Reuters via Yahoo! News/Jim Young: Elizabeth and John Edwards in 2007.Oh, Elizabeth. We feel for you. We cannot begin to imagine the pain of going through such a breathtaking betrayal so publicly, while you fight for your life and raise two young children. But if the latest reports are true that you are threatening to sue the blabbermouth ex-aide of your estranged husband, the one who helped shield his affair with Rielle Hunter then cover it up, we are more worried than ever that moving on and away from the selfish snare of John Edwards will be impossible.
Andrew Young, the aide and author of the tell-all book, "The Politician," says that Elizabeth Edwards has threatened to sue him for "alienation of affection" in an attempt to get him to stop publicly badmouthing her and dragging her sad family story through the news. What's interesting is this kind of lawsuit, only allowed in seven states, allows a person to sue a third party for contributing to the breakup of a marriage. Typically, this rare kind of suit is used to sue a partner's lover when an affair leads to divorce proceedings. And, as CBS reports, it's often used to go after money from the third party in a divorce case.
Elizabeth Edwards is not in need of money, but she is in need of justice, revenge, and, presumably, some quiet. Her lawyer has not commented on Young's statements, but ABC reports that Young has said the suit was threatened unless he met Elizabeth Edwards' demands that he:
- donate $250,000 to the Wade Edwards Foundation (in the name of her son who died in a car accident in 1996)
- stop speaking publicly about the Edwardses' marriage
Now, Elizabeth Edwards is a lawyer and she is smart, and she has every right to use what she knows to seek justice, but we ask: Will it hurt or help you and your family to do it? Standing up for yourself is imperative, yes, but using a little-known law to blame a third party for the dissolution of a two-party marriage will make it so much harder to climb out of this muck and truly get your life back.
