Elizabeth Edwards denies rumors that daughter Cate would get custody

Elizabeth Edwards denied reports on Tuesday that she wants her daughter Cate to raise her two young children if she succumbs to breast cancer, which she has been battling since 2004.

A New York-based tabloid suggested Edwards is grooming 28-year-old Cate Edwards to raise Emma, 12, and Jack, 10, in the event of her passing. But Edwards was emphatic that the custody of her youngest children would pass to her ex-husband, former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.).

{mosads}“The children would go to John and then, if he died, to Cate. That is what we always said in our wills,” Edwards told ABCNews.com.

John and Elizabeth Edwards split after John admitted to a highly publicized extramarital affair with filmmaker Rielle Hunter. In an interview earlier this year, Hunter declined to say whether she and Edwards are still involved romantically.

Cate Edwards lives in Washington, where she clerks for a federal judge.