I Can't Stop Thinking About Cate Edwards

Frank Bruni still speculating about the dutiful daughter's motives
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 5, 2012 11:23 AM CDT
I Can't Stop Thinking About Cate Edwards
Cate Edwards walks beside her father as he leaves a federal courthouse during the eighth day of jury deliberations, May 30, 2012.   (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

At this point, we've heard so much more than we ever wanted to about John Edwards and Rielle Hunter and Andrew Young. But Frank Bruni of the New York Times is still fixated on a bit player in the saga. "What was Cate Edwards thinking?" he writes. Cate stood by her father "day after queasy-making day." Had she forgiven her father all the pain he'd caused? Or did she just desperately need to "cling to, and believe in, the only parent she had left?"

With Elizabeth dead, Cate became the wounded woman standing by her man. She arrived in "unfashionable tops and skirts, ballet flats, and chipped nail polish. She wasn't there to perform," and has shown no interest in parlaying her name into cable news stardom. Yet she did let People cover her fall wedding—was that, wonders Bruni, a public relations gesture made for her father's sake? The 30-year-old lawyer did seem to be actively helping, scribbling notes and charts during jury selection. And maybe, just maybe, it was partially for her mother, Bruni suggests. "Elizabeth Edwards, in the weeks before she died, seemingly made a sort of peace with John and no doubt wanted the family to stay strong." Click to read his full piece. (More John Edwards stories.)

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