Oprah Interviews Elizabeth Edwards

John and Elizabeth are now focused on rebuilding trust, which she says is a slow process. "It means that sometimes he has to have conversations he doesn't want to have," she says.

No matter what happens, Elizabeth says she will not let John's affair define her life or her marriage. "This is a really good man who really did a very, very bad thing. If you take that piece out, I do have a perfect marriage. I have a husband who adores me, who is unbelievable with my children," she says. "And in times where I been in enormous pain, with the death of Wade or with the cancer, he's been by my side."

Elizabeth says there are moments when she wishes John's pain could end too. "My first reaction was the reaction I think anybody would have about somebody that they've loved," she says. "I wanted to protect him. I wanted him, I wanted me...I wanted all of us to come out of it like we have been."