How Edwards' Aide Morphed From Devotee to Sellout

Tell-all author was disturbingly attached to senator, to his wife's dismay

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 1, 2009 12:45 PM CDT

(Newser) – Andrew Young was right there every time John Edwards needed a Diet Coke, dry cleaning, a ride from the airport, and finally a babydaddy for his mistress. The "personal servant" who turned tell-all author—other aides even called him Edward’s “butt boy”—showed a fierce devotion that seemingly knew no bounds. Elizabeth Edwards was, and is, openly hostile toward the sycophant who was "intensely jealous" of others close to the senator, and “was glad to do it,” says a friend of taking the fall for Edwards.

Young’s impetus for penning his book is now old news—“He thought that he had offered the ultimate sacrifice and was left on the curb,” a friend says—but the bizarre relationship between him and the Edwards family is just emerging. “It’s not enough to say that he idolized the guy,” an acquaintance says. “There’s something deeper and weirder than that.”

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Rielle Hunter and child. (AP Photo)

John Edwards. (AP Photo)

Andrew Young. (AP Photo)

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Most of us figured that the acknowledgement of paternity was not anything that we could rely upon. - David Badger, Young friend, describing how honor-bound he was to Edwards

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How Edwards' Aide Morphed From Devotee to Sellout