FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 5, 2009

CHICAGO — In a revealing and intensely personal interview, Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former presidential candidate John Edwards, breaks her silence to Oprah Winfrey, speaking out for the first time about the state of her marriage, her husband's infidelity and his former mistress's baby. She also speaks emotionally about her ongoing battle with terminal cancer.

Winfrey sits down with Edwards at her family's sprawling 28,000-square-foot dream home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for a no-holds-barred conversation, where no topic is off-limits. Plus, Winfrey speaks exclusively with John Edwards and gets a tour of their home.

Elizabeth Edwards Interview Highlights from The Oprah Winfrey Show:

On the one gift Edwards asked for before her wedding 31 years ago:
Winfrey: You asked your husband for just one gift when you got married. What was that?
Edwards: I wanted him to be faithful to me. It was enormously important to me.

On how her husband's affair began:
Edwards: What John said is that this woman spotted him in the hotel in which he was staying. He was meeting someone in the restaurant bar area, and she verified with someone who he worked with that it was John. John went to dinner at a nearby restaurant, and when he walked back to the hotel she was standing in front of the hotel. She said to him, "You are so hot."

On her marriage today:
Winfrey: Is it a day-by-day thing?
Edwards: Neither one of us is out the door, so I guess it's day by day, but maybe it's month by month.
Winfrey: So you are still living together?
Edwards: Still living together.
Winfrey: Are you still in love with him?
Edwards: You know, that's a complicated question.

On the former mistress's baby:
Winfrey: The other woman has a baby.
Edwards: That's what I understand.
Winfrey: And there is great speculation that your husband, John Edwards, is the father of that baby.
Edwards: That's what I understand. I've seen a picture of the baby. I have no idea. It doesn't look like my children, but I don't have any idea.
Winfrey: You must have thought, "Is it, or is it not?"

The Conversation Continues in the June Issue of O, The Oprah Magazine:

On the other woman:
Edwards: This person is very different from me and really very different from him. We're basically old-fashioned people. So this was a pretty big leap for him. Maybe it's being so different is what was attractive.

On her own mortality:
Edwards: It's not as frightening. If there's an ever after—please, please, please—I would be leaving part of my family, but I can go and join another party and wait for that day when we're all together again. In some ways, it's something you yearn for.

The Oprah Winfrey Show: Exclusive: Elizabeth Edwards' First Interview airs Thursday, May 7, 2009 (check local listings).

For additional information on the June issue of O, The Oprah Magazine visit Oprah.com/OMagazine.

The Oprah Winfrey Show has remained the number one talk show for 22 consecutive seasons, winning every sweep since its debut in 1986.** It is produced in Chicago by Harpo Productions, Inc. and syndicated to 214 domestic stations by CBS Television Distribution Group and to 143 countries by CBS Paramount International Television.

O, The Oprah Magazine encourages confident, intelligent women to reach for their dreams, express their individual style and make choices, guided by the values of one of the most charismatic women in the world, O Editorial Director Oprah Winfrey. With an emphasis on personal growth, the magazine inspires, addressing every aspect of a woman's life—the material, the intellectual and the emotional—and deeply connects with more than 16 million readers every month (MRI, Fall 2007).

O, The Oprah Magazine, which also publishes a South African edition, is a co-venture between Hearst Magazines, a unit of the Hearst Corporation (Hearst.com) and Harpo Print, LLC. Hearst Magazines is a unit of Hearst Corporation (Hearst.com) and one of the world's largest publishers of monthly magazines, with nearly 200 editions around the world, including 15 U.S. titles and 19 magazines in the United Kingdom, published through its wholly owned subsidiary, the National Magazine Company Limited. Hearst reaches more adults than any other publisher of monthly magazines (70.6 million total adults, according to MRI, Fall 2008).

Sources:
**Nielsen Cassandra Ranking Report - Nov'86 to July '99 and Wrap Sweeps, Nov '99 to July '08. Primary Telecasts Only.

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