"We deeply . It was having her kids taken away., The system is Kafka-esque, declares Kerry. Bobby and Mary's two oldest children, Conor and Kyra, spent the entire day in court two days after their mother's death to tell a judge that they wanted their mother's remains buried near the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, where they would have an easier time visiting her. It also asked a judge for an order of protection to keep her from physically attacking him, showing up uninvited at his homes, denigrating him to their children and asked that Mary be required to remain sober in front of their children. Pinterest. August 5, 2019, 8:35 PM. That wasnt what was going on between them., Mary was brainwashed, adds another Richardson friend, believing everything that Bobby said. And if not, maybe she could figure out how to get it back, always striving to please. There was no way that this woman was not very, very sick.. Almost every time Bobby drove her to the airport at the end of the weekend, she seemed to have lost something that created all kinds of unnecessary problems. The pressure on Mary, says a friend, was now more than it had ever been before.. And so the judge ruled. For a time she would be her old wonderful self at night as well as during the day, and Bobby had renewed hope, the affidavit said. It is thought that this hypersensitivity is present even in childhood, during which they will often feel neglected or mistreated. "I drove over in a tow truck with my boat on the trailer in preparation for a planned trip to Cape Cod the following day. Bobby had never even heard of borderline personality disorder (BPD), but when he opened I Hate You, Don't Leave Me by Jerold J. Kreisman and Hal Straus, he felt he had an understanding of what was happening with his wife. Bobby had what his brother Doug called the Kennedy "St. Francis complex," always trying to do good and help people, and he reached out to Mary as if reaching out to a version of himself. She was ethereal but not fragilefearless, really, with amazing optimism and fortitude., So persuasive was Richardsons public persona that when her yoga instructor, Colleen Breeckner, called some of Richardsons friends four months before she died, saying that she feared her student was suicidal, nobody believed that shed kill herself, she says. [14] Her funeral, organized by the Kennedy family, was held at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Bedford, New York. There was no greater witness to the chaos than the housekeeper. She promised that if I came over she would stay in her room and wouldn't see me or harass me. Burial. Before she'd married Bobby, Mary had been an architect at the prestigious design firm of Parish-Hadley, where she had worked on an ecologically advanced renovation of the Naval Observatory, the official Washington residence of thenvice president Al Gore. ), Bienstock has his own view. Portraying Bobby as the alarmed family man, fleeing to protect himself and his children from their depressed, alcoholic, physically abusive, suicidal mother, the document infuriated Richardsons family, who publicly dismissed his vindictive lies, proof of the unbelievable emotional and psychological abuse that Mary endured during the last years of her life, and now in death., Equally upset, dozens of Richardsons closest confidantes have also spoken with The Daily Beast. After their separation, "Bobby would arrive to take the kids and she would throw a screaming fit," Hoving says. One was that she was a horrible person who nobody wanted. He has two children with his first wife, Emily Black, and four children with his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, who committed suicide in May of 2012 at the age of 52. The following day a friend found the stylish but troubled . Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey, USA. They adored both parentswho were trying to do the best they could with what they had., While Mary cherished, desperately wanted to be, those kids mother, adds Bienstock, she could be sober or not, depending on what came out of Bobbys mouth. Even hed cop to that.). Hennessey represented the Richardsons in their attempt to have Mary buried closer to her childrens home. ", "Bobby had this strange lump over his left eye," recalled one of Bobby's oldest friends, who requested that he not be named. The Kennedys have a celebrated tradition of keeping their secrets to themselves, but Bobby's affidavit, sworn Sept. 16, 2011, and filed in New York Supreme Court in Westchester County as part of their divorce, discussed a Kennedy family's private life with sad candor. That was when Bobby and Mary saw each other as if for the first time. Four kids lost their mother and Bobby didnt cause her death. At the time of her death, Marys siblings sued Kennedy to have her buried in Westchester, N.Y., closer to where her four children live. Correction: John Hoving is a social worker and Kennedy friend. The pair felt challenges in their marriage soon after exchanging vows. I come from a big family and the Kennedys are a big family. During their years at Putney and Brown University, and living together while working in Boston and New York, Mary and Kerry had the closeness of twins. They were both recovering in 12-step programs and had exhibited destructive, addictive behavior. Mary was a tall, svelte young woman with long brunette hair and a windblown, natural beauty that was intimidating to most men. She and Kerry traveled with Bobby on one of his rafting trips to Colombia, but Bobby was not quite urbane enough for her tastes. Mary Kennedy's death still puzzles friends. Back at the house, while Kennedy scoured the woods, White and the caretaker headed toward the barn, which had already been checked twice. In July 2012 Mary Kennedy's body was moved from it's space next to her Shriver in-laws to a new spot near the cemetery entrance. On the last day of her life, Wednesday, May 16, at 7:53 a.m., Richardson again called Kennedy, who did not pick up. I didnt see anything close to that.. She later roomed with Kerry Kennedy in college and served as her maid of honor at her wedding in 1990 to Andrew Cuomo. . It wasnt just Bobby; it was her mothers death that made her start again. Everyone warned Mary that her conduct was jeopardizing her rights, which the court eventually demonstrated by reducing them., That happened in January 2011, when a matrimonial judge determined that, due to Marys erratic behavior, it was no longer safe for the children to live with her. Bobby and his surrogates were trying to persuade her that she was definitely going to lose the kids, and, unfortunately, she believed them over us.(Kennedys camp denies this. Perhaps nobody was guilty. [17] A legal battle between her husband and her brother, Thomas W. Richardson, ensued over which family should have control over her remains.[17]. Three days later, she was arrested and charged with driving under the influence. Mary, too, was more serious than she once had been, working as an architect on her own environmentally conscious projects. [1] She was involved in the renovation of the Naval Observatory in Washington, DC, the official residence of the Vice President of the United States. celebration from the Hatch Shell on . Aside from John F. Kennedy, his wife Jacqueline, and his brothers Robert and Edward who are all buried in Arlington National Cemetery most of the Kennedy family is buried in Brookline, Mass., the birthplace of JFK. We heard lots of noises upstairs. But I lived it. The Richardson and Kennedy families were once close. It feels great because you know you are going to be with the person you really like to be with for a very long time, Hines said after the wedding. In this 2008 photo provided by Peter Michaelis, Mary Richardson Kennedy poses for a photo outside her Bedford, N.Y. home. Another Richardson friend concurs. The next week it was her wallet. Rushing over, he checked the attic before tracking down Shannon White, Richardsons AA sponsor, at an 11 a.m., Armonk AA meeting. Chelsea Table + Stage - New York's newest hotspot for intimate dining and extraordinary music - will present Amy Spanger, the acclaimed Broadway, television and film actress, in a special concert "Amy Spanger and Friends" on Monday, March 13 at 7:00 PM. They, in turn, were very protective of their mother. BETTER TIMES: The late Mary Richardson Kennedy and husband Robert Kennedy Jr. seem happy in 2010 at their Westchester estate filled with historic political memorabilia. She was a trained boxer and I got a shiner. Thomas Richardson, the titular leader of the family, replied, asking that these emails stop: "We will be forced to respond in kind, and the record that we will be forced to set forth is not one that Bobby will be pleased to have on paper or in electronic form.". Robert Kennedy Jr. and late wife Mary Richardson Kennedy Joseph P. Kennedy and his wife Rosemary Kennedy pose with their nine children at Bronxville, N.Y., 1938. ", Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters, Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. [10], On May 16, 2012, Richardson was found dead at her home in Bedford, New York. There was a sense of foreboding in this lean Kennedy prince who had seen so much pain and drowned it in drugs. The estranged . Larry David attended Cheryl Hines' and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s wedding in 2014, along with some other celebrity guests, . Bobby read that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association lists nine criteria for BPD, five of which must be present for a diagnosis. He was a god. Even when Kennedy came clean about other women, Mary justified [it by saying] that he was an addictive personality, adds a close friend, with a disease, but in her heart she knew., Kennedy had mentioned divorce previously, but on Fathers Day in 2006, he finally told his wife that he was getting a divorce and leftreturning two weeks later when Richardson refused to let him see the children. This latest piling on is proof perfect of the unbelievable emotional and psychological abuse that Mary endured during the last years of her life, and now in death. That sets the stage for their search for an idealized caretaker. It was a very bad day for Mary, says the same friend. The story of Mary Richardson Kennedy is a tale of two Marys, one told by those who lived with her, the other by those who did not, for whom she was "the life of the party," says one of her . Take a look inside the family home of Mary Richardson Kennedy and her estranged husband . In April 1994, three weeks after Kennedy divorced his first wife, he married Mary, already pregnant with first son Conor. "I called Mary's sisters, and they said, 'OK, we're going there,'" says the Colombian housekeeper, who spoke to me on the condition that her name not be used. She seemed happy, Stone recalls but says, I knew she had her demons. For more on Saoirse Kennedy Hills young life and unexpected death, subscribe now to PEOPLE or pick up this weeks issue, on newsstands Friday. Leven is a former Chronicle Senior Producer at WCVB-TV, where his deceased spouse used to work. In 1993 Bobby was still married to his wife of 10 years, Emily Black Kennedy, mother of Bobby III and Kathleen ("Kick"), but this homespun, Midwestern woman had had it with her husband's hyper-Kennedy life. So she was stuck. As paralyzing to Richardson as losing her husband was losing his family, with whom she had become so intertwined that Ethel Kennedy, recalls Mailer, referred to Mary as her fifth daughter. Mary very much liked being a Kennedy, says Bienstock, and was extraordinarily upset over how badly that she felt she was treated at Hyannis Port as things progressed. As Richardson told a friend, Once youre no longer a Kennedy, they dont want you around anymore. (Kerry Kennedy, who says she invited Richardson to live with her postdivorce, rejects this claim). Conor's mother, Mary Richardson Kennedy, had committed suicide just a few months prior, and his father, Robert F. Kennedy, reportedly saw Swift's presence in his son's life as a "good" distraction. Bobby's friend was so angry that he charged forward to confront the Richardsons, and the Richardsons were asked to leave. In fact, the surprise is not that she died so young, but that she willed herself to stay alive so long. What Mary projected to the world was not someone with an illness. [2], She attended The Putney School, where she became friends and roommates with Kerry Kennedy, the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy. So after that, Mary told me, 'Oh, my sisters, my brothers, they're all so mad at me they don't want to talk to me for what I did.' I see his sadness, that he misses her, the connection that they once had. President John F. Kennedy; his wife, Jackie, and his brothers Sens. But Kennedy felt Richardson exhibited classic signs of the personality disorder that produces intense and unstable interpersonal relationships; anorexia; chronic feelings of emptiness; fear of abandonment; idealization and devaluation of herself and others; intense, inappropriate anger, most often aimed at Kennedy, he has claimed; a labile personality, capable of instantaneously switching from rage to euphoria and recurrent suicidal gestures or threats. Mary Richardson Kennedy was active for years with the Boys . Shortly after her husband's 1968 assassination, Kennedy founded the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. NEW: Mary Kennedy, 52, died of asphyxiation due to hanging, a local official says. Her engagement ring crushed my tear duct causing permanent damage Mary asked me to lie to her family about the cause of my shiner. "Daddy, I think Mary is stealing from me," Kick said, as Bobby recalled in the affidavit. Theyll bring out the best in each other.. They couldn't take their eyes off each other, couldn't keep their hands off each other. (Nan Richardson declined to comment for this story.) The body of the late Mary Richardson Kennedy, the estranged wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was exhumed last week and moved from its original spot among the Kennedy clan. The affidavit was by no means a balanced account of the woman Bobby said he had loved more than anyone in his life. Mary was intoxicated. She later roomed with Kerry Kennedy in college and served as her maid of honor at her wedding in 1990 to Andrew Cuomo. NEEDHAM, Mass. She attended a session on May 10, and she had every reason to assume that when Abrams issued his report, he would recommend that Bobby be given full custody. She was glowing and he was repeatedly saying how much he loved her and how glad he was they had gotten together.". "It's important that you read these books.". There was something else they had in common. [9] A court ordered that full temporary custody of her children be granted to her estranged husband. Its very sweet that way. [1] She reportedly struggled with alcoholism and substance abuse. In April 1994, Bobby, 40, married six-months' pregnant Mary, 34, on the deck of the Riverkeeper's research boat, the Shannon. Mary was as neat as Bobby was sloppy, and she had tied a beautiful knot at the end of the rope, attached it to a rafter, and hanged herself. Almost everyone, including Mary's own therapists, thought that the marriage was so damaging to both of them that it must end. [5], In 1993, Richardson worked for the firm Parrish Hadley Design as an architectural designer. Now the tears flowed. Her behavior often became violent and destructive.". Confronting Kennedy, Nan Richardson is said to have angrily announced: You killed my sister. Its unconscionable of the Richardsons to say that, responds a confidante of both families. He thought that seeing Cheryl and him openly together, says the same friend, maybe Mary would accept that he had moved on., On May 12, 2010, Kennedy filed for divorce. Mary, 52, who battled drug and alcohol addiction and was . A fearless adventurer, she inspired curiosity and daring in her friends. ", In 2006 Bobby talked to Mary's psychotherapist, then Sheenah Hankin, an author with a clientele heavy with celebrities and semi-celebrities. Report: Paterno, others hid Sandusky sexual abuse, Prosecutor releases another round of Zimmerman evidence, Caught on camera: Shark steals fish off pole, Guantanamo detainee who served bin Laden returns to Sudan. I appreciate you in every way.". Her 2010 legal separation from her husband, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was highly publicized. Kerry Kennedy, at boarding school and was a maid of honor at her wedding . I dont know if hell find that chemistry again, he continues. The transfer of her body to the other end of the cemetery is the latest incident in the bitter feud between the Kennedy and Richardson families following the death of Mary. I backed down the back stairs blocking her blowsand dodged out the kitchen door. Mary fit in, could talk to kings or bartenders, mold herself to any situation. Like so many other things in Mary's life, it was on the surface a splendid achievement, so much so that a book was written on the Kennedys' green house. "But they never show up. Just horror. It feels natural. Richardson was devastated. You can find out more and change our default settings with Cookies Settings. "Thanks for the unimaginable happiness, for your wise and compassionate counsel, for your generous spirit, for your faithful companionship in joy and grief, for the love youve given our children," he wrote, adding, "And for the endless laughter.". Mary Richardson Kennedy (born Mary Kathleen Richardson; October 4, 1959 May 16, 2012) was an American interior designer, architect, and philanthropist. Bobby tried to protect himself from her punches and even once jumped out a second-story window to escape.