Former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) has publicly admitted that he fathered a child with Rielle Hunter, a woman with whom he had an affair and paid for video work during his presidential campaign.
In a written statement released to NBC News, Edwards said, “It was wrong for me ever to deny she was my daughter and hopefully one day, when she understands, she will forgive me.”
“I have been providing financial support for Quinn and have reached an agreement with her mother to continue providing support in the future,” he wrote.
Edwards also said he had been seeing his two-year-old daughter for a year, and pleaded for privacy.
“To all those I have disappointed and hurt these words will never be enough, but I am truly sorry,” he said.
NBC also reported that family friends say Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, have separated.
Elizabeth Edwards said she knew her husband was the father last summer.
John Edwards has not spoken himself on the issue, instead sending an adviser to speak on his behalf on the Today Show. Edwards is currently under investigation for paying Hunter, a videographer, with campaign funds at apparently the same time the two were together.
A former Edwards aide, Andrew Young, had originally claimed to be the baby’s father. Young has a book about the affair, called “The Politician,” to be released Feb. 2.
Young had also taped an interview with 20/20 to be aired next week. In that interview, Young claims Edwards asked him to arrange a fake paternity test.
“Get a doctor to fake the DNA results,” Young said Edwards told him.
Edwards also wanted to find out secretly if the baby really was his, Young alleges.
“And he asked me … to steal a diaper from the baby so he could secretly do a DNA test to find out if this [was] indeed his child,” he says in the interview.
Watch this morning Today Show segment:
