it's intoxicating stuff. reality, of course, is less glamorous. supporting that candidate is an army-- volunteers, donors, political operatives, and they can sometimes get too wrapped up in-- in the lore, the legend, which brings us to the story of johnny reid edwards-- an american success story, crusading trial lawyer, family man. the senator from north carolina was seen by millions of americans as the future of the democratic party. candidate john edwards was inspirational. people seemed as if they would go to the ends of the earth for him. and in some cases, he made them. because in reality, john edwards the person-- well, he was no savior. ♪

[cheers and applause] [amplified voice] i will give you back your democratic party. i will give you back the white house, and i will give you back your country. tapper: who could ever forget this handsome face? >> party our house this handsome face john edwards, honest, it changing course in iraq is the first step in trying to restore america's moral leadership in the world. >> and edwards was hot stuff and within striking distance of the white house for years he had been john kerry's vice presidential pick in 2004. and even though that didn't work out, it made him an early favorite entering the 2008 democratic presidential primary. >> he was a good talker. he was good looking. he had the right politics. >> yes. edwards was the dream candidate perhaps even the dreamy candidate that beautiful head of hair just stole my heart john edwards was able to

articulate the economic issues play this country able to talk about the two americans that was his famous speech. >> we can build what america, where we no longer have to health care system edouard stated mission to bridge the gap between rich americans and poor americans still seems progressive, more than a decade later he was young smart, married to his law school sweetheart. >> though he'd made a fortune as a trial attorney, edwards proudly champion the working class. andy was from a southern state. >> they called him bill clinton without the baggage until the baggage arrived. china's words seemed too good to be true at once john edwards political career laws in shambles, his personal life and lies laid bare. he lied about an extramarital affair when he ran for president this year, john edwards now admitting he is the father of the child born to campaign aide, real hunter, andrew young, a former aide to john edwards.

>> young had initially taken the fall for edouard saying he was the father of the baby. >> what about edwards, wife of 32 years? elizabeth. she's not only had to deal with her husband betrayal, she's dealing with a cancer that threatens to take her life. >> yes, it was as bad as it sounds edwards cheated on his cancer stricken wife, had a baby with his secret girlfriend slash employee, and then tried to pass it off as a key campaign staffers kid for years, edwards followed the three simple rules for unfaithful men deny, deny, deny. >> i have no idea what you're asking about. i don't respond to these lives when the truth came out, he looked like the most untrustworthy politician in the united states. >> here's the statement john edwards issued today. i am quinn's father. it was wrong for me ever to deny she was my daughter and hopefully one day when she understand she'll forgive me. >> the scandal torpedoed his career and with it, the dreams of so many people who had believed in him isn't very shocking, is a man i was

willing to vote for us president why body to his name like that. why would he do that? >> he had to know that his personal failures would detonate his political career yet he still seem to believe that he was destined to transform the united states and it wasn't just him so many smart people surrounding him accommodated his lies, believing that the ends justify the means this story is 15 years old, but it burns so many people including many staffers who still work in politics and refused to talk about the scandal to this day john edwards isn't talking either. and his ex-wife, elizabeth, sadly died in 2010 thankfully, i was able to find answers and understanding in kentucky sitting and talking with someone who wants fairly or not was the most infamous woman in the united states real hunter. >> the image of john edwards was this john grisham hero come

to life crusading southern lawyer had some difficulties in his life, wants to fight for you we held him responsible for not being the image that he had given us and held me responsible for that to we did an immediate yes. it's hard talking about it. and even 15 years later, i don't want her anybody our him. i don't want to hurt john either. you know, what we're here to get your side of the story by february 2006, real hunter had lived many lives she was an actress with bit roles in films such as ricocheted, where she played a reporter alongside denzel washington. >> mr. are you all right? >> a new york party girl and muse for her ex-boyfriend, j mac and ernie's novel story of my life. a self-described spiritual healer. >> and finally, an aspiring documentary filmmaker john edwards, by contrast, was soft launching a presidential campaign and a leader of the

democratic party so let's just start with the very beginning you're at the regency hotel. god in 2006, were you there to meet him being there was a fluke. was he by himself who he was in a business meeting. >> i was with my friend or at a table and john edwards was behind her. and he kept looking at me as though he knew me as well. and then we got up and left and when we're standing on the corner, john edwards turn the corner and saw me there and he literally like almost jumped into my arms and my response, what came out of my mouth was you're so hot and what did he say back well, i thank you. >> i said i can help you. and he said, i want to here. >> he said, could you want you can come over. so you want up to his room? >> i did. >> i didn't feel like it was sexual either. >> you didn't know? >> i did not because it sounds like there was an attraction

you said you're so i know i know. i know i can with a sexual and i get it. yeah. >> did your intimate relationship with him begin that night? yes. >> i was in love very quickly, not because he was john edwards no not at all made no mistake like all of that like added to the package, you know, like just like i'm human. so he's a good looking guy. he was very charismatic and he was like john edwards he didn't all the boxes except it wasn't single that's a that's a box it's a big one clearly, john's marital status was no barrier to pursuing real and the feeling was mutual ironically, at the same time, the country seemed infatuated with john edwards picture perfect marriage. >> and his wife, elizabeth edwards, a former attorney herself, turned health care reform crusader, who was said to be edouard secret weapon on

the campaign trail my value is that people trust me. >> they trust me to say what's on my mind and be direct the election was still two years away, but elizabeth and john seemed like they were everywhere pushing john as the next great democratic hope it was the beginnings of a 21st century presidential campaign which created a unique opportunity for real and john's relationship at what point did does he start talking about figuring out a way for you to come on board the campaign. >> i pitched him the idea of doing a webisodes series because my entire thing about him was who he really is, did not translate onto the camera. and i wanted to help them capture that because i thought it was pretty cool in hours of behind the scenes footage real captured, more than maybe even she imagined at the start. >> she showed who john edwards really was as a person for better or for worse, you think

most people have any idea of what we're doing. we're not off the stage you're, trained to be careful, condition, saying what say for condition to be political i actually walked the country to see through iowa who i really am i'd rather be successful or unsuccessful by stone who i really am not based on some plastic ken doll that you put up in front of audiences. >> that's not make be careful what you wish for john good you

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one cgm prescribed in the try it for free at resale libre.us in 2006, john edwards was preparing for his presidential run. >> you'd also brought his extramarital affair with real hunter on the road by hiring her as campaign documentarian people were starting to notice they were pretty weird episodes, right? >> like the footage was like clearly you love this man, you're not even holding the camera steady. you guys are flirting here it's a great speech can you read it so i can write it the webisodes. >> did they suggest anything maybe when he was like he was a little flurry, but he flirted with everybody. >> i wasn't that wasn't unique to me. but everyone read into it that oh, he's so flirty, you know that right?

speed glad you like it at the time real is larger than life presence on the campaign trail had some staffers and journalists talking, but it was just that talk. and even though he had not officially announced he was running yet, there was so much heat behind an edwards candidacy. >> it was really about this of the failed george w bush administration were coming out of katrina. we were heading into an economic crisis, the war in the middle east was so badly managed and prosecuted with so much at stake, elizabeth had the idea to target young voters as a break with politics as usual, i was hired by the campaign because they were looking for bloggers. blogging was really knew that was edwards campaign trying to stand out from the more traditional campaigns at the time, elizabeth had been out front, she had joined the blogosphere. she was writing

about universal health care and progressive policy generally, for the first time in 15 years, we're actually trying to fix a broken health care system and deal with the twin problems of the status quo, which are skyrocketing health care costs and millions of americans living without health care coverage. >> i first met elizabeth edwards on the campaign trail and she was at the front of the bus working on something by the time we get to our campaign stop elizabeth says, i have this for you and it was a sketch of me and i was just so sort of impressed and mike, what a nice gestures you'd have to do that for me. and she was good i knew then she was a phenomenon she was the brains of this mission she knew how to make it look soft when it felt hard she really was the all-american fabric part of what made the adwords campaign and so riveting and why so many people rooted for john and

elizabeth was the story behind their relationship tragedy had compelled them to get into politics. my oldest son way died in an automobile accident seven years ago. and this is his outward bound pins. so eyewear they began getting involved with the community in new and different ways when their son died as a way to try to have some good come out of his death good morning i'm here in new orleans to announce that a candidate for the presidency of the united states in the election of 2008? >> by early 2007, john had made his official announcement for the presidency. rails webisodes, which revealed a little more truth and edwards was perhaps ready to admit disappear from the internet but their relationship continue how often were you seen john at this point? >> every week. every couple of weeks, a lot. oh, more i went everywhere thank staffers knew who i was. so like for me to get into his hotel room was challenging john was believed

he could outsmart anyone, but someone has to be complicit here in this. the person real and john say enabled to their affair was campaign staffer andrew young andrew denies and he was doing anything more than following john's orders. so keep in mind this is a story full of unreliable narrators and opinions differ. and of course, the only person cheating on his spouse and lying to voters about who he was was the candidate himself. >> they had a separate phone. they called the bat phone whenever john would want to talk to real, then start humming that theme from batman. and that was kinda the queue for andrew to flip him the phone, to talk to real. so it was quite elaborate why would andrew young do that? >> well, in his book, he wrote quote, i joined in the deception and at the time, amazingly i believed it was the right thing to do. i did this for one primary reason. i believed in john edwards and all the things he said he stood for how much was he involved in

helping this relationship to happen? >> oh, it wouldn't have happened without him every time we reach some sort of obstacle or hurdle, andrew would clare? clare that remove it one of the things that's hard to get across to folks is how much it was really possible that john edwards was going to be the next president of the united states. and my personal opinion, i didn't thank he should run for president. you didn't think you should run for president because of the relationship? yeah. yeah did you tell him now? yeah you know, i was the only one. >> everybody wanted them to run what did he think was gonna happen it's all based on a lie right? yeah, it was like how this is not going to end. well so it's the playoffs, a great teammates trust each other. >> we're going to do a trust falls, stand up, trust. >> what you sent me up doc i

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only a matter of time before john edwards secret would come out to the press, but not to the mainstream press i think many traditional journalists ended up in the tabloids putting together a story was the easy part. getting the information that was the hard part, and that took a certain type of journalist very levine was executive editor of the national enquirer when a tip came in on john and real previously the juiciest gossip about john had been the price of his haircuts it was right before the iowa caucuses. he was running right with obama and hillary clinton i thought, wow, if the story is true, the rug would really be pulled out from under him in march 2007, a few months after barry started looking into the affair rumors, the edwards is received devastating news elizabeth, breast cancer, which had been in remission since 2004, was

back. this time the doctor said it was not curable the candidate says he'll be there for his wife anytime anyplace, despite the presidential campaign. yet john edwards says that campaign will continue elizabeth was sick and elizabeth had found out about may at the same time, she called the cell phone that we had together. there was only one number on the cell phone and it was mine and she called it and i answered the phone and she hung up he ended up confessing to her that he had had an affair with her, but it was over and he was never going to do it again. >> so when she believed she actually believed that at this point, editors and executive producers in the mainstream press seemed to have no stomach for digging into rumors that john edwards was cheating on his dying wife. >> we had heard rumblings and we were all sort of thinking about how we would report on

it. there just was no evidence of it tabloids in the play by different rules than mainstream reporters. >> they used checkbook journalism, paying for information for access for photographs. the standards may seem lower, but in this case, the enquirer was going to do whatever it took to break the story i went into my battle mode in the sense of organ to go full court the first thing we're gonna do, try to find out a little bit more about who this woman is. we went to a home in new jersey where we believe that real hunter was living the national enquirer ended up on my doorstep so i bought a ticket and i flew and andrew pick me up at the airport and took me to his house in north carolina where cheri and the kids were. i stayed with him and then he rented me my own house but the enquirer was still circling and levine had enough to start publishing october 2007 from

the first piece came out from the national enquirer and they didn't name me. he gets asked about this and he denies it on camera in front of everybody. he's on the campaign trail is still running for president not the national enquirer sorry. i don't talk about these tabloids and hello tabloid trash is full allies. i'm here to talk about helping people what was your response when you heard that you got mad, you got you cried. i mean, it's just sad because he's denying your love cracked. >> so he's he still in the relationship? >> yeah. you're still in the relation? yes. >> edwards. campaign staffers all saw the articles and many of them knew were at least suspected the rumors, had married what's remarkable is no one inside the campaign blew the whistle at this point. >> johns political machine kept going full throttle even as buried levine and the enquirer, we're getting ever closer to blowing it all up.

subsequently, we were able to develop the source. now closer to real hunter, who says that not only is the affair true? but she's pregnant now with john's child and their freaking out so when did you find out you were pregnant? july 2007. >> how do you tell john the news that he's about to have a kid with your he knew before i knew he could. >> he just sensed it. yeah. >> he said this is your choice. >> whatever you want to do with this, i support you i was 43 years old. i've never been pregnant in my life. i was like, i'm having this baby. this is my shot of being a mom through the source that we had developed. we found out that john edwards had moved her to a gated community in chapel hill, north carolina she's fiber six

months pregnant. she has to be traveling to an obstetrician nearby. >> that's right. barry and the national enquirer staked out every ob-gyn in the area and waited for real to come in for an appointment. >> she left the doctrine his office to a grocery store we attempted to question her than and said real weird, told through multiple sources that john edwards is a father of your child. >> what we have to remember is real hunter doesn't really exist until the national enquirer says she does and when she does everything changes really fast that de change my life suddenly, i had to become aware of my surroundings all the time. >> cameras popping up out of weird vans parked down the street with there windows cracked. >> now, with physical proof of real's pregnancy, a plan was hatched to get the media off of john edwards, sent what

happened after that when into a scenario that i had never experienced, week again receiving phone calls from various lawyers saying this is a case of two campaign workers and john edwards campaign who are having a child together andrew young is the baby daddy of real hunters, child now this is when the story gets invented that it's actually andrew yang's baby. >> yes whose idea was andrew yang's and his wife was cool with it he sold her on the idea. i'm not sure she was cool with it. nobody was cool with it. >> to be clear, andrew young flatly denies that he was the architect of the plan to pass off john in real's baby as his. and his book young were calls john edwards, convincing him to lie by saying, quote, it's going to be a one-day story, andrew, no offense, but the press doesn't give a about you. they want me. but if we give them a story, they can understand a story about to staffers. they'll go away

we've published a page one covers story. >> john edwards, love child scandal we reported edwards response. the story is false ridiculous. at this point, the scandal almost starts to feel like watching a horror movie. i want to cry out to john edwards. just stop, don't go into the basement don't layer a lie upon a bigger lie. just stop. go home, man. but the potential to somehow get away with it maybe even win the election kept john edwards and his enablers going diluted as it was. they went into the basement in the national enquirer was waiting there for them the whole myth has to be reimagined he didn't know whether you were next they are both tied up. yeah. yeah. i was called in and i saw what turned out to be the biggest heist in history it went from goldman

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doctors preferred better science, better results what does it mean to be out front? >> it's going there. we aren't just about three miles from the gaza border. it's finding out something unexpected. >> i relish all of our conversations. >> it's context, the economy is by far the top issue for americans in this election. >> curious udacity. >> someone else needed jump in the race and devolve all. >> it's about sharing that. so you can be out front two. >> let's go out front erin burnett outfront week nights at seven on cnn this is cnn the world's news less than and tail. we have a president who's willing to stand up to these people. nothing will change we will never have the america that all of us dream up. >> in january 2008, rumors of

edwards there have been published and we're dogging the campaign in a surprise upset barack obama won the iowa caucus. were john had been heavily favored previously but at least outwardly, edwards remained hopeful what people want and new hampshire as they want to see change, they want to see something different than they say now but the political tides had turned a few days later, edwards lost the new hampshire primary. >> john edwards, a distant third, less be a disappointing 17%. >> and a few weeks later, the south carolina primary, he's only winning two counties, including where he was born, seneca obama broke out as the party favorite, just as edwards began to implode it's time for me to step aside. >> so that history can blaze its path. >> john ever does still chasing his political career, even though he is not a candidate for president, he's looking for a role in the obama white house. he could still emerge as a vice presidential candidate or attorney general. but right

at that moment, still has real and the kid over there trying to keep this at bay. >> if you are involved in a heated political scandal best thing to do is admit it, confess, and move on with your life john edwards didn't do that someone someday will have to explain to me how a man can cheat on his cancer stricken wife, have a baby with his girlfriend and somehow think he can still be vice president or attorney general a month after edwards dropped out of the race, real gave birth to their daughter in california without him john was still trying to keep his growing secret in hiding, but the enquirer was watching his every move big tip came in. that john was going to meet real and their daughter at the beverly hilton. we were subsequently able to obtain a spy photo of john holding his child and as john was leaving the hotel, are reporters sprang

up to him and said, mr. edwards are from the national enquirer what are you doing here and visiting real hunter and her baby. we believe your baby that point it all caved in for john edwards. he was panic stricken. he ran into a bathroom and i'll reporters were on the other side trying to get at and security came and john edwards was escorted out without making any comments. but we knew that we had we wake up to the national enquirer interview. i was with abc news and what i found out is that john edwards had brokered a deal to sit down with abc news i worked at abc news at this time. >> and when edwards agreed to a sit down, it was a huge deal. everyone in the newsroom tuned in to watch our colleague, bob woodruff hold edwards feet to the fire. he'd have to tell the truth now, he was on national tv but then this happen. >> let me ask you the question. did you have an affair with ms

hunter in 200062 years ago? i made a very serious mistake mistake that i am responsible for is this a fair completely over? >> oh, yes, it's been over all up for a long path edwards, ever the skilled trial attorney was being very slippery with the truth here. >> but what came out next was an unbelievable outright lie and that picture is absolutely, you and you are holding that baby. >> the picture in the tabloid? yes. i have no idea what that picture is. but you've seen that picture, right? i did say an ad. i cannot make any sense out of it. i don't know who that baby is. >> this is the part of john edwards that you have to really say my god, turn it off already just stop. >> he admits to the relationship, but not the fatherhood. yeah. >> i mean, i don't even understand the hair the hair splitting, the denied that interview, denying paternity really change things i had a

really hard time without one at that juncture. >> why did he not do the right thing? >> why do i think that from a fear of elizabeth, probably multiple thing is hurting his kids elizabeth the embarrassment and the shame i'm just fear. >> but i think you're being very charitable by not thinking that a good chunk of all of these bad decisions was, i want to be president or i want to be vice president, or i want to be attorney general is his ambition. yes you're attributing his love and to protecting his family. >> and i'm saying are more than ambition. i don't think he's that ambitious. i'm not so sure his political career was him 100%. >> do you think elizabeth question i think that she wanted it more than he did it staff to know what to think about real's theory because elizabeth is not here to tell us her side of the story. what we do know is that just like the rest of his staffers elizabeth edwards supported her

husband's campaign, unceasingly for him him as well as for herself, even as his affair tore her apart the biggest explosion is when elizabeth edwards is waiting for john and an airport hangar and she literally rips her shirt and her broth and she says, don't you see me it is the hardest moment in her life an adwords responded by continuing to dig in on these lines, which takes us back to the abc news interview. >> bob turned the topic to money and edwards just dug that hole even deeper. >> there has been evidence. we've been told that they're about $15,000 a month than paid to ms hunter. hunter so that she could actually live out in california in fact, that money was from fred baron, who was your national finance chair?

>> is that correct? >> i don't know. >> this is when you can first see fear in edwards eyes, he seems to turn from a guy plausibly trying to protect his family into a lawyer, trying to cover his our tentacles began moving out into chasing down the money trail. john edwards was relying on at least two very wealthy donors that we were able to publicly identify one of those donors was eris rachel mellon, known to friends, family, and those seeking political contributions as bunny. bunny mellon. >> she also found john edwards to be insanely attractive and a party thinks like, you know watch on, you are no good, not you hitting on a nine-year-old wanted but it worked. they got nearly i think $750,000. what they were supporting ultimately okay was keeping real and their child under wraps. >> if red baron and beanie

melons contributions were being used to keep real quiet. so the john edwards could win. that would make john edwards more than a philanderer. it would make him a federal criminal wow. >> this is big when a jinx came out, i thought, oh, my god on bob has a friend expects blind loyalty. turns out, when you have a whole lot of money people are willing to do things for you what do you do when you're best friend kills your other best friend hey robbie surprises and surprises with priceline vip family, you can unlock deals five times faster. >> you don't even have to be an actual family. >> i'd be the dad on the day physically, it's clear that i'm the dad. okay. so which data is pain?

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by 2010, the walls were closing in on john edwards. >> thanks to the reporting of the national enquirer, a grand jury had started investigating whether edwards campaign funds had been used to hide his affair with real and while those chips we're already down for edwards came another blow. andrew young announcing he was going public with a tail all book. andrew young finally broke from john edwards and wrote a book in which he came out and acknowledged the cover up more than that, he named john as the mastermind of it all. >> what is his politics is almost cult-like. i worked for john edwards for ten years and here we were on the verge of possible presidency. the sun conter, call man said, my wife samanta di will you consider helping me cover this up? so this is not on the front page of every newspaper in the world so as federal investigators circle, john edwards was out of

options, except one john edwards now admitting he is the father of the child born to campaign aid, real hunter. >> it's sort of maury povich for the upwardly mobile, you are the father role. those are disappointed and hurt these words will never be enough. >> but i am truly sorry. >> and what about edwards, wife of 32 years? elizabeth. she's not only had to deal with her husband vitriol hey, i'll she's dealing with a cancer that threatens to take her life. >> john edwards confession to elizabeth was reportedly done privately. she added an afterword to her memoir, resilience, we're calling the horror she felt on learning the full depths of john's betrayal. writing quote i, simply wanted to be away from all of the things i had tried to accept. i wanted to take a long shower and be away from the lies. my husband had told me and the woman he told me about. and the awful couple who helped him live the lives elizabeth edwards separated

from john in january 2010 the same month that he came clean in the press, john edwards finally confessed to being queens dad in 2010, he had wanted to come out for a very long time. >> the issues for internal family isha's trying to hide it from elizabeth, i try not to hurt anybody. >> you know, he didn't want to hurt elizabeth. our his family it appeared edwards wanted his lie to outlive elizabeth and may have thought it would be better for everyone instead, as elizabeth cancer progress, she was left with the knowledge that not only had her husband gaslit her for years, a team of people had known the truth and stayed silent or rationalized it as the right thing to do. >> elizabeth edwards died on december 7, 2010 from breast cancer it was very cold and rainy day in raleigh john had

his two youngest kids hands and just i remember him leaning down and saying, guys. all right yeah, it was it was a very heavy day when she could barely speak anymore my dad and i said at her bedside and held each of our hands and she just kept looking at us back-and-forth saying, i'm okay. i'm okay. she was way more worried about us than we were about her elizabeth died and i'm wondering what you felt when that happened. >> did you think when she passed away and they finally you and john kirby together i. >> don't think so when did not certain i ever thought john and i would end up together. >> thing about all of it. yeah i never would have gone down this road. >> why? because i'm a parent. i'm a mom. i just would never

have an affair and do that to a family. so you maybe understand elizabeth edwards a little better now? >> yes, absolutely. denials of like you're the person you love going denying that, you know, like your real whole reality is turned upside down. yes, i get it as a woman, you can understand it intellectually. banana motion, correct yeah by 2011, the ongoing federal investigation into the eduard scandal came to a head. john edwards, the onetime vice presidential nominee, the democratic party, is looking at the possibility of 30 years in prison. >> prosecutors contended edwards used campaign donations to cover up an affair and pay his mistress. >> he's accused of conspiracy making false statements, and violating campaign finance laws. >> remember those two donors, fred and bunny, by using their money to fund his cover up. edwards was now facing the biggest trial of his life what about all that money from like bunny melon and that i knew nothing about this money. i

mean, just who pay for your groceries? >> andrew young had claimed that he was paying for it out of his own pocket. right. and then friend had reimbursed him their argument was this money was not going directly can you tell people vote for john edwards? >> this was going to kind of support him, the family, it was sort of, you know, auxiliary from there the details just got senior including the testimony that andrew young and his wife, sherri, had kept a very personal type of recording of john and real how did you end up with a sex tape of john edwards and real hunter? >> there was a sex tape that cheri young, andrew's wife, found in a pile of things that real had left behind in a house they had rented for her and they kept dead as a kind of an insurance. you did though at one point consider selling it, was somebody comes up to you and says, here's millions of dollars when you sell it you know, i'd be lying if i didn't say. >> but do we ever seriously

consider selling it? of course not. >> it was it was crazy juicy trial for something about finance there's no question that i've done wrong and i take full responsibility for having done wrong. and i will regret for the rest of my life the pain and the harm that i've caused but i did not break the law they ended up deliberating for nine days and it was like is the train going to crash what is it about the i can see why are we so obsessed with this ship every piece of evidence tells a story 100 years later it's still leading people in your data this special to our titanic premier how would really have no cnn

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♪ -man: morning. -morning. good morning. we have this 4-week trial, and then you had nine days of deliberation just deadlocked. there were just a couple of hardcore people who didn't think that it was a campaign finance violation and thought the government didn't prove their case. at the end of the day, they came back with a hung jury, and the justice department almost immediately realized they weren't gonna retry the case. and so john edwards avoided prison. he walked free but into a world that found him guilty

of being a liar, a cheat, and in the end, a uniquely terrible presidential candidate. i did an awful, awful lot that was wrong, and there is no one else responsible for my sins. after the trial, edwards retreated from public life. he returned to his home in north carolina, where he declines media requests to this day, including mine. he and rielle stayed together for a while after the trial, but now maintain a relationship as co-parents. he liked the attention, and he had a lot of people pushing him in that direction to make a difference, and he was conflicted about it. -mm. and he did not wanna hurt anybody. and he loved elizabeth. he loved his kids. and he was also in love with me. you know, like, it's-- humans are complicated people. -sure. -it's not just black and white. and you thought that if you didn't go along, you'd lose it?

no. i don't know. i just felt like the tr-- i was forced to go along. the--the train was going in that direction, and i just gave up. -one of the-- -throw in every known reality of everything i believe in out the window. we're going in this direction. what belief systems were you throwing out? all my honesty and integrity and, you know, my morals. -'cause you were lying... -yes. -...to the country... -yes. -...lying to the world. lying-- -going along with it. i'm complicit. whatever you think of rielle, it is fascinating that she is the one person in this story who was not invested in john politically. her motivations for the deceit and the lies were purely personal. she wanted to make her own life better, and honestly, she seems like the only person this worked out for. well, maybe not the only one. in an historic first for any tabloid, levine's coverage of edwards was deemed eligible for a pulitzer prize.

when i issued a public apology... -and-- -do you remember that? -i don't. -yeah. not many people do. [laughs] -what did you say? -i was sorry i hurt anybody. i wasn't thinking about anybody else but myself, and i'm sorry. your daughter's 14 now. yes. so he's part of her life now? -yes, very much. -and how--i mean, that's okay? you and him and quinn, like, you've all moved on? oh, yeah. it's now just a healthy situation? it's very healthy. she's so blessed and privileged and has great parents who love her, you know? -both of you? you and john? -yes. yes. -and he's part of it? -yeah. all in, yeah. [laughs] he's a great dad to her. so in a weird way, there is a blessing from all of this. -not a weird way. -it's not weird. -she is--she is the blessing. -yeah. even with the silver lining at the end, looking back, the edwards saga can feel like a twisted soap opera. the stakes felt larger than just a sex scandal.

but what about the scandal's political legacy? we have this dream of who we want people to be, but john edwards couldn't be that. he was who he was for rielle hunter, who he was for elizabeth edwards, and then it was who he was for the american public. and that's the paradox inherent to politics by design. individual human beings have to be the vessels for all our lofty ideals, and yet to this day, we keep on investing and believing in these candidates for higher office, hoping, praying that they do not break our hearts, because maybe, just maybe, this one is different. i do think a lot of his campaign staffers were diehard believe-in-the-cause fans, and a lot of them do work in the white house right now. that's his legacy, and i think that puts a nice bow on a story that is a big ol' mess.