John Edwards to Emerge From Seclusion for Speech a Month After Admitting Affair

RALEIGH, N.C. – John Edwards will emerge from seclusion and speak next month at Hofstra University in New York, taking the stage exactly one month after admitting to an extramarital affair, the school said Friday. But his wife Elizabeth has canceled what was to be a joint appearance.

A representative for the former Democratic presidential candidate confirmed Friday that Edwards will speak alone at the school on Sept. 8, said Hofstra spokesman Stuart Vincent.

Edwards and his wife were originally billed as the first speakers in a university series on the 2008 election. But that was before Edwards admitted to cheating on Elizabeth with a filmmaker hired by his political action committee.

A spokeswoman for John and Elizabeth Edwards did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Edwards hasn't spoken publicly since his Aug. 8 admission to the affair in an interview with ABC News, and no other speaking engagements before the Hofstra speech have been announced. In a statement issued the day of the interview, Edwards said he had made a "a serious error in judgment and conducted myself in a way that was disloyal to my family and to my core beliefs."

Edwards added that he did not plan to speak about the affair again. Both he and Elizabeth have since declined requests for an interview, and neither appeared this week at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

The couple are still scheduled to appear together Sept. 23 at Salem State College in Massachusetts, college spokesman Jim Glynn said Friday. Edwards also has plans to speak at the University of Illinois in October. Christine Messina-Boyer, director of women's health at Cooper University Hospital, also said an agent for Elizabeth Edwards recently confirmed she would appear there at the end of September.

Edwards' populist themes, which he carried from his first presidential bid in 2004 to this year's campaign, led him to a second place finish in the Iowa caucuses. But he never finished better than third after Iowa, and dropped out of the presidential race before the Super Tuesday primaries.

The former North Carolina senator was pushing his poverty message in 2006 when he hired rookie videographer Rielle Hunter to shoot videos of him on the stump. Edwards said the affair with Hunter began and ended that year, although Hunter was seen on the campaign trail up until the final days of 2006.

Both Edwards and Hunter have denied reports that he is the father of her six-month daughter.