Melville House Books

A major player in the John Edwards sex scandal is about to dish. Andrew Young, the longtime Edwards associate who claimed to be the father of the child born to Edwards’ girlfriend Rielle Hunter, is shopping a tell-all to New York publishers that “would chronicle the tale of his long friendship with the Edwards family, his attempt to help Edwards by taking a pregnant Rielle Hunter into his home to live with him and his wife, Cheri, and their three children, and the fallout when the press (and Elizabeth Edwards) caught wind of the plan,” says a Daily Beast story by Sara Nelson.

Young says he’s doing this to “set the record straight” — as Nelson explains, “when initial reports of Young-as-baby-daddy surfaced, he was portrayed as a clean-cut campaign worker, but in the intervening year, reporters found a history of arrests (for check forgery and burglary) and convictions (for driving while intoxicated).” He hasn’t heard from Edwards since.

Now, he’s circulating a proposal that includes photos of Edwards with Hunter’s baby, although the former presidential candidate has denied being the father. 

Nelson says estimates are Young could get a seven-figure deal.

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.