Editing John Edwards (section)

===Family===
While at UNC, he met [[Elizabeth Edwards|Elizabeth Anania]]. They married in 1977 and had four children (Wade in 1979, [[Cate Edwards|Cate]] in 1982, Emma Claire in 1998, and Jack in 2000). In a [[John Edwards extramarital affair|widely-publicized extramarital affair]], he fathered a daughter in 2008 with Rielle Hunter, a staffer on his [[John Edwards presidential campaign, 2008|2008 presidential campaign]]. Edwards denied being the father until 2010.<ref name="NYTimesPaternity">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/us/politics/22edwards.html |title=John Edwards Admits He Fathered Girl with Mistress |author=Julie Bosman |access-date=May 8, 2010 |date=January 21, 2010 |work=The New York Times}}</ref>

Wade was killed in a car accident when strong winds swept his Jeep off a North Carolina highway in 1996. Three weeks before his death, he was honored by [[First Lady of the United States|First Lady]] [[Hillary Clinton]] at [[The White House]] as one of the 10 finalists in an essay contest sponsored by the [[National Endowment for the Humanities]] and the [[Voice of America]] for an essay he wrote on entering the voting booth with his father.<ref name="FoxNewsWade">{{cite news |url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/john-edwards-opens-up-about-death-of-teenage-son |title=John Edwards Opens Up About Death of Teenage Son |agency=Associated Press |access-date=May 21, 2007 |date=March 29, 2007 |work=Fox News}}</ref>  Wade, accompanied by his parents and sister, went on to meet North Carolina Sen. [[Jesse Helms]], who later entered Wade's essay and his obituary into the ''[[Congressional Record]]''.<ref name="Helms eulogy">{{cite web |url=http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r104:S16AP6-72: |title=Lucius Wade Edwards July 18, 1979-April 4, 1996 |work=Congressional Record, 104th Congress, (1995-1996) |access-date=May 21, 2008 |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016224552/http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r104:S16AP6-72: |url-status=dead }}</ref> Edwards and his wife began the Wade Edwards Foundation in their son's memory; the purpose of the non-profit organization is "to reward, encourage, and inspire young people in the pursuit of excellence." The foundation funded the Wade Edwards Learning Lab at Wade's high school, [[Needham B. Broughton High School]] in [[Raleigh, North Carolina|Raleigh]], along with scholarship competitions and essay awards.<ref name="WadeFoundation">{{cite web |url=http://www.wade.org/ |title=Wade Edwards Foundation |access-date=May 21, 2007}}</ref>

On November 3, 2004, Elizabeth Edwards revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She was treated by [[chemotherapy]] and [[radiotherapy]],<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna6522712 |title=Elizabeth Edwards battles breast cancer |author=Katie Couric |publisher=[[NBC News]] |date=November 21, 2004 |access-date=May 20, 2007}}</ref> and continued to work within the Democratic Party and her husband's One America Committee. On March 22, 2007, during his campaign for the 2008 Democratic nomination for the presidency, Edwards and his wife announced that her cancer had returned; she was diagnosed with [[Cancer staging|stage IV]] breast cancer, with newly discovered [[metastasis|metastases]] to the bone and possibly to her lung.<ref name="pressconference">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/22/AR2007032201422.html |title=Former Sen. Edwards Holds a News Conference on Wife's Health: Breast Cancer Has Returned |author=Transcript of press conference |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=March 22, 2007 |access-date=March 25, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/22/edwards.2008/index.html |title=Edwards: Wife's cancer returns, campaign goes on |work=CNN|author=Candy Crowley |date=March 23, 2007 |access-date=June 14, 2007}}</ref> They said that the cancer was "no longer curable, but is completely treatable"<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/03/22/cancer.edwards/index.html |title=Edwards: Cancer 'no longer curable' |work=CNN|author=Mary Carter |author2=Elizabeth Cohen |author3=Amy Burkholder |date=May 22, 2007 |access-date=June 14, 2007}}</ref> and that they planned to continue campaigning together with an occasional break when she required treatment.<ref name="pressconference"/><ref name="Elizabethhealth">{{cite news |url=https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070322/ap_on_el_pr/edwards2008 |title=Edwards Presses on With 2008 Campaign |author=Nedra Pickler |agency=Associated Press |access-date=March 22, 2007 |date=March 22, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070328171649/http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070322/ap_on_el_pr/edwards2008 |archive-date=March 28, 2007}}</ref>

In June 2010, Elizabeth published a book called ''Resilience''. Her book is about the struggles of her marriage and how she was affected by [[John Edwards extramarital affair|her husband's affair]]. In the book, Elizabeth talks about how long she was in the dark about the affair and how many times her husband lied about the details of the affair. She never addresses John's mistress by name but calls her a "parasitic groupie" and claims that she is "pathetic". Elizabeth also opens up about how she tried to forgive her husband after she first learned of the affair but struggled to find forgiveness when he continued to lie. After Edwards's January 21, 2010, admission that he fathered a child with his [[mistress (lover)|mistress]], Elizabeth obtained a [[legal separation]] from him and intended to file for divorce after a mandatory one-year waiting period.<ref name="reuters.com">{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60Q65P20100127 |title=Politician John Edwards and wife separate |publisher=Reuters |date= January 27, 2010|access-date=May 24, 2010 | first=Richard | last=Cowan}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | author=Lisa Myers and Michael Austin | title=Edwards admits fathering child with mistress | url=http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/34963767/ns/today-today_people/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100123010119/http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/34963767/ns/today-today_people/ | url-status=dead | archive-date=January 23, 2010 | work=NBC News | date=January 21, 2010 | access-date=January 21, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2010/01/elizabeth-edwards-tells-her-sister-ive-had-it-/1 | work=USA Today | title=Elizabeth Edwards tells her sister: 'I've had it.' | date=January 27, 2010 | access-date=May 6, 2010 | first=Ann | last=Oldenburg}}</ref>

On December 7, 2010, Elizabeth died of [[metastatic breast cancer]], aged 61.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://iknowjack.radio.com/2010/12/07/elizabeth-edwards-dies-at-61/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101211201254/http://iknowjack.radio.com/2010/12/07/elizabeth-edwards-dies-at-61/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2010-12-11 |title=Elizabeth Edwards Dies At 61 }}</ref>