RALEIGH, N.C. — Elizabeth Edwards’ decision not to leave her husband after he confessed to an affair was hastened by her cancer recurrence just months after the revelation, her brother and a friend told People magazine.
“She couldn’t say, ‘Well, maybe we’ll work through this for years, or maybe we should separate for two years,’ ” said Hargrave McElroy, a friend, told the magazine for its Aug. 25 issue. “(The cancer) forced her to choose whether to move forward.”
Edwards, a two-time Democratic presidential candidate, admitted last week to having a short affair in 2006 with a filmmaker named Rielle Hunter, who was hired that year to produce short videos for his political action committee.
Through a spokeswoman, John and Elizabeth Edwards declined requests for an interview Wednesday.
Edwards has said he both ended the affair and told Elizabeth about his infidelity in 2006. He kicked off his second bid for the White House in New Orleans a few days after Christmas at an event that Hunter attended and Elizabeth did not.
“There was anguish — excruciating anguish — for her in dealing with this,” McElroy said. “She was angry and furious and everything, but at one point she had to make a choice: ‘Do I kick him out, or do we have a 30-year marriage that can be rebuilt?’ “
