It wasn't until earlier this month that John Edwards acknowledged publicly he'd had an affair with Rielle Hunter, a rookie filmmaker hired by his political action committee.

ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff (L) interviews former US Democratic Presidential candidate and former Senator John Edwards in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, August 8, 2008. Edwards has admitted to having had an extramarital affair with a woman he met in a New York City bar in 2006, ABC News reported on Friday.  [Agencies]

On a liberal blog that Elizabeth Edwards frequents, she explained why she stayed silent after her husband told her of the affair: "This was our private matter, and I frankly wanted it to be private because as painful as it was I did not want to have to play it out on a public stage as well."

Many people have come to know Elizabeth Edwards, 59, as a more forthright, revealing woman.

She wrote a memoir in 2007 that brought readers into the most wrenching moments of her life, the death of the couple's 16-year-old son and her 2004 breast cancer diagnosis. An attorney who worked in private practice and also taught at the University of North Carolina's law school, she first found out about the cancer the day after her husband and John Kerry lost their bid for the White House four years ago.

She has always had a passion for politics. Known for routinely writing about health care policy on the Internet, she has served as a visiting fellow at Harvard, where she held discussions with students and gave a speech after her husband dropped from the presidential race earlier this year.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said in June he would be "partnering" with her on health care policy, and she was expected to serve as a campaign voice to challenge Republican candidate John McCain on the issue.

Yet during a visit to North Carolina two weeks after Edwards admitted to cheating on his wife, Obama didn't mention Elizabeth Edwards, or her husband.

"It's a setback for both of them," said Chris Lehane, a Democratic consultant who helped President Clinton through his cheating scandal. "The question for her, as well as for him, is what is their foundation? What gives them a platform to engage in public issues?"