitch. And John is still so… dumb. Rielle is psychotic, really and truly. And she doesn’t deserve to have those kids in her life.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Rielle Hunter photos courtesy of GQ.

Elizabeth Edwards has passed away at the age of 61 years old. She is survived by her estranged husband John Edwards, and her three living children, Kate, Jack and Emma. Elizabeth rose to national fame in 2004, when her husband ran for president, and then took the Democratic vice presidential nomination to John Kerry’s presidential nomination. Many thought that Elizabeth was John’s greatest asset – and as a former lawyer, she had very strong opinions about John’s campaigns. Shortly after losing in 2004, Elizabeth was diagnosed with cancer, and she had been battling it ever since.

Elizabeth Edwards has died of cancer, NBC News has confirmed. She was 61.

Gravely ill with cancer that no longer responded to treatment, Elizabeth Edwards was reportedly not in any pain and was surrounded by family and friends, including her estranged husband, at home in North Carolina.

When rumors began to circulate that she had taken a turn for the worse, Edwards’ family announced Monday that her doctors had recommended against any additional treatment.
“Elizabeth has been advised by her doctors that further treatment of her cancer would be unproductive,” said the statement her family provided to NBC News. “She is resting at home with family and friends.”

John Edwards, from whom Elizabeth Edwards separated last year after he acknowledged fathering a child with a former aide to his unsuccessful vice presidential campaign, was with his wife and their three children: Cate, 28; Emma, 12; and Jack, 10.

[From MSNBC]

Well… at least she was surrounded by her family and the people she loved. Since I don’t give a crap about John, I will offer my condolences to Kate, Emma and Jack. Especially Kate – we’re close in age, and I really like Kate whenever I hear her speak. She seems a lot like her mom, and Kate must be dealing with so much right now. I can’t even think about what it would be like to lose my mom… God. Thoughts and prayers to the family.

Header: Courtesy of WENN.

The National Enquirer has a juicy piece this week about how Elizabeth Edwards is planning a trip to Japan with her husband, John, which of course has his space cadet mistress in a rage. During her media tour promoting the re-release of her book earlier this month, Elizabeth showed how passive aggressive and in denial she is by confirming that she had not yet granted John a divorce because she tells him “Until you want to get married again, I don’t have a need.” She also never questioned John or called him out for cheating on her or carousing in bars. Elizabeth seemed to have an excuse for all of her husband’s lying and bad behavior. When it came to whether John was still seeing the dumbass mistress who fathered his love child, Elizabeth said “I know what John tells me, which is ‘under no circumstances.’ But obviously, I’m the last person in the world who knows the truth about these things.” Give me a break, lady!

Anyway the Enquirer writes that Elizabeth of course wants John back and has planned “sentimental trip” with him to Japan, where she lived for nine years. John is going with her and telling Rielle that it means nothing and that he’s not still sleeping with Elizabeth, just like he tells Elizabeth about Rielle. This of course angers Rielle, who thinks that John is her cosmic soulmate who just happens to have a wife with cancer who is the mother of his four children.

[John Edwards] is accompanying his cancer-stricken wife on a sentimental trip to Japan, and that’s enraged his mistress Rielle Hunter, say insiders.

When the ex-senator informed her of his decision, “she flew into a jealous rage,” a close source told The Enquirer.

“Her first question was, ‘Where will you sleep?’ John assured Rielle that he and Elizabeth would have separate sleeping – but she wasn’t buying it. She doesn’t trust John, and she told him so.”

Despite Elizabeth’s criticism against John [ed note: what criticism?] on TV and in her book, Rielle still thinks she “will try whatever it takes to win John back,” said the source.

Rielle also fears the more time he spends away from her and their 2 year-old daughter Quinn, the more he’ll enjoy his old family life.

“John tried to calm Rielle, telling her he had to go to Japan to help Elizabeth with their children,” said the source. “But Rielle didn’t want to hear anything he had to say.”

Sadly, Elizabeth, 61, is losing her battle with stage 4 breast cancer. She’s traveling to Japan – where she lived for nine years when her dad was a navy pilot – and will visit old friends and special places from her childhood and high school years “before it’s too late,” says the source.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, July 26, 2010]

I wonder if Rielle likes how it feels to be the one who can’t trust the man she assumes is her committed partner. Elizabeth is in love with the partner and man that John used to be (or at least the guy she thought he was) and can’t reconcile herself with the man he is today. She sounds desperate to be loved and told Larry King earlier this month that she would probably “live out the rest of my days without someone… Holding me in a passionate way.” Elizabeth added that she gets lots of hugs and affection, but that it’s not the same “That other kind of affection may be behind me… I can’t imagine… circumstances where I would fall in love or that anyone would fall in love with me… And it is hard sometimes to think that that’s a part of my past.” [thanks to mln for the tip]

So Elizabeth is just trying to get her husband to pay attention to her again and to be romantic with her. As much as the guy is a lying, cheating SOB I hope he can show her some of the affection she yearns for. And I hope it really pisses off Rielle.

John Edwards is shown below on 1/16/08. Credit: PRPhotos. Rielle Hunter is shown on Oprah in April.

I had the chance to read Elizabeth Edwards’ full interview in People Magazine, which I believe is the second time she’s spoken on the record since her maybe-pending divorce was announced. (I say “on the record,” because People has likely run unsourced quotes from Elizabeth in earlier articles that directly quoted her sister.) Earlier this week Elizabeth made an appearance on The Today Show where she said she identified with Sandra Bullock and the way she wants to “reclaim” her identity after the press covered her husband’s infidelity. Unlike Sandra, Elizabeth hasn’t taken the high road though. She will call Rielle pathetic while praising and making excuses for her lying, cheating husband.

Despite filing for divorce, Elizabeth hasn’t called John out on his blatant lies. She also doesn’t intend to make the divorce final unless he forces her hand, and you know he won’t. In the People interview, she explains away his behavior, including recent reports that he’s been drunkenly picking up women in bars. She even says that John still insists he’s not seeing Rielle, and she doesn’t say she doubts him or thinks he’s a son of a bitch. All she says is that his “conduct through this whole thing was terrible… on a personal level, he’s paid a lot [for it].” On one hand she’s being gracious, on the other hand she never says that she was hurt or devastated or that she didn’t deserve to be treated like this. It’s all about John and how he feels.

When she’ll be divorcing John: when he tells her he wants to remarry
Elizabeth is separated from John (who lives nearby in a gated Hillborough, N.C., neighborhood) but is not bothering with divorce. “I say, ‘Until you want to get married again, I don’t have a need.’”

On National Enquirer reports that John is picking up women in bars
“He’s made friends, and I think it’s important for me to give him room to do that. It was hard [for him] to live with somebody who’s disappointed in him, so to find people who aren’t is a really healthy thing for him.”

On whether John is still seeing Rielle
“I know what John tells me, which is ‘under no circumstances.’ But obviously, I’m the last person in the world who knows the truth about these things.”

An excerpt from her book on “saying goodbye” to John
When I see John, I don’t just see the today that others see. I see all the memories – the look on his face when he held our children as newborns, and embarrassed pride as he showed his parents through our first house, the loving way he looked at me when we were with others, the soft and vulnerable way he looked at me and held me when we were alone. We have raised four children, and we have buried one. So when I closed the door on the John of today, I also had to say good-bye to that sweet man whom I had loved for so long. It was not as easy as it might have seemed to anyone looking in from the outside, who knew only the John of today. And I have to wonder if he is sad, too, when he thinks of that young man.

[From People Magazine, print edition, July 12, 2010]

It’s sad that Elizabeth is somehow blaming herself for her husband acting like a dog in heat. Read what she said “It was hard [for him] to live with somebody who’s disappointed in him.” It’s as if she didn’t have good cause to be “disappointed”! Hell she had good cause to kick his ass to the curb, take half his money and talk smack about him to every outlet in town. The guy lied on national television and continues to lie to her, and she doesn’t even seem to question him. Did she even see or hear about Rielle’s Oprah interview? I understand why this lady is still in denial about her husband’s actions, and I understand that she must be desperate to keep her family together as she faces cancer and perhaps the end of her life. I feel sorry for her, but more than that I want to somehow convince her that it’s not her fault that John did this to her and that she no longer has to worry about him. It’s time she took care of herself, and told John to go to hell. He may have been a great dad and partner for decades, but he’s no longer that person. She realizes that, but can’t let go and see reality.

Elizabeth’s biography, Resilience, was re-released June 29th after first coming out last year.

Elizabeth Edwards gave an interview to Today that’s being billed as her “first interview” since she formally split with John Edwards. But to my memory, that’s not right. She’s given shorter statements to various outlets, and she also participated in a few People articles since the split. So, whatever. This is the first extensive interview she’s done before a camera since the split. I was thinking that Elizabeth would make the cover of People Magazine again, because she gave them an exclusive statement, but Sandra Bullock’s divorce made this week’s cover. Elizabeth’s statement to People is just this: “John’s conduct through this whole thing was terrible and it makes people want him to pay for it. On a personal level, he’s paid a lot.” She also confirmed to People that her cancer has advanced, and that she has tumors in her legs, spine and skull: “It’s less frightening than you think; it can’t migrate to your brain.” In the interview with Today, Elizabeth spoke of identifying with Sandra Bullock:

Elizabeth Edwards feels a special kinship with Sandra Bullock.

“I’m not just a cuckolded wife,” the cancer-stricken ex of politician John Edwards tells The Today Show’s Matt Lauer in a new interview. Elizabeth and John legally separated in January after over 30 years together; the former North Carolina senator had recently admitted that he’d fathered a baby girl, Quinn, with mistress Rielle Hunter.

“I think about Sandra Bullock — who I don’t know at all — what an incredible year she’s had,” Edwards, 60, says of Bullock, whose divorce from Jesse James was finalized on Monday. “She won the Academy Award for an incredible performance, and more than that, she took that story and integrated that into her own life in this healthy happy way.”

(The Blind Side’s Bullock, 45, had secretly adopted her son Louis back in January.)

“And yet, the stories you hear are not about all those great successes, but about the failure of her marriage,” Edwards continues. “That’s not who she is…I assume she wants to reclaim who she is in the same way I want to reclaim who I am.”

Edwards also admits to Lauer that she watched at least “some of” Rielle Hunter’s sit-down interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Her blunt take on her husband and his videographer mistress: “I think I did marry a marvelous man. I think he changed over time. He’s no longer the person who I married. I still think this person is so completely unlike me that it’s hard to imagine the same person could marry me and be attracted to that — to that woman, as well.”

“Did I waste my time in these years? Have I thrown this part of my life away? I decided that I didn’t, that maybe I didn’t get the same things out of it I expected to, or that I thought I was at the time. But when I look back, there’s really lots of blessings that I’ve had.”

Of John — whom she will likely divorce next year — she says, “I think I did marry a marvelous man…he changed over time. He’s no longer the person who I married. I still admire an enormous number of things about him.” She and the politician had four children together (their eldest son, Wade, died in a 1996 car crash).

Fighting metastatic, stage-four breast cancer, she says she can’t think about her younger kids (Emma, 12, and Jack, 10) growing up without a mom. “I don’t let my head go that place…I want to live at a normal cadence with my children.”

Her new book Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life’s Adversities hits bookstores June 29.

[From Us Weekly, The Enquirer, and NYDN]

Who had it worse, Elizabeth or Sandra? I could see how Elizabeth would identify with Sandra, honestly (and vice versa), but it still feels like Elizabeth is cheapening both her experience and Sandra’s. Sandra was on top of the world, having just won her Oscar, and she was publicly humiliated by her husband’s infidelity with a series of totally gross women. Bullock went on to reveal her adopted son, and behave with complete and total class, never even mentioning the other women. Elizabeth was a second-tier political wife who actively participated in the cover up of her husband’s affair for years until the truth was revealed, after which Elizabeth spent significant time bashing Rielle Hunter publicly while still defending her husband. Ugh.

Header: Elizabeth on May 20, 2009. Credit: WENN.

Yesterday, the NYDN had an interesting story about Elizabeth Edwards making preparations for her death – apparently, she’s not doing very well, and she’s begun to think about who will raise her two youngest children, Emma (12) and Jack (10). Of course, the obvious choice would be Emma and Jack’s father, John Edwards. But Elizabeth doesn’t want to take the chance that Rielle Hunter will be anywhere near her kids, and Elizabeth thinks there’s a good chance John will marry Rielle when Elizabeth dies. So Elizabeth’s ideal solution is to try to leave Emma and Jack in the care of the Edwards’ oldest daughter, Cate. Cate is 28 years old now, and living in Washington, D.C. Of course, most custody experts think that whatever plans Elizabeth is making to attempt to give custody to anyone other than John is for naught.

Elizabeth Edwards is said to be determined not to let her husband’s mistress become her children’s stepmom. Insiders tell us that John Edwards’ estranged wife is investigating how – should she lose her battle with cancer – she can keep daughter Emma, 12, and son Jack, 10, away from Rielle Hunter, the woman who broke up her marriage.

“She doesn’t want Rielle anywhere near them,” says a source.

Friends say Elizabeth is exploring the option of having her 28-year-old daughter, Cate, raise them.

“She’s a smart and competent woman,” says a source, noting that, having graduated from Harvard Law School, Cate has been clerking in federal court in Alexandria, Va. She owns a Georgetown row house and has been in a longterm relationship with a resident at Georgetown University Hospital.

Hard as it is to face the worst-case scenario, Elizabeth “has been grooming Cate to take over,” says a source.

Another source says Elizabeth has been forced to confront the question of guardianship because her health has “taken a turn for the worse lately.”

Her sister, Nancy Anania Sims, disputes that she’s suffered a setback.

“She is in treatment,” Sims tells us. “But she’s doing well. She’s from strong Italian stock. She has more energy than I do.”

Sims also doesn’t believe John Edwards will marry Hunter, with whom he has a 2-year-old daughter, Quinn. even though he’s now legally separated from Elizabeth.

Hunter has said that she and Edwards used to dream about what wedding they’d have after Elizabeth was gone. But, at this point, Sims says, “I find it impossible to believe [they'll marry]. That would surprise me.”

Sims doesn’t “think” Elizabeth has discussed Cate becoming her siblings’ guardian. But she corroborated that Elizabeth may be hoping to deprive her husband of custody.

“There are a lot of family members who are willing and able [to look after Jack and Emma],” says Sims, who might be one of them. “They’ll be well taken care of.”

John Edwards’ lawyer, Wade Smith, didn’t immediately return a phone call. But some attorneys who’ve been watching the Edwards drama believe that Elizabeth stands little chance of choosing Jack and Emma’s guardian.

“That’s ridiculous,” says New York attorney Peter Bronstein, whose star clients have included Guy Ritchie and Julian Schnabel. “The father would have the paramount right to succeed to the custody of his natural children.

“It would be very sad if Elizabeth Edwards isn’t around to see her children to adulthood. But she can’t rule from the grave and dictate whether they see their father and his girlfriend.”

The exception would be if the father was proven to be unfit – say, for instance, if Edwards were to go to jail. (A grand jury in North Carolina has been considering whether he illegally used campaign funds to cover up his affair with Hunter.)

“If a father was shown to be guilty of moral turpitude, he might lose custody,” Bronstein allows. Would that include adultery?

“No,” says Bronstein. “If that were true, half the parents in America would lose their children.”

[From The NY Daily News]

Elizabeth surely has good reason to detest Rielle, and judging from Rielle’s interview on Oprah, the bitch is crazy. I wouldn’t want my phantom, imaginary children anywhere near Rielle. Hell, I wouldn’t want my dog anywhere near Rielle. She’s bunny-boiling crazy. And it’s sad to think that Elizabeth’s dying wish is to ensure that her youngest children have nothing to do with Rielle, and that that wish probably won’t come true. Because I do see John marrying or living with Rielle after Elizabeth dies – and I think he’ll want Rielle to help him raise Emma and Jack. Ugh. Maybe Cate is the best option.

This morning, the Today Show did a segment on the whole Rielle Hunter-John-Edwards-Elizabeth-Edwards situation, and it just keeps getting worse and worse. The piece included People Magazine finally-released online excerpts from their cover story this week, which included an interview with Elizabeth’s sister (who I think we can assume is pretty much speaking for Elizabeth). Basically, Elizabeth does think the whole situation is “disgusting” (the National Enquirer wins again) and Elizabeth is “moving on”. Today also had an exclusive statement from Rielle (you can see it in the video clip at the end of the post). Here are the basics from People:

Jaws dropped nationwide when Rielle Hunter’s provocative photo shoot and interview with GQ hit the Web Monday morning. But what did Elizabeth Edwards think when she saw it?

“She was disgusted by the photos like everyone. But she moved on pretty quickly,” a source close to her admits to PEOPLE in the issue set to hit newsstands Friday.

Determined to tune out the scandal and create a new life for herself, Elizabeth has taken up painting, is writing a new chapter for the summer release of the paperback edition of her 2009 Resilience, and is organizing a mother-daughter book club for her and Emma Claire, 11, her sister, Nancy Anania, tells PEOPLE. “She seems to be happy and at peace.”

Moving on. That’s also what John Edwards, her estranged husband and “Johnny” to former mistress Hunter, is trying to do, says a close friend of his.

The disgraced former presidential candidate, under grand jury investigation for possible misuse of campaign funds to pay Hunter, “is rebuilding his life, but separately” – from both Elizabeth and Hunter – and focusing on his children, says the friend. And, despite Hunter’s claim in the GQ interview that she and “Johnny” still “love each other very much and that hasn’t changed,” the friend of John’s says he’s only in touch with Hunter to check on Quinn, their 2-year-old daughter and that the notion that he and Hunter will wind up together is “total fantasy.”

[From People]

See, I don’t think it’s a “total fantasy” that Johnny and Rielle will get together and perhaps marry. I think Johnny will wait until Elizabeth dies… which I’m not sure how I feel about, other than “I hate him.” But Rielle’s statement to Today kind of makes it worse… she’s still talking about the GQ photos, and not the text of the interview. Idiot.

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Here is this week’s People Magazine cover – featuring Elizabeth Edwards and the important question “How Much More Can She Take?” I’ve been wondering this too, given that this is the week of Rielle Hunter’s endless, please-shut-up-you-stupid-bitch TMI. It’s not enough that Rielle gave one of the worst interviews ever by a mistress, ever, in the history in time. But Rielle also had to pose provocatively and pantless, on her daughter’s bed. And she had to declare the photos “repulsive”. And she had to be called out by GQ. So basically, GQ got a lot of mileage out of the old hooker- I mean, Rielle.

Anyway, the photos kind of hijacked the text of the interview, which was equally repulsive. Rielle defended her “Johnny” against “wrathful, emasculating” Elizabeth. So you can guess what Elizabeth’s side of the story is going to be like. Unfortunately, People hasn’t released their excerpts yet, but thankfully, the National Enquirer has their take:

“You’ll never marry him now!”

That was cancer-stricken Elizabeth Edwards’ irate message to her estranged husband John’s former mistress Rielle Hunter – her revenge after feeling “violated” by Hunter in her GQ interview, say sources.

This past week, Edwards’ mistress, Rielle broke her silence for the first time in a bombshell interview.

Elizabeth erupted in fury after Rielle bashed her in the scorching interview – which comes just two months after John admitted paternity of their daughter.

Rielle claimed she wasn’t a “home wrecker” because John’s marriage was over “two and a half decades before I got there.”

The one-time filmmaker ruthlessly attacks Elizabeth – who is battling late-stage breast cancer – saying John couldn’t discuss his infidelity with his wife because “he would be pummeled,” adding: “He was emasculated. And you know, the wrath of Elizabeth is a mighty wrath.”

A close friend of Elizabeth’s told The ENQUIRER: “Elizabeth was irate when the quotes were read to her.

“She told a person who speaks to Rielle, ‘You tell her from me, “You’ll never marry him now!”

[From The National Enquirer]

First of all, I kind of believe that this was Elizabeth’s reaction. The Enquirer has sources deep within the Edwards camp, and they’ve been talking to the Enquirer for some time now. Beyond that, I don’t really understand what Elizabeth is talking about. Oh, NOW Rielle can’t marry John? How’s that again? Why NOW? Because Rielle has revealed herself to be an idiot? Well, it looks like Johnny likes that. And considering John and Elizabeth are separated and headed for divorce, Elizabeth won’t have much to say in John’s future wedding plans.

People Magazine cover courtesy of CoverAwards.

John Edwards’ rep has denied a report that the former Presidential candidate proposed to his mistress, Rielle Hunter. Edwards’ cancer-stricken wife, Elizabeth, sort-of announced her separation from her husband in late January following Edwards’ admission that Hunter’s baby was his. (I say “sort of” because People ran a cover story on the split titled “Elizabeth’s breaking point” with quotes from her sister, not Elizabeth. You can bet that it was sanctioned by Elizabeth, even if she wasn’t directly quoted.)

Now there are rumors that Edwards wants to make Hunter his wife, so he has someone at home to cook, clean and serve as a scapegoat for him while he lavishes attention on other women. His rep says it’s not true, though, just like the stories of Hunter and the baby were initially denied – for many months:

A spokesperson for John Edwards is denying reports that the onetime senator has asked his former mistress, Rielle Hunter, to marry him.

“It’s absolutely not true,” says a spokesperson for Edwards, of a story in the National Enquirer that claims the two plan to wed after his divorce from Elizabeth Edwards is complete.

Though the former senator acknowledged last month that he is the father of a 2-year-old girl with Hunter, a spokesperson for Edwards says he and Hunter don’t communicate directly any longer.

“They only communicate through a third party,” to work out Edwards visitation, the spokesperson says, and when the former presidential candidate visits daughter Frances Quinn, Hunter is not present.

John and Elizabeth Edwards separated at the end of December, and are now living apart. “Everybody is trying to move on with their lives,” says his spokesperson.

Edwards had previously denied National Enquirer stories about his affair with Hunter and the paternity of their daughter.

[From People]

The recent detail that really floored me about this story is the fact that there’s a real sex tape between Edwards and a then-pregnant Hunter, and that Edwards former aide, Andrew Young, just handed it over by court order. I always assumed the sex tape rumors were untrue, maybe because I didn’t want to think too much about it, but Young has the tape and was keeping it in a safe deposit box in Atlanta. (Young initially claimed to be the father of Hunter’s baby in a paid bid to take the heat off Edwards. He says that he found the sex tape in an abandoned box in a home he once shared with Hunter.) Let’s hope the tape is never, ever leaked.

In regards to Edwards’ alleged proposal, if he’s smart he’ll stay single for the rest of his life. He’s already proven that’s not the case, though, and I can see him getting married again and regretting it. Elizabeth has hopefully lawyered up by now and is looking forward to being awarded half the assets her husband made during their over 30 year marriage. Maybe John-boy will have two alimony payments to make by the time he’s 60.

The National Enquirer is still hellbent on winning a Pulitzer for their over-the-top coverage of the Edwards saga. This week’s story involves the “last straw” fight that ended their marriage, and Elizabeth Edwards’ confession (to friends) that John “beat” her. Once I read the story, I could see how this incident may have been possible, and God knows it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if John Edwards was smarmy enough to beat women. And yet… there is a whiff of bullsh-t in this story. Here’s the Enquirer’s version:

Cancer-stricken Elizabeth Edwards is telling pals that John beat her during a horrific marriage-ending fight, The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively.

“John lost his temper big-time,” revealed a close friend of Elizabeth. “She has the divorce papers drawn up, but she can amend them to charge John with domestic violence. She’s holding that over his head right now – and he’s scared. Elizabeth is in control.”

Elizabeth privately disclosed all the shocking details of the alleged attack, says a close friend. The friend spoke in detail about the terrifying incident – and passed a lie detector test regarding the shocking fight.

“John beat me,” Elizabeth had told the friend. Other sources confirm that the couple’s furious confrontation was the “final straw” in 60-year-old Elizabeth’s decision to end their 32-year marriage.

The disgraced politician has amassed a long and shameful history of denying The ENQUIRER’s stories about his cheating and his love child. But on Jan. 21, the former presidential candidate finally admitted paternity of his 2-year-old daughter Frances by mistress Rielle Hunter, and a distraught Elizabeth confirmed that the couple had officially separated.

The alleged beating ended any hope that the Edwards marriage could continue. The friend reveals Elizabeth said: “When he (John) made the decision to hit me, it was over.”

John did not respond when The Enquirer asked him to comment on the allegation he beat his wife. Another source revealed: “Elizabeth has slapped John in the past during fights over his extramarital affair with Rielle. She was so tormented by John’s cheating and lies that she lashed out physically at him many times, even slapping him. On a couple of occasions, when the fights became heated, she grabbed him by the shoulders and screamed, ‘Why, why, why?!’”

“Elizabeth would break down in tears and try to make John explain why he was throwing his family and political life away. During one of the confrontations, Elizabeth grabbed his arms and shook him so hard that John had to restrain her.”

But the fighting escalated – and the ugly incident that “happened around the Christmas holidays turned out to be a violent, marriage-ending fight,” said another source.

For the full shocking story you won’t find anywhere else pick up the latest Enquirer now!

PLUS: learn the real reason cops remain silent after their midnight visit to the Edwardses mansion!

[From The National Enquirer]

Maybe the whiff of bullsh-t is the claim that Elizabeth is going to use a domestic violence claim in her divorce? Does that seem realistic? I mean, either he hit her or he didn’t. Either she called the cops or she didn’t. Either say you were abused, or don’t. I don’t get this whole “I’m going to wait to say he beat me for the divorce negotiations” stuff.

In other Edwards-related news, that rumor about the sex tape is pretty much verified. Allegedly, the tape is of John Edwards having sex with Rielle Hunter when she was pregnant with daughter Frances. Andrew Young “stole” the tape from Rielle (probably when he was pretending to be the baby-daddy) and is now trying to release the tape as cross-promotion for his tell-all book. Yikes, yikes and yikes.