Aide: I Tried to Save Edwards' Marriage

(CBS)  North Carolina is one of several states where a scorned spouse may sue a mistress for alienation of affection - contributing to the demise of the marriage. But in a twist, Elizabeth Edwards is suing a long-time aide of her husband for revealing in his tell-all book the existence of a sex tape featuring John Edwards and Rielle Hunter.

When asked this morning on CBS' "The Early Show" whether he believed Elizabeth Edwards may have a valid argument for her lawsuit, Andrew Young, author of the tell-all book "The Politician," said his actions were actually designed to protect Elizabeth and save the Edwardses' marriage.

"From what I've been told, I think I ought to have a more valid argument [in court], that I was trying to preserve the marriage and protect the marriage and their reputation - that's my understanding of it," Young said.

"How were you trying to preserve and protect the marriage if you have outed all the details about the affair in this book?" asked anchor Maggie Rodriguez?

"Well, I think she's going back to the original activities of what we did," Young said.

"With the book, I've had no choice but to tell the whole truth, because we waited for two years for John Edwards to tell the truth.

In 2007 Young, a campaign staffer who had worked with Edwards for a decade, made a statement through his attorney that he was the father of Rielle's child. Young was married and had three children.

"When John Edwards asked me to do this, he had promised me that he was going to tell the truth soon. He made us feel ten days before the election started that Elizabeth was going to die any day and that he could not see Elizabeth go out like this - he didn't want her to die with this on the front page of the newspaper. And we agreed to do it, but he made us understand repeatedly - myself, my wife and Rielle - that this was going to be a very short-term thing, and that he was going to clear things up immediately."

"The Edwardses, in order to make the story seem more credible, told, made a lot of disparaging comments about me," Young added.

He said he waited two years "for the Edwardses to come clean and tell the truth" before publishing. "I was unable to get a job because of the things that they said and because of the fact that I'd worked for them for ten years.

"And as you know, my book came out just a couple weeks ago or a week ago, and within two weeks of my book coming out, the senator finally acknowledged paternity. He's bought Rielle on home. He's signed child support papers. And Rielle has filed a lawsuit seeking some of the materials that corroborate my story, and Elizabeth, when she threatened this alienation of affection lawsuit, which is a very obscure law going back more than a decade -

"She wanted the evidence, too - the sex tape, the voicemails, etc.?" Rodriguez asked.

"Yes. And it's not just stuff that it corroborates my story. It's also potentially evidence in the grand jury investigation against John Edwards."

"That sex tape is now in the hands of the court: Is there any question that it is John Edwards and his mistress on that tape?"

"You clearly can see John Edwards," Young said. "It's not clear that it's, you never see Rielle's face clearly, but it's clear that it's a pregnant woman, a blond pregnant woman. But you never see Rielle's face."

In response to recent reports that John Edwards intends to marry Hunter, Young said that in the past the couple had discussed marriage: "After they would have had a couple glasses of wine, they would talk about it very openly, yes,"

But, Young said this morning, he does not expect Edwards to actually go through with it.

"It would surprise me if it actually happens," Young said. "I've become quite cynical on the Edwards, and it seems like to me everything that he's done in the last month, month-and-a-half, from going to Haiti and El Salvador all of a sudden, I just think that everything is very planned and calculated.

"My cynical view is that this is a plan to make him seem like he was truly in love with someone and more sympathetic, and it also makes people more sympathetic towards Elizabeth. But that's just my cynical view."


For more info:
"The Politician" by Andrew Young (St. Martin's Press)
Book Excerpt

[lizb1]

I don't think Young's motives were entirely pure but...assume Person A works for Person B. Person B is married to Person C who B thinks is a controlling shrew. Person B appears to want to stay married to Person C and asks Person A to help keep him out of the dog house with C. A's help involves various kinds of cover-ups (but no affairs). Later C finds out things about Person B and the marriage breaks up. Would Person A be guilty of "MALICIOUS conduct" contributing to or causing the break up as is required by the alienation of affection statute? I don't think so and I don't think Young is either simply because an affair was involved.

[wdh3007]

Aide: "I tried to save Edwards marriage" problem is Edwards didn't wan't to save his marriage nor did he care about the consequences of his actions.

[Leaderless]

These 2 deserves each other. They're both dirty....cancer or no cancer.
Shooting the messenger?

[pragmatist1]

Elizabeth Edwards is a desperately tragic figure. She knows of her husband's infidelity with the mistress (by her husband's own admission to her), says nothing about it (as in stopping his candidacy for the presidency), learns of the husband fathering a kid long before the rest of us (by her husband's own admission), then decides to stay with the man and only after a book is announced, John's admission of fatherhood, meeting the kid, and then the revelation of a sex tape, she decides she's going to sue Young for alienation of affection. Sorry Elizabeth, but you're threatening the wrong person in all of this. Sue the mistress and finally take some responsibility for what happened to your marriage. You should have left as soon as pretty-boy John told you the dope on what was going down.

[erb0087]

And this is newsworthy because... ?

Meanwhile, CBS rival ABCNews has a stunning slideshow on its website:

"Celebrity Wardrobe Malfunctions"

[webster0801]

The more Andrew Young opens his mouth the less credible he becomes. He went to law school, couldn't pass the bar exam but still should have knowledge of the laws in NC, along with one of his many lawyers. Alienation of Affection is hardly an obsure law. There are hundreds of suits filed each year in NC. The law is:

Alienation of Affection - North Carolina
There are two potential claims you could make under North Carolina Law, depending upon the facts. First, Alienation of Affection, which would require you to establish:

1. A marriage which entailed love between the spouses in some degree;
2. That the spousal love was alienated and destroyed; and
3. That the defendant's malicious conduct contributed to or caused the loss of affection.

Andrew Young was fool enough to put all his aiding and abetting down on paper -- this is an easy case. These suits can result in awards of over a million dollars. Seems to me Elizabeth Edwards is trying to clean some of the dirty money Andrew and Cheri Young are making off their tabloid book. They should be so ashamed, and embarrassed by their own behavior. Guess their greed won't allow them to stop their immoral ways. This is an awful thing the Youngs' did to their own children and all the other children involved.

Elizabeth could and should sue Rielle Hunter for Alienation of Affection and Criminal Conversation even though RH has no money to "clean". NC takes this adultery stuff very seriously. Marriage is a contract that should not be interferred with by outside parties. Do you hear me Andrew and Cheri?

[aubfmet]

If all that was written in the book is true, there is no lawsuit. The world knows that John Edwards is willing to lie to the public.

[skeezix06]

Baloney. I hope Elizabeth sues and takes every penny that viper and his wife have.