Every once in a while, you read a Men's magazine, and find something truly TRULY disturbing. What follows is the true story (according to John Edwards) of how Elizabeth Edwards' cancer was discovered ...

From a profile in Esquire:

"I hope this isn't too personal," I said to Edwards, "but I was reading about how Elizabeth discovered her cancer this second go-around. It was a broken rib, correct?"

"Yes," Edwards said.

"The papers said you were hugging her -- which is always nice to hear, a married guy hugging his wife. It must have been bizarre. What happened, you just hugged her and heard a snap?"

"Maybe it is a little personal," Edwards said, laughing self-consciously.

"Maybe I don't want to know?"

"It was a perfectly reasonable question," he said, bailing me out.

"So hugging was perhaps a euphemism?"

"That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it," he said, raking his forelock with his fingers.

At the next overpass, the caravan pulled over. My time in the minivan had run out.

H/T: Amanda Carpenter (who reads Esquire cover-to-cover)