Felt and Woodward had a pact to remain anonymous until Felt died and it was said directly today. So let's say that Felt died 10 years ago. Would it have come out? I bet not. The Statute of Limitions was the trigger not death.
Wonder how much Woodward paid Felt under the table every year and where the accounts are. Maybe that explains her being oh so willing to say "we could use the money". They'll just mix in the old "hidden" Felt payoff money. Voila...Very clever.
I would be willing to bet some of the "payoff" money came from somewhere other than the U.S.
I would bet that Woodward paid Felt nothing. Woodward probably used the disclosure of his name as a form of blackmail, especially if Felt believed that he did something wrong. The family finally woke up and discovered that their dad/grandfather was being used to make W&B wealthy. They realized that the only shot they had to make some money was to go public before the old man died. Once he died, W&B would be the only ones to tell the story.
Unfortunately, Felt appears to be in bad physcial condition and not very lucid. For his family's sake, I hope that Felt wrote some things down.