Edwards on affair: Saying sorry not enough

WASHINGTON — Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards admitted Friday that he had an extramarital affair with a filmmaker working for his campaign and repeatedly lied about it, but he denied he fathered her 5-month-old baby.

Edwards said he is "ashamed" of his conduct and "it is inadequate to say to the people who believed in me that I am sorry." In the course of several campaigns, he said in a statement, "I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic. If you want to beat me up — feel free."

The former North Carolina senator said the affair took place in 2006, and he confessed the "liaison" soon after to his wife, Elizabeth. He told ABC's "Nightline" that she had been furious. He said he did not tell his wife of a secret visit to the woman, Rielle Hunter, in California last month.

Edwards declared his presidential run in December 2006. As a candidate, he often talked about the importance of morality and family as he campaigned with Elizabeth, who announced in March 2007 that her breast cancer, formerly in remission, had returned and there apparently was no cure.

Edwards dropped out midway through this year's primaries. He recently endorsed Barack Obama and has been mentioned as a possible running mate.

In October, Edwards, 55, dismissed an initial report in The National Enquirer that he had an affair with Hunter, 43, as "lies" and "tabloid trash." He said Friday he is willing to take a paternity test to establish he is not the father of Hunter's daughter.

She received money

Fred Baron, a Texas lawyer who was the finance chairman of Edwards' two presidential campaigns, said in an interview that he has been sending unspecified sums of money to Hunter without informing Edwards.

The payments helped Hunter relocate from North Carolina to a $3 million Santa Barbara, Calif., home, and for Andrew Young — a former Edwards aide who claims to be the baby's father — to move into a $4 million home in the same city. Edwards also said he was unaware money was being funneled to Hunter and Young.

"It was a horrible situation," Baron said. "These people were being harassed," referring to Young and Hunter.

After dodging reporters at public events for weeks, Edwards confirmed to ABC's Bob Woodruff that he had a five-hour, late-night meeting with Hunter at a Beverly Hills, Calif., hotel. The reason, he said, was to persuade Hunter not to publicly confirm the affair. Edwards also told "Nightline" he did not love Hunter.

During the Beverly Hilton visit, Edwards hid in a public restroom after Enquirer reporters confronted him until a security guard escorted him off the property.

In his statement, he said the affair ended too soon for him to have fathered her baby, born Feb. 27. The Enquirer this week published what it said was a photo of Edwards holding the baby, Frances Quinn Hunter, at the Hilton.

Hunter has also said Young, a former Edwards fundraiser — not to be confused with the former Atlanta mayor of the same name — is the baby's father.

"Reprehensible"

Former Michigan Rep. David Bonior, who managed Edwards' White House campaign, said the Democrats' 2004 vice-presidential nominee had "betrayed" those who believed in him and is finished in politics. "Thousands of friends of the senator and his supporters have put their faith and confidence in him and he's let them down," Bonior said.

The news also drew a sharp rebuke from Jenny Durkan, a Seattle attorney who served as Edwards' campaign chairwoman for Washington state in 2004 and 2008.

"His betrayal of his family, his supporters, his voters is reprehensible," said Durkan, who also expressed "tremendous sympathy" for Edwards' family.

Former state Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt, a prominent Edwards supporter during this year's presidential primary, said he is "disappointed and annoyed."

"It's not that I don't feel sorry for people who make mistakes," Berendt said. "I'm a big believer in redemption. But he built his image on something altogether different than this, and that makes this an especially bitter pill."

Wife's reaction

In a statement posted on the liberal Web site Daily Kos, Elizabeth Edwards said: "John made a terrible mistake in 2006. The fact that it is a mistake that many others have made before him did not make it any easier for me to hear when he told me what he had done. But he did tell me. And we began a long and painful process in 2006, a process oddly made somewhat easier with my diagnosis in March of 2007. ... I am proud of the courage John showed by his honesty in the face of shame."

Top aides to Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, declined to comment Friday.

Edwards told Bob Schieffer of CBS on Friday that he went public because "he just couldn't live with the constant pounding from the tabloids," as Schieffer put it. The newsman added that Elizabeth Edwards had told Schieffer "this is really, really tough."

In denying the story in October, John Edwards said: "I've been in love with the same woman for 30-plus years and, as anybody who's been around us knows, she's an extraordinary human being, warm, loving, beautiful, sexy and as good a person as I have ever known."

The Edwardses have three children: Cate, Jack and Emma Claire. Another son, Wade, died at 16 in a 1996 car accident.

Paid for campaign work

Hunter was hired by Edwards' political action committee in 2006 to direct a series of behind-the-scenes films, which included footage shot in Africa, that were posted on his campaign Web site. The first shows Edwards flirtatiously joking with Hunter about his effort to come across as authentic.

She told Newsweek in 2006 that she met him at a New York bar and sold him on making the documentaries to show the "real John Edwards."

Edwards' One America committee paid Hunter $114,000 for her work, according to federal disclosures.

Seattle Times reporter Ralph Thomas contributed to this report, which includes material from The Associated Press.