Edwards had sought a delay in his criminal corruption trial, scheduled to begin this month.
Attorneys and the federal judge met in a North Carolina courtroom Friday afternoon for a status hearing regarding the pending trial of Edwards, a former U.S. senator.
Edwards appeared at Friday's hearing. His lawyers had made the motion for a delay under seal, but some of its details were publicly revealed by the judge in the open hearing.
The criminal trial has been delayed until at least March 26, according to the court source. Judge Catherine Eagles said she has been in contact with Edwards' cardiologist, who recommended a postponement, saying Edwards is scheduled to undergo surgery next month.
Edwards has to provide the court with a written medical update by February 28, according to court records.
One legal expert, Marcellus McRae, a trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor, said he doubted that Edwards' illness would influence a jury verdict.
Two years ago, Edwards confessed he fathered a baby born to his ex-mistress. He had long denied the girl, Frances Quinn Hunter, was his, even after he admitted cheating on his wife with the child’s mother, Rielle Hunter. Hunter had been hired before Edwards’ 2008 White House campaign to shoot behind-the-scenes video of him.
Edwards’ confession came ahead of the release of a book by former aide Andrew Young. The book described how Edwards worked to hide his paternity with the help of his married aide.
Shortly before the 2008 presidential primaries began, Young stepped forward to claim that he — not Edwards — was the child’s father. But there were suspicions at the time that the fiercely loyal aide was taking the fall for his boss.
The child was conceived in mid-2007, while Edwards was running for the White House, and around the time he was renewing his vows after 30 years of marriage.
In early 2010, Edwards publicly admitted fathering Hunter’s child and friends disclosed that he and his wife, Elizabeth, were separated. She died in December 2010 from incurable breast cancer that was first diagnosed in 2004, a day after the Democratic ticket that included John Edwards as the vice presidential candidate lost to George W. Bush.
The Edwardses were law school sweethearts who married just days after they took the bar exam together in the summer of 1977. They had four children together, including a son who died at age 16. Although the couple had separated, John Edwards was at her side around the clock as her health deteriorated. He did not speak at her funeral.
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