Edwards calls split ‘extraordinarily sad’

The statements were made as a former aide to Edwards prepares to release a tell-all book that gives an unflattering portrait of the couple and the tumultuous relationship they tried to maintain after he first acknowledged his affair on the campaign trail. They statements also were issued one week after John Edwards finally made a public declaration that he fathered a child, now almost 2 years old, with his mistress.

Former aide Andrew Young initially claimed that he fathered the child with John Edwards’s mistress. John Edwards publicly declared last week that he was the father of the child with Rielle Hunter, who worked as a videographer before his second presidential campaign in 2008.

Young’s upcoming book details how Edwards went to great lengths to hide the affair. Young also claims the couple sought to politicize her cancer diagnosis.

The statement released on behalf of Elizabeth Edwards said she will not engage in a dialogue on “false charges’’ in the book.