Elizabeth Edwards: I’m Inspired By Sandra Bullock

Elizabeth Edwards and Sandra Bullock have never met, but the separated wife of former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards says the Oscar-winning actress has inspired her during her marital woes.

“I think about Sandra Bullock, who I don’t know at all, but what an incredible year she’s had,” Elizabeth said in an interview with Matt Lauer on NBC’s “Today” show on Wednesday, when asked about the end of her marriage to the former Senator following his infidelity.

“She won the Academy Award for an incredible performance and more than that, she took that story and integrated that into her life in this healthy happy way,” Elizabeth continued. “And yet the stories you hear are not about all of those great successes, but about the failure of her marriage. And I thought, ‘That’s not who she is.’ I assume she wants to reclaim who she is, in the same way I want to reclaim who I am.”

Like Sandra, Elizabeth hopes her story won’t simply be about her personal life.

“I hope the next time I’m on television, it’s to talk about some policy I really care about and not about this part of my life, of which I’m hoping maybe this chapter will close the door,” she added.

Despite John’s affair, Elizabeth said she maintains a positive relationship with the former politician for their three children, Emma Clair, 12, and Jack, 10, and 28-year-old Cate.

“I have three living children for whom this is a father who I want them to love and on whom they’re going to have to rely if my disease takes a bad turn,” she said in the interview. “It’s really important to me that they see him in a positive light.”

Elizabeth, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004, said she is currently on a new chemotherapy treatment and is “feeling well.”

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