Young described an elaborate plan that allowed Edwards to maintain a mistress while he sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. The plan was funded by two wealthy benefactors, the late trial lawyer Fred Baron and banking heir widow Bunny Mellon, but Mellon was unaware that her money was being used for the mistress.
And when Edwards impregnated Hunter, Young said he agreed to the senator's request to lie and say he was the father even though Young, himself, was married with three children.
"After watching and hearing John Edwards practice a thousand little deceptions and tell a thousand different lies, ostensibly in the service of some greater good, I finally recognized that he didn't care about anyone other than himself," Young writes.
"A precious living, breathing human being -- his daughter -- had come into the world, and he wasn't inclined to even call the woman who had given birth to her. Instead, I had to prompt him to do the right thing, to do the most basic, human thing.
"My faith in him died almost instantly, and I felt both ashamed of my naïveté and very afraid for the future of my family."
Young also writes that:
• Despite Edwards' carefully crafted image as a champion for everyday people, he was "irritated by ordinary events. He especially hated making appearances at state fairs, where 'fat rednecks try to shove food down my face. I know I'm the people's senator, but do I have to hang out with them?'"
• Edwards understood his audience and before appearing at a Service Employees International Union health care event in Las Vegas, Nevada, he instructed Young to take his Italian suit coat to a tailor to remove the label indicating it was Italian-made. In its place, Edwards had the tailor sew in a "Made in the USA" label that had been on Young's jacket.
• Edwards thought that 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry "just wasn't all that smart." Kerry, a senator from Massachusetts, would later pick Edwards to be his vice presidential running mate.
