John Reid Edwards was born on June 10, 1953, in Seneca, South Carolina. John’s father was a textile worker and his mother was a postal letter carrier.
John Edwards was the first in his family to attend college and his first experience of college was Clemens University and later North Carolina State University. He graduated in 1974 with a degree in textile technology and later went on to earn his law degree. Both of his degrees came with honors.
Both Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, began in private practice with law firms in Nashville, Tennessee. The Edwards family returned to North Carolina in 1981, settling in the capital of Raleigh.
During his time at the University of Carolina he met Elizabeth Anania and they married in 1977; she is four years older than John. They went on to have two children, Wade and Cate. However, tragedy struck the family, when in 1997 at the age of sixteen, Wade was killed in a freak car accident which blew his Jeep off the North Carolina highway.
After the death of their son the couple decided to have children again and so followed Emma Claire and Jack. The family now lives together on a secluded ranch in Orange County, North Carolina.
Before entering politics, Edwards was a personal injury trial attorney, where he represented families and children. Edwards made his personal fortune through his trial successes and in 2003 his personal wealth was estimated at $60 million.
The biggest case of his legal career was a 1997 in a lawsuit against Sta-Rite, the manufacturer of a defective pool drain cover. The case involved a young girl, Valerie Lakey, who was disemboweled by the suction power of the pool drain pump when she sat on an open pool drain whose protective cover other children at the pool had removed. After the success of the Lakey case and his son's death John Edwards made the decision to leave the legal profession and seek public office. Edwards won election to the U.S. Senate in 1998 as a Democrat.
During President Bill Clinton's 1999 impeachment trial in the Senate, Edwards was responsible for the deposition of witness Monica Lewinsky.
It was reported during the 2000 presidential campaign that Edwards was to be on Al Gore's vice presidential nominee "short list," along with John Kerry and Joe Lieberman. In November of 2000, People magazine named Edwards as its choice for the "sexiest politician alive."
In 2004 John Edwards ran as John Kerry’s vice presidential nominee in the presidential election but they were defeated by George W Bush.
The highlight of Edwards' campaign was the debate with Dick Cheney, in which the Vice President blindsided Edwards with the false charge that they had never met before, and blamed this on Edwards' frequent absences from the Senate to campaign for the Presidency. Edwards' initial response is believed to have hurt the Kerry/Edwards campaign. During an interview with Larry King in 2004, Edwards revealed that he probably never would return to his occupation as a trial lawyer.
At the same time as the election was being run John and his wife Elizabeth received the shattering news that Elizabeth had breast cancer. After being treated with chemotherapy she continued to support her husband in his political career.
In December 2006 John Edwards announced his presidential candidacy for 2008 and national polls during March 2007 showed Edwards placed third among the Democratic, nominees behind Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama.
In early 2007, John and Elizabeth announced that her cancer had returned, attacking her bones and possibly her lung. It is believed that the cancer is "no longer curable, but is treatable" and that they plan to continue campaigning together. Prior to the announcement it was widely believed that John Edwards would make the decision to withdraw from the campaign.
But John carried on with his battle for the White House while Elizabeth stood by his side during her battle with cancer.
John made good headway in the early months of his campaign but in early 2008 it became obvious that he could no longer sustain his popularity in his bid for the White House and so on January 28th 2008 he announced that he was dropping out of the race.
Considered a golden boy in political circles it came as a shock when, in August 2008, it became known that Edwards had embarked on an extramarital affair in 2006 while pursuing his campaign for president.
The National Enquirer published allegations of John having fathered a baby with the woman with whom he had the affair, Rielle Hunter, but following an agreement to take a paternity test, Edwards reported that a campaign aide, Andrew Young, had already stated that he is the child's father.
YUDDY
