John Edwards' Daughter Talks About Her Dad's Affair For the First Time

We don’t envy 31-year-old attorney and author Cate Edwards, the eldest daughter of former Democratic presidential candidate and infamous weasel John Edwards; to say she’s had a rough few years is kinda like saying her father acted a tad inappropriately. (Brief recap in case you just woke up from a 5-year coma: Edwards had an affair with fellow weasel Rielle Hunter, which resulted in six felony charges of violating federal campaign contribution laws to conceal an extramarital affair and a baby, all while his wife, author/health-care activist Elizabeth Edwards, was dying of cancer. The love story of our time!)

Somehow, Cate managed to crack jokes and classily answer tough questions about her deceased mother and fuck-up of a father during an interview that will air Friday on TODAY and “Rock Center with Brian Williams.”

Cate said she was “of course” upset about the affair, which she first heard about directly from her dad, which seems like an uncharacteristically mature decision on his part. “He told me,” she said. “I guess he and my mom decided that that was, you know, how it needed to be done. So yeah, I was devastated. And I was disappointed. I mean, these are my parents. I had grown up with a lot of love in my family. And it was hard to see them go through this.”

“I just thought it was – I thought it was a poor choice, I guess, is all I can say,” she added.

She had more to say about her mother, who died in late 2010:

“I miss her in sort of big ways and small ways,” Cate Edwards told Guthrie. “You know, it’s big things that go by, like my wedding. She wasn’t able to be there. But we got to talk about it. And I felt incredibly lucky that I got the chance to even have that conversation with her.

“And I sort of carried out some of her vision which was great to sort of feel her presence there even though she wasn’t actually there. And then there are small things. I mean, I get away with bad grammar. I never used to get away with bad grammar.”

Oh man. Moral of the story: life is short, so appreciate the time you spend with your loved ones, and also appreciate how lucky we are that no one really cares about Rielle Hunter and her inane tell-all memoir anymore.