RALEIGH, N.C. — Elizabeth Edwards says it was not easy to leave her husband in the wake of the two-time presidential contender’s infidelity, writing in a new chapter to her memoir that she has many fond memories of their 30-plus years together.
Edwards says in the updated version of her book released Tuesday that she spent two years trying to “reinvent” her role as a wife so that they could stay together, despite his affair. But she says the “tender thread” holding the family together unraveled at the end of 2009. “One day, I did not want to try anymore,” she said.
The couple has since separated, and John Edwards acknowledged fathering a child with girlfriend Rielle Hunter, a videographer, during his 2008 campaign for the White House.
Elizabeth Edwards says in her book “Resilience” that it was not easy to leave the marriage because of the life they had built together over more than 30 years.
“When I closed the door on the John of today, I also had to say goodbye to that sweet man whom I had loved for so long,” she writes.
The two were law-school sweethearts who married days after they took the bar exam together in 1977. They had four children, including a son who died at 16.
Elizabeth Edwards has cancer and says she hopes to live another eight years, long enough to see her youngest child graduate from high school.
