I was not alone in my assessment of the situation. Bunny Mellon, whose love for John Edwards was sincere, believed that he should simply stay silent and ride out the storm. Bunny had lived through JFK’s infidelity and knew of the affairs carried on by her men in her life. In her view, powerful men should be expected to behave this way-indeed, they might even have a right to break the rules-and only unsophisticated dolts expected anything else. Her advice? Tell the whole truth or nothing at all. (Bunny also offered to send another check and to let us stay at her home in Antigua to regroup.)

In the end, neither Bunny nor I could get him out of the trap he had created for himself. Using his considerable powers of persuasion, the senator had lied to Elizabeth repeatedly and was now boxed in by his story and her need to take action.

At two o’clock on August 5, I was standing in line for the Buzz Light-​year ride when Fred called to tell me that Edwards had definitely decided to do the interview. Since the press would jump on the story, he wanted to get Rielle and the baby out of the country. Then he asked if I could get Rielle’s passport, which was stored somewhere in Chapel Hill, delivered to him.

“When?” I asked.

“Well, that’s the problem. She is flying out tomorrow morning.”

When she heard what Fred had asked, Cheri couldn’t believe they would request more favors. But I saw the drama coming to an end, and I was eager to see it all resolved even though there wasn’t much time to get the passport to FedEx. While she and the kids went off to have more fun, I went to a restaurant overlooking Tom Sawyer Island. Steamboat whistles and fake cannonfire sounded in the background as I made seventeen calls. During these calls, I made notes on a cardboard lunch box (Alvin and the Chipmunks) and the price tag from a Beanie Baby toy. Eventually, I was able to arrange to get the passport delivered to a company called Mobile Air in Mobile, Alabama, care of pilot Ronald Gehlken. (Gehlken would fly Rielle to a Caribbean island for a brief stay.)

After Rielle’s escape was arranged, the senator called three times. In one call, he thanked me. But in the others, he railed about reports popping up on the Internet. Radar.com had said that Cheri had told the whole story of Rielle and the senator to her hairstylist in Chapel Hill. Another blog said our landlords had been the source of the money used to fund Rielle’s life in hiding. Edwards yelled at me, saying that all along he had thought we had been “the leak.” Fred agreed with him. They were convinced and angry with us. I told them they were being ridiculous. “Think about it. Cheri hasn’t had her hair cut in Chapel Hill since we went on the run. She couldn’t have told anyone there anything.”

On Friday, August 8, prime-​time viewers across the country saw Edwards, in shirtsleeves, sit with the ABC correspondent and answer every question with contrite and seemingly sincere statements that were absolutely false. Here are some key passages:

JOHN EDWARDS: In 2006, two years ago, I made a very serious mistake. A mistake that I am responsible for and no one else. In 2006, I told Elizabeth about the mistake, asked her for her forgiveness, asked God for His forgiveness. And we have kept this within our family since that time. All of my family knows about this, and just to be absolutely clear, none of them are responsible for it. I am responsible for it. I alone am responsible for it. And it led to this most recent incident at the Beverly Hilton. I was at the Beverly Hilton. I was there for a very simple reason, because I was trying to keep this mistake that I had made from becoming public.

BOB WOODRUFF: I know this is a very difficult question, but were you in love with [Rielle Hunter]?

JOHN EDWARDS: I’m in love with one woman. I’ve been in love with one woman for thirty-​one years. ›rtyShe is the finest human being I have ever known. And the fact that she is with me after this having happened is a testament to the kind of woman and the kind of human being she is. There is a deep and abiding love that exists between Elizabeth and myself. It’s always been there, it in my judgment has never gone away.

Here’s what, can I explain to you what happened? First of all, it happened during a period after she was in remission from cancer; that’s no excuse in any possible way for what happened. This is what happened. It’s what happened with me and I think happens unfortunately more often sometimes with other people… Ego. Self-​focus, self-​importance. Now, I was slapped down to the ground when my son Wade died in 1996, in April of 1996. But then after that I ran for the Senate and I got elected to the Senate, and here we go again, it’s the same old thing again. Adulation, respect, admiration. Then I went from being a senator, a young senator, to being considered for vice president, running for president, being a vice presidential candidate, and becoming a national public figure. All of which fed a self-​focus, an egotism, a narcissism, that leads you to believe that you can do whatever you want. You’re invincible. And there will be no consequences. And nothing, nothing could be further from the truth.

The reaction to the interview was swift and mostly harsh, and the Olympics did not keep the media from covering the story. News outlets around the world published excerpts. Editorial writers, columnists, and bloggers flayed the senator in their commentaries, and political types announced the death of his relevance in national affairs. It was very strange to see reporters offering detailed accounts of a story we had lived with for so long.

Later I heard of additional developments that never reached the public. For example, Edwards told me that both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton phoned his wife to say they were sorry about what was happening and to tell her she was in their prayers. Bill Clinton, a veteran of his own sexual disgrace and attempted cover-​up, called the senator and said, in effect, “How’d you get caught?”

On the night of the Bob Woodruff interview, my phone rang constantly. Reporters from around the world were calling. I didn’t speak to one of them. My main concern was to protect Cheri and the kids from the cameras, and I was glad we were leaving for North Carolina in the morning. Then, at 10:33 P.M., Fred sent a text saying that he couldn’t send his plane because it was “in Guatemala with Lisa until Sunday-sorry-DO NOT talk to press!!!!!!!”

I logged on to the Web site FlightAware.com and checked to see where the plane was. The site, which tracks the whereabouts of every aircraft with a tail number, showed it was parked at Dallas Love Field. It was clear-Fred and John Edwards weren’t looking out for us anymore. I told Fred I knew where the plane was. He didn’t react to the fact that I had ›actcaught him in a lie but agreed we needed to travel covertly and offered to have a driver meet us near the Southwest Airlines arrival area when we landed in Raleigh-​Durham. Fortunately, no one was looking for us at the airport when we arrived late Saturday. If they had been, it would have been a cinch to find us. All they’d have had to do was stand near the limo driver holding a big sign that read, “Andrew Young.”

On the Sunday morning after the interview, Elizabeth Edwards again lashed out at Cheri with two messages left on her phone. The first said:

Andrew told Rielle that he was the person responsible for the PlayStation 3 fiasco. Rielle told on her boyfriend and told John that Andrew is the one who did it. Shouldn’t confide things to your boyfriend… or your girlfriend.

The second Sunday message said:

Hey, Cheri, um, yeah, uh, when you move from North Carolina, Andrew and Rielle both asked if they could please be really close together. Uh, hope you like that!