Edwards, 61, was hospitalized after taking ill over the Thanksgiving holiday. Under examination, her doctors discovered that her cancer had spread, People magazine reported.
"I have been sustained throughout my life by three saving graces -- my family, my friends, and a faith in the power of resilience and hope," Edwards wrote on her Facebook page today. "These graces have carried me through difficult times and they have brought me more joy to the good times than I ever could have imagined. The days of our lives, for all of us, are numbered. We know that."
First diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004, Edwards and her estranged husband, former senator and presidential candidate John Edwards, waged a very public battle against the disease, often in the midst of one political campaign or another. After going into remission, Edwards revealed in 2007 that her cancer had returned.
Recently, Edwards described both her struggles with cancer as well as with her husband's marital infidelity in her memoir "Resilience."
A source in the Edwards family told CBS News that Elizabeth "is dying," and members of her extended family are said to be gathering at her home in Chapel Hill, N.C.
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