We haven’t heard much lately about Candice Bergen, 63, but she does pop up in films like Bride Wars and she had an ongoing role on “Boston Legal” until it was canceled late last year. Bergen has chimed in on John Edwards cheating scandal, which received more press attention while his wife, Elizabeth, did the rounds for her new book. On WowOWow.com, a site featuring blogs by prominent women like Cynthia McFadden, Whoopi Goldberg and Peggy Noonan, Bergen didn’t mince words when it came to her feelings about Hunter:

I have to say I agree with Joan on Elizabeth Edwards. The woman has terminal cancer for Christ’s sake and three kids and has been married to someone she describes as a good man for many years. The sleaze in this is, of course, John, but Rielle Hunter — who came up with that ridiculous name herself by the bye; her name used to be something entirely other and she gives women a black eye. We all know the type, they make your hair go all weird and your teeth chatter. They are utterly amoral, without a shred of conscience and tough as tacks. But I seem to have veered off message here. I also, like Joan, question her writing a book but till I read some of it, I’ll hold off on blathering on about it. She is a remarkable woman and I am very sorry she has had so much to endure. Including a husband who is dumb enough to be sucked in by an ambitious cooze.

[From WowOWow.com via The National Enquirer, print edition]

Ooh I love how she writes! It’s like stream of consciousness with venom behind it. I don’t have as much hatred for Hunter as many people do and think that Edwards has more to answer to when it comes to the affair. It takes two and all that. While Elizabeth seemed to be vilifying the other woman in her public statements about the affair, the National Enquirer reported that behind the scenes she’s definitely making John pay for his indiscretions. Elizabeth is said to have kicked John out of the house two years ago and their public show of solidarity is supposedly just for PR purposes.

There are all sorts of rumors that Rielle is about to do a big interview with Barbara Walters, but that story came out last week and we haven’t hear much more about it. If she keeps quiet this story will probably die down, but there’s enough public interest in it for her to cash in on her story and make Edwards pay – both financially and in the press – for the baby he refuses to acknowledge.

Bergin is shown on 5/19/09 at an event at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. Credit: WENN.com

John Edwards’ wife, Elizabeth, did the talk show rounds earlier this month promoting her new book, Resilience. The Edwards were the focus of a huge scandal last year when John finally admitted he cheated on Elizabeth, a cancer sufferer, with a woman he hired to make video documentaries of his Presidential campaign. It’s hard to tell whether the mistress’ lucrative job with the Edwards’ campaign or the cheating came first. The mistress went on to have a baby, which John denies is his.

Elizabeth has mildly trash-talked John’s mistress, Rielle Hunter, while doing press. Although she refuses to refer to Rielle by name, Elizabeth calls her “pathetic” in her book and has said things like “There is no excuse for women to do this,” and “This person is very different from me, and really very different from [John]. We’re basically old-fashioned people. So, this was a pretty big leap for him.” She also stood by her husband, despite admitting that John initially lied to her about the extent of his affair, claiming at first that he only cheated one night in a “moment of weakness.”

The National Enquirer, which broke the cheating story, says that Elizabeth kicked John out of the house two years ago when she learned about the affair and hasn’t taken him back. She may be acting like she forgives him for the sake of their family and public image, but maybe it’s different behind closed doors.

Now The Enquirer has insider information that Rielle is about to go public with her side of the story. The other woman has remained quiet for the over eight months since this story received worldwide press. All that’s about to change with an interview with Barbara Walters:

WORLDWIDE ENQUIRER EXCLUSIVE: John Edwards’ mistress Rielle Hunter has agreed to sit down for a bombshell interview with ABC News Barbara Walters, the ENQUIRER has learned exclusively.

“Rielle will break her silence for the first time with Barbara Walters. The interview will air on ABC in June,” a source told The ENQUIRER.

“Rielle is so angry with Elizabeth Edwards for trashing her repeatedly while promoting her book that she’s decided to break from John. She’s going to defend herself and tell her side of the story!”

The ENQUIRER previously reported Rielle was considering going public, narrowing her choice of interviewer to Walters or fellow TV journo Diane Sawyer.

“Rielle thinks Barbara will relate to her better because she admitted to a long-ago extramarital affair in her memoirs,” the source revealed.

AND after a DNA test proves once and for all that Rielle’s daughter, 1-year-old Frances Quinn, is John Edwards’ love child, the little girl stands to get a whopping $10 million of his fortune!

Sources told The ENQUIRER that Rielle is demanding her baby get a quarter of the disgraced former presidential candidate’s estate, which is worth an estimated $40 million.

As The ENQUIRER recently reported, Rielle is demanding that Edwards submit to a DNA test to prove he fathered her daughter, and she’s working with a lawyer to take legal action, sources say.

The 45-year-old blonde divorcee decided to push for the DNA test after Elizabeth Edwards slammed her in her book, and called her “pathetic.”

“Rielle is going to work with an attorney to make sure her baby is entitled to a share of the Edwards’ family wealth.” the source divulged.

[From The National Enquirer's Website]

John Edwards is currently under federal investigation for suspicion of funneling campaign money to Hunter. Edwards’ former campaign aid, married Andrew Young, claims to be the father of Hunter’s baby, which many people think is a complete ruse in order to take the heat off Edwards. According to an Enquirer article in August, 2008, Edwards set up Young and his wife in a $5.6 million mansion in Santa Barbara along with Hunter and the baby. The home where they were living at the time belonged to a rich retiree who happened to be a friend and supporter of Edwards. Rielle is now thought to be on her own without any financial support from Edwards.

If Rielle talks about the money in that interview with Barbara Walters it could potentially put Edwards in very hot water. There’s also the issue of her baby daughter’s paternity and whether or not John is the father – of course he is, but he hasn’t taken a DNA test yet. This could be expensive, embarrassing and incriminating for him on several counts. I can’t wait to read this story in the Enquirer and to see this interview!

John and Elizabeth Edwards in January, 2008

The National Enquirer has been on top of this John Edwards cheating story since they broke the news with some inventive investigative reporting last year. Now they have even more details of the ways that Edwards manipulated the public and his wife while he was carrying on behind her back with Rielle Hunter. Most damning to Edwards is the Enquirer’s timeline of his affair. He broke up with Rielle after a half “confession” to his wife in which he claimed that he only cheated on her in a moment of weakness one night. Then, even after he heard that his wife’s cancer had returned and was spreading, he went back to Rielle for a second try and that’s when she got pregnant.

Timeline of an Affair
July 2006: Rielle Hunter begins traveling with John Edwards to film video “Webisodes” of him for his campaign after they meet at a New York City hotel bar where she uses the pickup line: “You are so hot”

October 2006: Rielle accompanies John on a five-day trip to Africa

Dec. 28, 2006: John announces he’s running for President.

Dec. 30, 2006: Elizabeth comes face to face with Rielle for the first time; John confesses to Elizabeth that he had a one-night stand with Rielle.

Dec. 31, 2006: John tells Elizabeth that Rielle’s contract with his compaign has been terminated.

March 22, 2007: Elizabeth announces her cancer has returned, but the couple says his presidential campaign will continue; Rielle and John rekindle their affair.

Early May 2007: After Elizabeth campaigns in New Hampshire, John heads to the West Coast to campaign in Seattle; Rielle conceives their love child around this time.

July 30, 2007: John and Elizabeth renew their marriage vows on their 30th wedding anniversary; John begins planning a pregnancy coverup.

Feb. 27, 2008: Rielle gives birth to a daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter, in Santa Barbara, Calif.

July 21, 2008: Enquirer reporters catch John at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles visiting Rielle and their love child.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, May 25, 2009]

Elizabeth kicked John out of the house two years ago
There is some promising news in the Enquirer about Edwards’ sham relationship with his critically ill wife. Despite recently claiming that they’re trying to make it work for the sake of their children, Elizabeth and John are not living together. Elizabeth Edwards kicked her husband out of bed over two years ago when she first heard that he was cheating, and when he confessed to the public in July she kicked him out of the house and hasn’t taken him back. Maybe that’s why he thought it was ok to continue cheating on her even as she grew sicker:

The reality is that [Elizabeth] banished John from their bedroom when he admitted his affair with Rielle to her in December, 2006, sources say.

When he publicly confessed the affair to ABC News after the Enquirer caught him with Rielle and her love child Frances at a Los Angeles hotel in July 2008, Elizabeth tossed him out of their Chapel Hill, N.C., home, the source said.

“After John was caught, Elizabeth told him to simply ‘Get out of the house!’” the source divulged. “On many nights, he sleeps at a nearby condo. He also stays at their vacation home on a remote barrier island off the North Carolina coast.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, May 25, 2009]

I wonder why Elizabeth is acting like she’s back together with John and that everything is working out now? She refuses to refer to Rielle by name and in the interviews I’ve seen with her she makes it seem like Rielle is this seductress who lured away her otherwise devoted husband. Maybe she is trying to fool herself so that she can keep her family together, and the happy memories of her husband, in whatever time she has left. She is going through a lot in her battle with terminal cancer and she has to do what she can for her family. I can’t help but think that there’s a manipulative element in pretending to be back with John, as if she wants to show Rielle that she’s the one he’s chosen now. At least she dealt with her husband’s massive betrayal behind closed doors, even if she’s acting like she forgives him.

Elizabeth Edwards was on The Today Show this morning promoting her new book Resilience. She spoke candidly about preparing for the end of her life from cancer, about the tragic loss of her son, Wade, at the age of 16 in a car accident, and about her reasons for staying with her husband, former Presidential Candidate John Edwards, despite the fact that he cheated on her and ultimately admitted it to the media. Elizabeth came across as determined to keep her marriage and family together no matter what, and you can tell she chooses what to believe when it comes to her husband’s infidelity. She called his affair, which resulted in a child, “one mistake,” and said that he’s otherwise a wonderful husband.

When asked if her book was about revenge or an attempt to rake her husband over the coals, Elizabeth said that she had planned it well before she learned about the affair. As for whether Edwards illegally funneled campaign money to Rielle, who Elizabeth asked not to be referred to by name, she said that it’s not possible because campaign finances are public record. She also claims to have stood by her husband during the campaign because she believed at that point that the affair was just a one night fling. Doesn’t that mean that John made more than one mistake? You would think that lying to her about the affair would count as another separate mistake or at least a compounded one. Add a baby to the mix and that’s three strikes:

“This sounds odd, but except for this very big thing that he had done that was bad, I thought I was married — I believe [I am] now — to a magnificent man, someone who truly cared about other people,” the wife of former North Carolina senator and Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards told TODAY’s Matt Lauer Monday in New York. It was her first live television interview since the publication of her book, “Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life’s Adversities”

Edwards has had her share of adversities. She is living with stage 4 breast cancer that has metastasized to her bones and other organs. And she had to deal with the revelation last year that the one-night stand her husband confessed to her was actually an extended affair with a younger woman that may have resulted in his fathering an illegitimate daughter.

Love despite all
During an hour-long prerecorded interview with Oprah Winfrey last week, Edwards had appeared to vacillate when answering a question about whether she still loves her husband. She told Lauer that her answer was misinterpreted in media reports.

She talked about how, when she knew she had incurable cancer and was lying in bed with her sparse hair going in every direction, her husband looked at her as if she was the prettiest girl in the world. “I see in the way that he looks at me and cares for me that this relationship is the essential relationship of his life as it is for my life,” Edwards told Lauer.

“He’s been a marvelous father,” she said, adding that John Edwards is genuinely dedicated to battling poverty around the world and helping others. “He made this one mistake, so do I throw out all the good stuff and say, ‘That doesn’t matter, only this matters?’ ” she asked.

So, in answer to Lauer’s question of whether she loves her husband, Edwards replied: “I do love him. I wouldn’t be making all this effort and undergoing all this scrutiny if I didn’t love him. I need him and I really believe he needs me.”

In the wake of the highly publicized affair with freelance videographer Rielle Hunter that was originally exposed by the National Enquirer, John Edwards is under investigation for possible felonies connected to payments made to Hunter through his campaign committee. But Elizabeth Edwards said she is confident her husband broke no laws.

“Not possible” that husband funneled money to Hunter
“The way campaign funds are distributed are all a matter of record,” she said. “It’s just not possible” that her husband is guilty of criminal behavior with the funds, she added.

Airing dirty laundry?
Edwards has been harshly criticized by columnists Maureen Dowd of The New York Times and Sally Quinn of The Washington Post for airing her family’s laundry in public. Dowd accused Edwards of “flogging” her husband in public. Quinn excoriated her for letting Edwards run in the Democratic presidential primaries last year while knowing that he had had an affair.

Edwards told Lauer that at the time, she thought that her husband had been guilty of a one-night indiscretion, as he originally had assured her. Had she known that it was much more than that, she said, “I probably would have been more adamant about his not running than I was.”

In her book, Edwards says she hopes that her children will tell their own children that she “stood in the storm.”

Edwards also denied accusations that she wrote the book to gain revenge against Hunter. During the TODAY interview as well as other interviews Edwards has given about the book, Hunter’s name was never mentioned on the air.

“That was never my purpose,” she said.

[From MSNBC]

This lady is dying and I don’t blame her for trying to do what she can to keep her family together and leave a legacy for her children. You can tell that she pins the whole thing on the mistress, though, and doesn’t think her husband is capable of the level of deception required to carry out an affair for months, father a child, and arrange a home, money and decoy boyfriend for the other woman. Yes he might have stood by Elizabeth when she was sick, but was John sneaking out from his wife’s bedside to meet Rielle in hotels? He told her it was just one night and then was caught out in a huge elaborate lie, just like he lied to the media when he claimed Rielle’s baby wasn’t his. Elizabeth kind of faltered when asked what she would do when the DNA test was ordered, and you can tell she hadn’t really considered the possibility or was trying not to think about it. We’ll soon be hearing that the baby is indeed John’s, but given the way Elizabeth is acting it probably won’t cause her much additional pain. She refuses to believe that her husband is at all culpable for the affair and sees it as a blemish on his record rather than the major betrayal that it was.

As most people probably remember, when the story broke about John Edwards’ affair with Rielle Hunter, the news was broken by The National Enquirer. The Enquirer has stayed on every detail of this story, and in turn, has broken several more John Edwards-related news. The Enquirer broke the story that Edwards was being investigated for fraud and misuse of campaign finances, all related to the affair.

Now the Enquirer is claiming that Rielle Hunter is really pissed about the way Elizabeth Edwards has come after her. Elizabeth is out promoting her new book, Resilience, and Elizabeth has been bashing Rielle as “pathetic”. The worst of it (for Rielle) was most likely Elizabeth and John’s appearance on Oprah, where they seemed to be presenting an image of familial dysfunction yet familial loyalty. Elizabeth told Oprah (regarding the affair): “There is no excuse for women to do this… Women need to have respect for other women.”

So Rielle is pissed. And she’s fighting back – the Enquirer claims that Rielle is threatening to come clean about her baby’s paternity. Rielle will demand that John Edwards take a DNA test to confirm that he is the father of her 14-month-old daughter Frances. The Enquirer has long claimed the baby Frances is John’s, but John and Elizabeth have stopped short of confirming it. When Oprah asked Elizabeth, Elizabeth said “I’ve seen a picture of the baby… I have no idea. It doesn’t look like my children, but I don’t have any idea.”

John Edwards’ furious mistress is demanding he submit to a DNA test, The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively!

Rielle Hunter – the longtime secret lover of the disgraced 2-time presidential candidate – wants definitive proof that Edwards is the father of her 14-month-old love child Frances and is working with a lawyer to take legal action, say sources.

The blonde divorcee – who gave birth in February 2008 – was slammed in the explosive new book Resilience written by the ex-senator’s cancer-stricken wife Elizabeth.

The ENQUIRER was the first to expose the extramarital affair in 2007, and Rielle’s sudden move to determine paternity is a clear signal that she is no longer willing to protect the philandering politician, who still has not admitted that he’s the father of her baby. Edwards recently confirmed he’s also the subject of a federal probe into possible campaign funds misuse in paying off hush money to Hunter.

“Rielle – probably naively – now realizes she had held onto a false promise that if she continued to take part in the cover-up John had engineered, they’d be together in the future,” a close source told The ENQUIRER.

“She was willing to protect John for the sake of the child. She agreed to allow a crony of his to claim he was the baby’s father, and she even kept the name of the father blank on the birth certificate.

“But now she can see there’s never going to be a future with John – and she feels he’s lied about his promise to keep Elizabeth from trashing her in the book,” the insider divulged.

“Rielle is so infuriated by his and Elizabeth’s actions that she’s throwing her loyalty to him out of the window!”

The source added: “Rielle wants the paternity of her daughter Frances finally established. It could ruin John for good because even after admitting the affair, he vehemently denied being the father!”

[From The National Enquirer]

I’ve always believed the father of the baby was, in fact, John Edwards. Much as he and Elizabeth want to deny it and bash Rielle Hunter, they can’t ignore the questions surrounding this baby’s paternity. However, I don’t think John made promises to Rielle about how they would be together, or anything about their future together. I believe that when Rielle became pregnant and decided to keep the baby, John and his closest circle of friends orchestrated a half-assed financial and paternity cover-up, which included pairing Rielle off with one of John’s friends. What Rielle was most likely promised was money, not love or affection. Perhaps Rielle thinks that if the Edwards family is going to continue to come after her, she’s going to need a bigger slice of the pie.

The first part of Elizabeth Edwards’ book tour is a stop on Oprah’s couch to talk about how John lied about all of the cheating, and how Rielle Hunter (“the other woman”) is “pathetic”. Actually, all of that is from Elizabeth’s book, Resilience. When Oprah sat down with Elizabeth in the Edwards’ North Carolina home, Elizabeth refused to use Rielle’s name, only calling her “this person”.

Oprah actually had the cojones to ask Elizabeth about the rumor that John Edwards is the father of Rielle’s child, and Elizabeth actually answers! Elizabeth replied, “That’s what I understand. I’ve seen a picture of the baby. I have no idea. It doesn’t look like my children, but I don’t have any idea.” Whoa… that’s intense. Did it occur to Elizabeth to actually ask John? Or maybe she did, and he lied, or Elizabeth doesn’t know if he’s lying? Or Rielle is lying? Did it occur to anyone to get a damn blood test?

In a revealing new interview with Oprah Winfrey, Elizabeth Edwards says it’s “complicated” when asked about the state of her marriage to former presidential candidate John Edwards, who famously had an affair with videographer Rielle Hunter.

Is it a day by day thing, Winfrey asks her on Thursday’s show.

“Neither one of us is out the door,” replies Elizabeth, who is battling terminal breast cancer. “So I guess it’s day by day, but maybe it’s month by month.”

Elizabeth — who spoke to Winfrey from her family’s 28,000-square-foot home in Chapel Hill, NC — says they’re “still living together.” But when asked if she still loves her husband, she replies, “You know, that’s a complicated question.”

Looking back on their marriage, Elizabeth tells Winfrey she asked John for one gift before her wedding 31 years ago.

“I wanted him to be faithful to me,” she says. “It was enormously important to me.”‘

But, days after declaring his run for president in 2006, John confessed to his wife that he had had an affair. (The National Enquirer broke the story a year later.)

“What John said is that this woman spotted him in the hotel in which he was staying. He was meeting someone in the restaurant bar area, and she verified with someone who he worked with that it was John,” Elizabeth tells Winfrey.

“John went to dinner at a nearby restaurant and when he walked back to the hotel, she was standing in front of the hotel. She said to him, ‘You are so hot.’”

After the Enquirer broke the story, it also reported that John was the father of Hunter’s daughter (which he denied).

Asked about the speculation, Elizabeth says, “That’s what I understand. I’ve seen a picture of the baby. I have no idea. It doesn’t look like my children, but I don’t have any idea.”

Elizabeth — whose memoir Resilience is to be published May 12 — opens up more about Hunter in the June issue of O.

Choosing not to address Hunter by name, she says, “This person is very different from me, and really very different from him. We’re basically old-fashioned people. So, this was a pretty big leap for him. Maybe it’s being so different is what was attractive.”

Asked about her own mortality, Elizabeth says it’s not “frightening,” but she prays for an “ever-after.”

“I would be leaving part of my family, but I can do [that] and join another party and wait for that day when we’re all together again,” she says. “In some ways, it’s something you yearn for.”

[From US Weekly]

“This person is very different from me, and really very different from him. We’re basically old-fashioned people. So, this was a pretty big leap for him. Maybe it’s being so different is what was attractive.” Funny how that goes – Elizabeth is basically saying John wanted a little “strange” – well, he got it. And now Elizabeth is out there, speaking with more honesty than any cheated-on wife in recent memory.

Everything involving the John Edwards affair made me sick – the affair itself, the lies, the hypocrisy, the financial shenanigans, the way the media covered the story, and the lack of moral accountability. It was all just… gross. We had some idea that Elizabeth Edwards would write about what happened, and now she has. The New York Daily News got their hands on an advance copy of Elizabeth’s new book, Resilience.

In the book, Elizabeth writes that when she learned of the affair, she threw up. Yep, I nearly did too. She also writes that John told her of the affair in 2006, shortly after they had decided he would run again in the 2008 race. As it turns out, John even lied about the extent of the affair when he first told Elizabeth. Gross.

Elizabeth obviously felt betrayed, but she stuck with him. What really bothers me about that is not so much that both of them lied about this fake “happy family” they had, or that Elizabeth didn’t leave him, but that John Edwards basically made his dying wife part of the reason to vote for him. It’s as if he was saying to the world, “You should vote for me because I will be with Elizabeth to her last dying day, and no one else.” When he was already fooling around. Just… gross.

Campaign cad John Edwards cheating ways made his wife, Elizabeth, sick to her stomach – literally.

After the former presidential hopeful confessed his betrayal, Elizabeth Edwards writes in her new book, “I cried and screamed, I went to the bathroom and threw up.”

Elizabeth, 59, who is terminally ill with cancer, speaks in far more detail than before about her husband’s infidelity in her new memoir, “Resilience,” due to be published May 12 by Broadway Books. A copy was obtained by the Daily News.

Despite feeling deeply deceived, Elizabeth Edwards nonetheless publicly stood by her husband’s side, lending his candidacy the aura of a warm, loving family life.

But she had actually wanted him to quit the race to protect the family. Edwards admitted the hanky-panky to her days after declaring his candidacy in 2006 – almost a year before the National Enquirer reported it.

She was afraid of the destructive questions Edwards’ affair with videographer Rielle Hunter would raise.

Later events proved her right. “He should not have run,” she says.

Edwards did not publicly admit the affair until last August – seven months after he quit the race, and the National Enquirer had reported he was the father of Hunter’s infant daughter.

Edwards denied paternity, and his wife’s book doesn’t address that issue.

But it does highlight Elizabeth Edwards’ anger and sorrow at being duped by a man whose four children she’d borne and whose political ambitions she’d passionately supported for so many years.

Hunter initially seduced Edwards using a worn come-on line, Elizabeth writes: “You are so hot,” Hunter told him outside a swank New York hotel. The campaign ultimately paid Hunter $114,000 to produce a batch of short films on his candidacy.

She lashes out at Hunter, now 45, whose name she never actually uses in the book, as a parasitic groupie who invaded the Edwardses’ life.

Her own life may be tragic, she concludes, but Hunter’s is “pathetic.”

Even when Edwards confessed to his wife, he lied, claiming he had slipped up just once, Elizabeth writes. His original version of the story “left most of the truth out,” she writes.

While Elizabeth still hasn’t fully come to terms with her man’s roaming, the memoir is laced with a powerful dose of forgiveness.

“I lie in bed, circles under my eyes, my sparse hair sticking in too many directions, and he looks at me as if I am the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. It matters,” she writes.

From New York Daily News

I totally understand her anger at Rielle Hunter, but if Rielle is “pathetic”, so is John. Not only did he cheat, he lied and used Elizabeth’s illness in a really craven, sociopathic way, all to get some votes. I can understand why Elizabeth is staying with John in theory – she doesn’t have many years left, and she wants to spend this time with her husband and children. But at some point, I just feel like she needs to acknowledge that her husband was more culpable in the affair than the bimbo who got pregnant.

John and Elizabeth Edwards are shown at Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People Gala on 5/8/07. Images thanks to PR Photos.com.

The situation for disgraced former presidential candidate John Edwards is really starting to get sticky. We told you how Edwards privately admitted to his wife that he is indeed the father of mistress Rielle Hunter’s 1-year-old daughter, Frances. Now, Elizabeth Edwards, who is dying from terminal breast cancer, will be making an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show. It’s not clear what Mrs. Edwards will be talking about, but Rielle Hunter is prepared to respond to any potential remarks by making an appearance of he own in an exclusive interview with Diane Sawyer or Barbara Walters.

John Edwards’ mistress Rielle Hunter is “ready for her close-up” with her first national TV interview since the cheating scandal wrecked his career, The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively.

In a startling change of heart, Rielle Hunter has decided to face the cameras and has narrowed her choice of interviewer to either “ABC News” correspondents Diane Sawyer or Barbara Walters, say sources.

“Rielle had previously assured John she wasn’t going to spill the beans,” said a close source. “But she’s changed her tune after thinking Elizabeth Edwards might disparage her in the upcoming interview she’s already taped with Oprah Winfrey.

“The interview will be broadcast in mid-May to coincide with the publication of Elizabeth’s new book in which she’s likely to address the affair.”

As a result, a behind-the-scenes war of words is breaking out between Rielle and Elizabeth.

“Rielle’s decided she’s not going to sit back while Edwards’ wife gives her side of the story,” said the close source. “As much as John hates it, he’s defenseless to stop either woman from saying what she wants. It’s now erupted into a war between his wife and his former mistress over who will have the last word in what could be dueling TV interviews.”

Rielle intensified talks with the ABC superstars in early April in preparation for going in front of the cameras.

“No deal is done, but Rielle seems to favor Barbara Walters over Diane because Barbara admitted recently she engaged in a long-ago affair,” said the close source. “This makes Rielle believe Barbara will show her more compassion than Diane would.”

Following a series of world exclusive Enquirer exposes, the former presidential candidate finally admitted to the affair last summer – after our reporters caught the ex-senator visiting Rielle and her baby in a Beverly Hills hotel.

Both Edwards and Rielle have publicly maintained that Edwards is not the father.

Rielle claimed that the father is Andrew Young, a married Edwards crony. But we’ve reported that Rielle has privately told close friends that she never had a sexual relationship with Young – and has confided that Edwards is really the baby’s father.

Will Rielle spill her guts on national TV?

[From The National Enquirer print version, April 27, 2009]

Between his wife doing Oprah and his mistress doing ABC news, John Edwards’ head must be about to explode. And I say, serves him right! This jerk thought he could get away with cheating on his terminally ill wife AND fathering a child with that mistress. He admitted in that interview last year that not only did he cheat, but he is a narcissist. Damn right. I don’t really have any interest in hearing what this Rielle person has to say. She’s just as bad as he is. It’s not like she didn’t know what she was getting herself into with Edwards. The person I’d love to hear from is Elizabeth – although it seems like she has chosen to stand by her man- even though he’s a total scum bag.

It’s the story that John Edwards wishes would die, but it just keeps coming back to haunt him. Little Frances Quinn Hunter, the child of his former mistress, filmmaker Rielle Hunter, has just celebrated her first birthday. A photo of the baby girl was released that makes it nearly impossible to deny that the fallen Democratic contender is the daddy. She is the spitting image of him! The National Enquirer is reporting that while Edwards publicly maintains that the child isn’t his, he has privately confessed the obvious to his wife Elizabeth, who is in the terminal stages of breast cancer. Sources say this was a strategic move on Edwards’ part to diffuse tension between him and Hunter over Elizabeth’s forthcoming memoir.

John Edwards has finally confessed to his cancer-stricken wife Elizabeth what the rest of the world already knows – that he fathered a child with his mistress.

Edwards made the belated admission to his wife in an effort to stop ex-lover Rielle Hunter from going public, sources told The ENQUIRER.

While Edwards has admitted to having an affair with Rielle, he has shamelessly denied fathering her baby, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary. Instead, one of his campaign workers, Andrew Young, claimed to be the dad.

But now, at least in private to his wife, he is finally telling the truth, sources reveal to The ENQUIRER.

The ex-senator sprang into action when he saw how upset Rielle had become over Elizabeth’s forthcoming book, Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life’s Adversities, which will be published in May.

“Rielle has become extremely edgy, and John’s been afraid she might go public before Elizabeth’s book comes out so she can put her story out there first,” the close source told The ENQUIRER.

“These concerns led to John telling Rielle that he had sat down with Elizabeth and admitted to being the baby’s father. This is something Rielle had been pushing John to do for a long, long time because he initially told Elizabeth he was not the father.

“The last thing John wants right now is for Rielle to go public before Elizabeth’s book comes out, make new headlines and trigger a nasty battle between the two women.”

In what’s been called the biggest scandal of the 2008 presidential campaign, The ENQUIRER exposed John Edwards’ shocking affair with 44-year-old divorcee Rielle – and the birth of their love child, Frances Quinn, now one year old.

[From The National Enquirer]

I don’t know if the Enquirer has the real story – but there’s one thing I do believe. That child is definitely his! They have the same eyes – even her eyebrows look just like his. Celebitchy and I were comparing photos and we think John Edwards must have had a nose job somewhere along the line, because that baby has his old nose from his teaching days at the University of North Carolina. I do hope that Edwards finally comes clean to his wife. That poor woman has been through hell, and she deserves to know the truth about what a weasel her husband is before she dies.

Photo credits: WENN.

Elizabeth Edwards shared some of her feelings with the Detroit Free Press about the affair her husband, John Edwards, finally admitted to six weeks ago.  With a clearly strong and dedicated devotion to family, Elizabeth opens up about the difficulties of dealing with infidelity and the hope she has for life beyond breast cancer.

Nearly six weeks after news broke of her husband John’s extramarital affair, Elizabeth Edwards opened up about her “ongoing process of finding your feet again.”

“There’s a lot of adjustment to make,” Edwards told the Detroit Free Press in her first interview since her husband, 55, a former presidential candidate, admitted in a TV interview that he had been unfaithful. “Trust … [is] probably the most difficult hurdle.”

Edwards, 59, says that as she continues to undergo treatment for her stage 4 breast cancer, she remains optimistic because “With the research, it looks like there may be a new drug for me down the line. My job is to stay alive until they find a cure. I don’t think there’s any way to live with this diagnosis than to have that kind of optimism.”

[People]

After months of steadfastly campaigning by her husbands side while dealing with the treatment and effects of stage 4 breast cancer, Elizabeth was faced with the public disgrace of her husband’s infidelity and rumors of his fathering a child with the woman he cheated with.  Through all of that, she manages to remain gracious, even refusing to “feed the monster” when asked if she’s forgiven her husband. 

“I don’t want to feed the monster, if you don’t mind.” She added that if she had her leg amputated, as opposed to her husband having an affair, people would not ask: “Are you over that leg thing yet?”

She added, “People had this idea that we represented, as a couple, some sort of perfection … There is no perfection out there.”

[People]

Elizabeth’s main focus is on her children and her advocacy work. Through everything her husband John has put her through, she hopes her children will continue to see their father as “an adovcate for poverty, not this current picture of him, to be the one they carry with him.  I need to create the picture of him that I want them to have.”  That’s admirable of her, for her children’s sake, but so unfair for her at any stage of life, but especially in the one she’s in.  I hope for the sake of John Edward’s soul he thanks not only God but his amazing wife for being her, every single day that he has.

In the meantime, Elizabeth Edwards stays strong and hopeful, and continues to advocate for women’s issues and health care reform.  She testified before Congress on health care reform Thursday and a Detroit visit is scheduled for October 15, during Breast Cancer Awareness month, to speak on coping with the “ongoing process of finding your feet again” after adversity.

Elizabeth Edwards knows adversity, and not surprisingly, she seems to know how to find her feet again, too.

John and Elizabeth Edwards are shown at Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People Gala on 5/8/07. Credit: Janet Mayer / PR Photos