Elizabeth Edwards wants to "reclaim who she is" and get past the image created by the media of her just being the jilted wife, she tells "Today's" Matt Lauer in an interview that will air on Wednesday morning.
In her first appearance since separating from former presidential candidate John Edwards, she tells Lauer: "I really feel I need to break free of the media imposed image. I'm not just a cuckolded wife. I want to reclaim who I am. I hope the next time I am on television, it's to talk about some policy I really care about."
Edwards said she sympathizes with actress Sandra Bullock,whose husband Jesse James also cheated on her, even though she doesn't know her personally.
"I think about Sandra Bullock ... what an incredible year she's had," Edwards said. "She won the Academy Award for an incredible performance, and more than that, she took that story and integrated that into her own life in this healthy, happy way. Yet, the stories you hear are not about all those great successes, but about the failure of her marriage.
"I thought, that's not who she is ... but I assume she wants to reclaim who she is in the same way I do."
