Hargrave McElroy, a teacher in North Carolina, told People magazine that when Elizabeth Edwards learned her husband, a former candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination for president, had had an affair with videographer Rielle Hunter she considered a separation. But learning that her breast cancer had recurred "forced her to move forward."

McElroy is godmother to one of the Edwards children. In her book "Saving Graces," Elizabeth Edwards says that McElroy was with her when she discovered a lump in her breast in 2004.

Elizabeth Edwards said she hoped to avoid a public scandal for the sake of her two youngest children, McElroy said.

"It's just tragic," McElroy told the New York Daily News. "That's all I can say about it."

Hunter's friends have told People and The National Enquirer, which first broke the story of Edwards' affair, that the affair never really ended or resumed after a breakup.