'National Enquirer' Settles 'Love Child' Lawsuit -- But It Was Ted Kennedy Allegation, Not John Edwards

By: E&P Staff Perhaps most in the media were wise to hold off on their John Edwards Affair stories -- at least the "love child" aspect. The Boston Globe reports today -- following TheSmokingGun.com scoop -- that tthe National Enquirer "which is being celebrated for scooping the mainstream media on the John Edwards mistress story, has quietly settled a lawsuit filed by a Cape Cod woman who claimed the Enquirer published false and defamatory stories about her supposed 'love child' with Senator Ted Kennedy.

Lawyers for Caroline Bilodeau-Allen provided DNA test results from 1985 that showed Kennedy is not the father of Christopher Bilodeau, who was born in 1984.

Terms of the deal have not been made public, but SmokingGun says American Media Inc., parent company of the Enquirer, made a "significant payment" to Bilodeau-Allen.

The Enquirer cover story was headlined, "Ted Kennedy's Secret Love Child."

The Globe relates: "The stories, published in 2006, alleged that Kennedy and Bilodeau - she was unmarried at the time - began dating in 1983, while Kennedy was separated from his wife, Joan, just before the divorce was finalized. The tabloid claimed that after Bilodeau became pregnant, the senator, then in his early 50s, begged Bilodeau, then in her early 20s, to have an abortion.

"Bilodeau-Allen subsequently sued American Media and two of its reporters, Richard Moriarty and Alan Butterfield, who is one of the reporters writing about Edwards's affair with Rielle Hunter. David Rich, Bilodeau-Allen's attorney, did not return a call yesterday. Nor did Michael Antonello, counsel for American Media."

TheSmokingGun reported that the Enquirer had claimed that Bilodeau-Allen's apartment had been ransacked "and stripped of evidence of her relationship with Kennedy, and that she 'feared for her life and warned that she could end up like Mary Jo Kopechne.' The Enquirer's reports about Bilodeau-Allen were based on information provided by two individuals, both of whom signed a 'source agreement' in return for cash ($15,000 and $5,000 respectively)."