John Edwards (R) arrives with his wife Elizabeth for the funeral of late Sen. Edward Kennedy at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston, Aug. 28, 2009

FMR. SENATOR’S SAGA SPIRALS OUT OF CONTROL WITH NEW REVELATIONS

The sad story of South Carolina’s least favorite son, John Edwards, is getting a little sadder.

Once a U.S. Senator from North Carolina who nearly became the vice president of the United States, Edwards seemingly had it all.

But in August 2008, amidst his second presidential campaign, Edwards was forced to admit an extramarital affair with filmmaker Rielle Hunter, but denied he was the father of her child. The admission came as his wife, Elizabeth, was battling breast cancer.

That, coupled with new revelations from the forthcoming book “Game Change,” was enough to make Edwards the most unpopular person ever found by the national polling firm Public Policy Polling.

Now Edwards is back in the news for a trio of almost unavoidable headlines.

First, Edwards admitted last Thursday that he had, in fact, fathered Hunter’s child during the extended affair that began in 2006.

“I am Quinn’s father,” Edwards said in a statement. “I will do everything in my power to provide her with the love and support she deserves.”

Then word leaked that John and Elizabeth were finally separating, something Mrs. Edwards called “an extraordinarily sad moment.”

And on Friday, Hunter filed suit against former Edwards aide Andrew Young to stop the release of an alleged sex tape between Edwards and a pregnant Hunter.

“In or about September 2006, using my video camera, I authored a personal video recording that depicted matters of a very private and personal nature,” Hunter wrote in an affidavit filed Thursday in North Carolina. “In 2006, I was also having an intimate relationship with Edwards.”

Hunter reportedly tried to destroy the tape but Young was able to recover a copy. Young, who once said he was the father of Hunter’s child in an attempt to protect his boss, is releasing a book titled “The Politician” on Feb. 2 that will detail, among other things, how he discovered the tape.

Edwards, 56, was born in Seneca. He and Elizabeth were married for 32 years and had four children together, one of whom died in a car wreck in 1996.