Aside from going through a very painful experience quite publicly, the woman is also terminally ill. It also seems, if one is to believe the reports, that John Edwards promised that he and Rielle could be "together", after his current wife dies. Nice...
So, if I were Elizabeth Edwards, here's what I'd do.
I would divorce the SOB forthwith, in an effort to gain half of the community property. This is with the knowledge that there's a strong possibility he'll still marry Rielle after my death (especially now that he's acknowledged that he's the father of her child), in an effort to protect that half of the marital assets for my children. Because who knows how good ole John might write a will, once he's married to wife number two? Or three. Or four...
For all Elizabeth knows, some future wife could see to it that Elizabeth's three children get nothing from what was earned during the time that John and their mother were together.
So that's what I'd do. Soak the bastard for every possible dime, and then leave it to my children!
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"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
Yeah but let's remember that "wonderful thing" called a pre-nup. At that level, she probably did have one. I'd be surprised if there wasn't one. Edwards is a bastard, I didn't like him before he ran as a VP, I've only been proven right since then.
That said, if you were Elizabeth there Moore, you would have seen through the prick and never married him in the first place.
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"If you were looking for something clever or witty or funny here, you've come to the wrong place."
I appreciate your faith in me, Brandon, but I may not have been that smart!!
I'm not sure about the prenup, though, because he and Elizabeth have been married for a very long time, and I'm not sure that he had much of anything when they first married. Didn't he build his law practice and his fortune while they were together? (I'd have to check to be sure, but I think so...)
However, I totally agree with the "prick" part of your comment. I can't stand a liar...
And what a weaselly little coward he was too, to do all of this while his wife was fighting a terminal illness, and was supporting him with her heart and soul, during his campaign.
What a low-life!
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"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
I'm not sure about the prenup, though, because he and Elizabeth have been married for a very long time, and I'm not sure that he had much of anything when they first married. Didn't he build his law practice and his fortune while they were together? (I'd have to check to be sure, but I think so...)
A lot of times those are worded to where the spouse can only claim X percentage of assets, etc. So whether he was super rich or super poor, she would get say 10 percent or something. There's some crazy pre-nups out there.
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"If you were looking for something clever or witty or funny here, you've come to the wrong place."
John and Elizabeth Edwards met when John was still in law school at UNC, and married during that period of time.
Edwards was just starting out in a law firm when he was assigned a medical malpractice case that was thought to be unwinable. But he won it... From there he went on to make these kinds of cases his specialty, and is currently worth somewhere around $60 million.
He came from a background where his family had no money, and didn't have any when he and Elizabeth married (since he was just out of law school). This was in 1977 when prenups weren't prevalent, and given John's humble background and no serious earnings yet at the time, I'm guessing that one doesn't exist.
I could be wrong, of course, but that's not only what I'm guessing, it's also what I'm HOPING!!! Not that Elizabeth Edwards is going to read my post, or take my advice... LOL.
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"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
We ALL have a death sentence, it's just most of us don't know when it'll turn up. The wife, in this case, has been such a dummy supporting her "man" through thick and thin, that she'll probably NOT take the necessary measures to ensure her kids' entitlements. She seems to me to be rather enjoying the "long-suffering" woman, going for some kind of martyr status.
It's a chance she took, marrying that weasel and then sticking by him. Maybe her kids will be smart enough to sort this out before the mother passes on.