Joan Ganz Cooney | 05/07/2009 11:00 pm

Joan Ganz Cooney Understands Some of Elizabeth Edwards's Decisions

In response to: Is Elizabeth Edwards making a mistake by staying with husband John? Where do you stand on post-affair reconciliation?

I don’t know if Elizabeth Edwards is making a mistake staying with her husband because it’s impossible to know how much pain she is in after learning of the affair. She is seriously ill and has two young children so it is understandable that she might be reluctant to ask him to move out. However, I think she is making a mistake writing a book about the affair and publicizing it. She must really hate him to decide to be so publicly punitive. And it’s got to be an embarrassment to their children, particularly their grown daughter. I would have preferred that they work their marriage problems out in private.

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Joan … all I can say to your words is "Amen" for you have said it all. This need to immediately "produce" a book, not gathering nationwide acclaim but, nationwide shock that someone who seemed to have a good head on her shoulders and was praised for the heavy load she carried with her cancer would stoop to "profiting" by it, makes us think so much less of her in our eyes. But oh! the children … how I feel for them!

By joan larsen on 05/08/2009 1:40 am

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I’m with Joan and Joan––why is it people seem to want to shout out their dirty little secrets. For heaven’s sake, have some decorum and spare the children!

By phyllis Doyle Pepe on 05/08/2009 6:44 am

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why is it people seem to want to shout out their dirty little secrets

For money! She wants to take care of her children.

By Lee Harrison on 05/08/2009 3:46 pm

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I really feel sorry for Elizabeth Edwards for all the tragedies in her life. However, she lost a lot of my sympathy with the public airing of her marital problems. Yes, I know that the media was going to do it for her, but couldn’t she take the "high road." Are her children going to be destitute if she doesn’t leave them the royalties from a "tell all?" No, I imagine that this is all about making him pay for the terrible hurt he inflicted on her. I can’t imagine that she would do this at the expense of her children.

Isn’t there a happy medium between a woman playing the stoic standing by my man victim and publicly flogging the cad with every piece of trash she has? What should the next publicly humiliated woman do?

By Marjie Crowe on 05/08/2009 10:29 pm

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ANOTHER Elizabeth Edwards piece? Puh-LEEZE have mercy!

By Andrea Brandon on 05/08/2009 3:27 am

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I have to say that I was surprised by the comments from Liz and Joan. Your righteous comments seemed more self serving as if you have been there and were experts on the situation. And Joan, about there children are you that far out of the news loop that you can’t see the kids had to know about this and deal with the situation since it has been all over the news for a while now….. The woman is sick and dying. I am sure the last thing she would want to do is write a book if it hurt her children.If she wanted to get this off her chest and it made her feel better then she has every right to do so. Sadly she will not be able to live long to get up there in age and be a senior citizen as you have .

By Cheryl Lynn on 05/08/2009 5:08 am

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The woman is sick and dying. I am sure the last thing she would want to do is write a book if it hurt her children. If she wanted to get this off her chest and it made her feel better then she has every right to do so.

Cheryl, this above portion of what you said, I agree with 100%. She was betrayed. If not one person ever bought her book, at least she had the chance to put in writing the way things looked and felt to her. I wish her life had been more in keeping with the kind of lady she is. She didn’t deserve to have all this laid on her just when she found out her cancer was terminal.

By M J on 05/08/2009 6:57 am

Cheryl,

I agree with you. I don’t blame her for writing this book — this story has also been all over the tabloids and she decided to set the record straight — for herself and her chidren’s sake. The "other woman" will no doubt also have her say, but Elizabeth has made it clear that she is not going to allow her to be relevant to her life.

By Lucinda Herbert on 05/08/2009 9:30 am

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I must agree that I wish John and Elizabeth had worked out their problems in private. I was surprised to see that Elizabeth had written a book about the affair, which would only dredge up controversy about Edwards again. Why a book, when they don’t need the money or attention? I think Elizabeth stayed with John because of her cancer and the children, and is rationalizing the situation by blaming the other woman. As I said, I don’t understand why Elizabeth chose to write a book about the affair and make it a public matter, once again.

By Sue Fawcett on 05/08/2009 9:19 am

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I think Elizabeth stayed with John because of her cancer and the children, and is rationalizing the situation by blaming the other woman.

Sue,

She remarked that women should have more respect for each other, but she absolutely held her husband accountable for his actions. Despite the humiliation, they have spent a lifetime together and have 2 small children. I also think she is terribly vulnerable right now — she doesn’t feel well and she doesn’t want to face the future alone nor does she want her children to have to deal with a divorce as well as thepossibility of losing their mother in the near future. She is not the first woman who has put aside her personal feelings for the overall good of the family. With regard to the book, however, I think she was tired of the tabloids and just wanted to set the record straight. I can’t blame her for wanting to do that. Now, the 28,000 sq. ft. structure that houses 4 full time residents is something I am having trouble with — what’s in it?

By Lucinda Herbert on 05/08/2009 9:40 am

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I’m sorry, I believe that Elizabeth has every right in this situation to do whatever she wants because she was drug into this whole mess and angered and embarassed by her husband.

She has a right to her say, after all everyone else has said what they wanted to about it.

I cannot stand to see these wives stand by while these creepy men (there I’ve said it) humiliate them before the whole country. Obviously, they didn’t give a crap about anyone but themselves.

It’s about time a women stood up and had her say. Elizabeth you made my day. Let’s not go back to being the little woman in the background standing up for our man. Let us stand up for ourselves!

By Norma Grooms on 05/08/2009 10:41 am

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I for the life of me can’t understand this. Look what happened with the Clintons when all hit the fan, so to speak. And Hillary went on tv shows and claimed, "I am not like Tammy Wynett singing, Stand By Your Man". I mean come on people! Do you think we are a dumb nation?

By Beth Cornell on 05/08/2009 11:28 am

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I don’t know if I can agree with you Joan… you know, we have been very critical of all those women these past couple of years, standing quietly next to their shamed politician husband as he apologizes to the public for bad behavior. We say, what is wrong with those women, why don’t they haul off and slug the guy, or at the very least NOT attend and stand next to him during the ‘shame fest’?! Well, Elizabeth Edwards is hauling off and slugging the guy… with her book! More power to her.

By DeBúrca obj on 05/08/2009 9:19 pm