SCANDALOUS

John Edwards Hated 'Fat Rednecks'

Andrew Young's book leaks early.

Andrew Young, “body man” to John Edwards during the 2008 presidential campaign who briefly claimed paternity of Edwards’ love child, says he used his own money to pay for hotel rooms on the campaign trail so that Edwards could meet with his mistress Rielle Hunter. According to The Wall Street Journal, which obtained a copy of Young’s book The Politician before its February 2 release date, Edwards promised to reimburse Young after Elizabeth Edwards died of cancer, when he’d no longer have to hide those costs. Young says when Hunter phoned him to say she was pregnant, Edwards called her a “crazy slut” and said they were in an “open relationship,” meaning his paternity chances were “one in three.” Young also says he saw Edwards in a sex tape with a visibly pregnant Hunter. But Young’s unflattering revelations about Edwards go way beyond his sex shenanigans: He portrays Edwards as preening and arrogant, an Atkins dieter who hated making campaign stops at state fairs where “fat rednecks try to shove food down my face.” And his son-of-a-mill-worker rhetoric was all surface—before a labor union, Young says Edwards made him cut a “made in the USA” label from his own suit so it could be sewn in place of Edwards’ “made in Italy” label.