Have you ever wondered what it is like to be at the centre of a sex scandal?

The type where the National Enquirer starts sniffing around the story and people start to get nervous?

Where denials get issued and attempts are made to bury the story, which lead to more and more media attention?

The kind where you eventually end up sitting on Oprah's couch to talk it out?

Andrew Young, the one-time confidant of former U.S. Senator John Edwards, understands intimately what the process is like.

Better known as the guy who pretended to be the father of Edwards' lovechild, Young is now the author of a top-selling, tell-all book about his former boss.

In his book, Young tells the story of how he came to meet the up-and-coming politician and become one of the trusted people in his inner circle.

He also explains how he went from being a loyal, anonymous political staffer to the public figure who went to bat for Edwards in a failed attempt to cover up the parentage of the daughter of his mistress.

"It's been quite a ride for someone who is used to being behind the scenes," Young admits to CTV.ca in a telephone interview from his home in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Still living only minutes away from where Edwards makes his home, Young says writing The Politician has been a good thing for him and his family.

Rather than feeling like "pariahs," Young can now explain to outsiders why he and his wife helped cover up the misdeeds of a presidential-wannabe, despite the personal and professional risks that it posed.

"We were just normal people and we just got caught up in it," Young says.

Roots of a scandal

The story of Edwards' fall from grace sounds like the synopsis of a John Grisham-style paperback.

A youthful, handsome and rich trial lawyer from North Carolina is a rising star in the political world, with his eye on the White House.

But he gets into some trouble and looks for help from his friends.

The trouble is that he's knocked up a woman who isn't his wife -- enter Rielle Hunter, a woman he hired to make videos for his campaign.

Edwards and Hunter had been involved for months, which for a married man is often trouble enough. But an unexpected pregnancy is a whole other level of trouble.

His wife, Elizabeth Edwards, is stricken with cancer for the second time in her life. Doctors say she doesn't have long to live.

But the lawyer doesn't want his wife to know about the affair while she is still alive and asks his friend for the favour of a lifetime.

In December 2007, Young was that friend, asked to claim to be the father of Hunter's child and to disappear for a while.

In his book, Young describes his reaction to the plan he says was pitched to him by Edwards over the telephone:

"I was dumbfounded," he writes in The Politician.

"How, I asked, was I supposed to explain to my wife that I should confess to an affair I never had, claim an unborn child that was not mine and then bring her along with our family as we attempted to vanish into thin air?"

These are definitely questions that would need to be answered if such a scheme were to go forward. But it did.

And as the public well knows, it took a long time for Edwards to fess up – more than two years, according to Young's count – to fathering a child with Hunter.

In August 2008, Edwards admitted on ABC News that he had an affair with Hunter, but he denied being the father of her daughter, Frances Quinn.

It wasn't until January of this year -- less than two weeks before Young's book came out -- that Edwards finally admitted he was the girl's father.

Reasons behind the ruse

For the 10 years he worked for Edwards, Young says his family was "enjoying some of the spoils" of his success. They moved to a nicer house and lived more comfortably than they ever had before.

But after the trouble with Edwards and Hunter started to heat up, Young says he could see "the whole thing starting to catch on fire," he says.

Admittedly, part of the lure of keeping up the Edwards ruse was that he had a chance of making it to the White House, which could pay off big for his right-hand man.

But in the end, Edwards didn't make it to where he wanted to go.

"If you win, you are one of the most powerful people in the world. If you lose, you're unemployed," says Young.

That's another reason Young wrote his book -- he's in need of a way to support his family now that he is no longer working for his former boss.

Young says he's been asked about writing another book and he's had talks with Hollywood about making a feature film out of his story.

He also says he still has more stories he could tell, which didn't make it into The Politician.

Young told CTV.ca he withheld "two-thirds of the most damning stuff because I couldn't prove it."

But writing the book -- and putting his side of the story up for public consumption -- hasn't cut off his involvement with Hunter, nor the Edwardses.

The Associated Press reported recently that Young could face a lawsuit from Elizabeth Edwards -- who previously wrote her own book on the scandal -- for contributing to the break-up of her three-decades-long marriage. The couple announced in January that they have separated.

Then there is the matter of the very high-profile sex tape, which is said to show Edwards and his mistress in a sexual encounter.

Last month, a North Carolina judge forced Young to hand over the tape to Hunter, which he claims to have found in a box at a house he previously rented for her.

Young claims he hung onto the tape to prove his side of his story -- and he has also told the court that he sent a copy to federal authorities who are investigating Edwards' campaign finances.

After living through years of stress, Young sounds worn down when describing the seamier side of life in the political circuit.

"People say that politics is dirty," says Young. "But it's a lot, lot, lot worse than that."

With files from The Associated Press