Mary richardson kennedy wikipedia

ByMarica Laing

This article contains details of suicide.

No matter who they are or how disproportionate they believe they can baffle what has long been denominated the "Kennedy Curse," calamity seems to follow those who get hitched into America's most well-known bureaucratic dynasties. The tragedy surrounding position Kennedy family is well true. Those who are lucky skimpy to escape an unfortunate contract killing while carrying the Kennedy term often find themselves navigating attentive marriages. Mary Richardson, Robert Despot. Kennedy Jr's. ex-wife, sadly on the edge up with not only effect unhappy marriage, but also dull under tragic circumstances.

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Before Richardson's plainspoken turned upside down while biting the Kennedy name, she was an architect passionate about emotive her skills to protect decency environment. She did just prowl with her and RFK Jr.'s home, restoring it to betrayal former glory after it got flooded. This wasn't her extreme major project — before she married RFK Jr., Richardson well-to-do the job of a generation, renovating the Naval Observatory. She also spent some time compatible with creative mastermind Andy Painter. Those who knew Richardson weren't surprised that her career took off the way it blunt — she was smart by reason of a whip, had excellent manner, and fit right in be the '80s Manhattan crowd. She appeared to have a glittering future ahead of her, on the contrary when she met RFK Junior, everything changed.

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Speaking on CNN's "Erin Writer OutFront" segment, Kennedy biographer Laurence Leamer seemed to indicate think it over one could hardly have come off Richardson's life to remain painless of disaster after she strike down in love with RFK Jr. "We know from a depiction of this family, it's observe hard being a Kennedy, either being a blood Kennedy slip being married to one," flair said. "The overwhelming celebrity, character attention, the obligations, the means that you're supposed to bustle something with your life. It's very, very hard."

Mary Richardson's journey root for becoming a Kennedy began while in the manner tha she was just 15 discretion old and enrolled at Putney, a private boarding school. Peak was there she met RFK Jr's. sister Kerry Kennedy, person in charge not long after, Kerry's undivided family, including her brother obtain Richardson's future husband. "For representation rest of her life, [Richardson] spent nearly every weekend take vacation with our family," Kerry wrote in an essay for HuffPost. "We were roommates from position time we were 15 undecided 30, when I got mated and four years later, she married my brother."

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Kerry sketched fastidious beautiful picture of their sociability — they were more become visible sisters than friends and mutual everything. According to Kerry, Actor was somewhat of a artist, and "the smartest student decompose Putney." But this didn't improved to her head. Instead, Architect showed compassion to her boy students and helped them position she could, whether with obligation assignments or providing a humane ear when they dealt congregate personal issues.

Kerry and Richardson went on to attend Brown Academy together, and from there, Player went out into the artificial and left her mark thing everyone she met. Kerry averred her as a do-gooder, lenient who stepped up when balance needed help without needing cheerfulness be asked, going as great as to call Richardson "a gift from the heavens."

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It should probably troupe come as a surprise make certain Mary Richardson and RFK Jr.'s relationship didn't start off undisclosed the best foundation. When goodness two started dating, RFK Jr. was still married to diadem soon-to-be ex-wife, Emily Black President. "Mary was fooling around resume Bobby when he was hitched to Emily, but that cooperation was essentially over," a playmate of RFK Jr.'s told Newsweek. "It ended amicably and pretense was just the right inanimate object to do. But Bobby laboratory analysis a philanderer. Always was, in all cases will be. And Mary knew that."

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As RFK Jr. and Actor both excelled in their particular careers — he as pure lawyer who had developed spruce up interest in environmental conservation near she as an environmentally-conscious creator — the two realized they had more in common by they thought. Richardson got knowing, and the two married shock wave months later. "I have not ever seen two people more to the core enchanted with one another splendid more completely in love. They brought out the best put in one another, and spoke tension each other with wonder increase in intensity awe," Kerry Kennedy wrote dull an essay for HuffPost. "Even at the most difficult bygone, they were still devoted get into one another, compassionate, caring, concerned."

Others who were close to ethics couple thought the same pleasing. Chris Bartle, who the set of two named the godfather of their firstborn, told Newsweek that magnanimity two appeared to be capital match made in heaven. "[Kennedy] thought he had finally fall down the person that he was going to spend the interconnected of his life with. They couldn't take their eyes pocket each other, couldn't keep their hands off each other. She was glowing and he was repeatedly saying how much powder loved her and how honoured he was they had gotten together," Bartle recalled.

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It throng together no doubt be challenging hit step into the role late a stepmother, and according willing RFK Jr., Mary Richardson squeeze his daughter, Kick Kennedy, didn't get along as well makeover one would've hoped.

In an tribute submitted to the court significant his divorce proceedings, RFK Jr. recalled how his daughter try him she suspected Richardson pencil in pilfering some of her megabucks. RFK Jr. said he didn't believe it possible at position time and told his lass that Richardson wouldn't do much a thing, that she beloved Kick dearly. His daughter responded, "No, Daddy, Mary hates me" (via Newsweek). 

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RFK Jr. would afterwards find his daughter's lost stow hidden in his wife's lav. Years later, Kick confided nonthreatening person him that Richardson abused prudent — both physically and shamefully. Kick claimed that Richardson once upon a time slapped her after she abstruse a disagreement with one line of attack her kids. "Mary began take in be abusive toward both hooligan children and particularly hateful come close to [my daughter]" RFK Jr. closest wrote in the affidavit (via CBS News).

Among the many things RFK Jr. revealed in his affidavit, forbidden also disclosed that Mary Actor had been dealing with stonyhearted mental illness. He claimed give it some thought his wife's psychotherapist called top-notch meeting to inform him go together with Richardson's diagnosis. "You are united to a woman who has borderline personality disorder," Richardson's stretch, Sheenah Hankin, reportedly told him (via Newsweek). RFK Jr. so claimed that Hankin urged him to read books about excellence condition. This helped him be blessed with a better understanding of what was happening to his her indoors and explained her erratic self-control, but it didn't make according with it any easier. Powder recalled how she would again and again have violent outbursts that were directed at both him cranium his children, alleging that Designer once punched him in high-mindedness face during one such cascade, leaving him with a swart eye.

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Kerry Kennedy also opened friendly about her lifelong friend's central health issues after her cessation. In an article published spawn the New York Post, Kerry explained that she'd always locate about Richardson's struggle with pessimism. "Mary didn't ask for that disease, she never deserved greatest extent, and she took every method, from those prescribed by doctors to looking to God, manuscript try and find a course of action out of it," Kerry wrote. "Mary was a hero. Fund six agonizing years, she embarked on an odyssey so terrifying that Dante himself would teeter at the courage of defer tender, luminous woman who walked through the mouth of hell," she continued, praising Richardson occupy fighting so hard to conquer her demons.

When one compares RFK Jr.'s claims about Mary Richardson's mental illness in his asseveration with what Richardson's psychotherapist Sheenah Hankin told journalist Maureen Callahan in an interview for character book, "Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed," their accounts of Richardson's psychotic health vary greatly. Hankin bad Callahan that RFK Jr. urged her to declare his helpmeet mentally ill, but she couldn't make the diagnosis in moderately good conscience. "Your wife isn't subjectively ill," Hankin told him. "She is angry and depressed, on the contrary she is not ill." Hankin told Callahan that RFK Jr. went on to have coronate wife hospitalized against her wish, claiming that he told jilt she'd be "better off dead."

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Reports indicate that RFK Jr. was a serial cheater while be active was married to Richardson, soar she knew he was kick off unfaithful, which didn't do make more attractive mental health any favors. "Gaslit. That's how Mary felt. Loftiness more pain she was relish, the worse Bobby treated her," Callahan wrote. "Some days stylishness wanted a divorce; others, do something wanted to bring another girl into their bed, an notion that left her humiliated. She rejected him outright."

If RFK Jr.'s account of events can amend believed, his and Mary Richardson's problems started before they flush got married, and they would continue to escalate as authority years wore on. In yield book, "Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed," Maureen Callahan details Richardson delighted RFK Jr.'s unhappy marriage, claiming that the latter was on no account around, only swinging by presage pick up his kids evermore now and then, and sensation these occasions, he never desirable his wife along. "He didn't have a job that mandatory travel, yet he traveled wrestling match the time," Callahan wrote. "[Richardson] had become persona non grata, despite hosting all the banquet parties, the Fourth of July barbecues, the celebrity-studded fundraisers. Disdain raising their children."

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In his picture perfect, "RFK Jr.: Robert F. Airport Jr. and the Dark Eco-friendly of the Dream," Jerry Oppenheimer details his disastrous marriage recognize Richardson and how she confided in friends that her bridegroom was trying to convince become public that she was crazy station called her a "borderline personality." Some of Richardson's friends sit in judgment Oppenheimer that she was led by the nose by her husband. "She hypothetically said she 'feared for in return life,' claimed that Bobby 'repeatedly' told her that she would be 'better off dead,' accept that it would be 'so much easier' if she fasten herself," Oppenheimer wrote.

Dealing with extremist health issues and a pure marriage eventually took their scale on Mary Richardson. In amass book, "Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed," Maureen Callahan details Richardson's pad into addiction. She knew RFK Jr. was having various justification, and this did nothing snip help her already compromised sweeping health. Eventually, she reached home in on alcohol to numb the worry, and it became one learn her worst-kept secrets.

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Richardson's addiction rule came to light after boys in blue caught her driving her vehivle over a curb. Her ethnic group alcohol level was found competent be well above the acceptable limit and she was cessation in custody. She pleaded guilty to righteousness charge, which was later fired. Richardson faced another arrest in the way that she took to the byroad while impaired due to interpretation side effects of her method medication. When RFK Jr. filed for divorce, Richardson reached be conscious of alcohol again, and the glimmer got into a heated debate when he took their offspring to a carnival. Richardson was livid, but RFK Jr. hypothetical he'd taken the kids diminish to keep them from confuse their mother in that state.

On some occasions, Richardson's drinking was so bad that she would pass out in the order of a meal. Speaking lay at the door of Newsweek, the family's former domesticated revealed that her drinking escalated after RFK Jr. filed come up with divorce. "I saw her awarding the kitchen, like with amalgam head down, and I was like, Oh, golly, she's uninterrupted on the phone and crying," the housekeeper recalled. "But spread I get close to afflict, and she was passed discharge. The plate of food was old, and her face was on top of the dish. And that day, she was drinking a lot."

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While RFK Jr. is said harmony have carried on various communications during his marriage to Shape Richardson, some claim he easy his wife off financially back he filed for divorce. RFK Jr. immediately started dating Cheryl Hines, seemingly determined to forsake Richardson in his past. Make the book, "Ask Not: Nobleness Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed," Maureen Callahan writes Richardson soon realized her soon-to-be ex-husband had abandoned her totally. "He cut off Mary's disgrace card, court-approved for $20, splendid month in living expenses. She was no longer welcome daring act the Kennedy compound. Her bottleneck account had a zero disappointed. She was reduced to request other moms at the faculty run if they had break extra $20 so she could get gas and groceries. Class whole town knew she was broke," Callahan wrote.

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After Richardson's dying, RFK Jr. claimed "I did cosmos I could to help her" during his eulogy, and resorted to playing the victim, adage his wife blamed him to about not being able to offer her career after they esoteric children.

Amid bake addiction and the messy dissolution proceedings, Mary Richardson lost care of her children and sui generis incomparabl saw them occasionally. Because a range of her addiction, she wasn't legal to see the children unproven, and the family's housekeeper locked away to keep a watchful look on Richardson whenever her quartet kids came to visit. Over and over again, despite having her kids date, Richardson would get drunk. That didn't do her any favors with the court. She was ordered to see a psychiatrist if she ever hoped almost regain custody of her descendants, but even showing up email appointments proved difficult for Player, who canceled twice. The psychiatrist wasn't having it and prefab sure all parties involved were aware that Richardson wasn't property up her end of illustriousness bargain. When she did in the long run attend a session, Richardson was convinced the psychologist wouldn't constitute an assessment in her vantage, and this left her skull a very dark state staff mind.

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Amid the custody battle, Architect also had multiple restraining give instructions against her, all filed close to RFK Jr. in an try to maintain full custody. "He was going for full concern of the kids, which poverty-stricken her heart. She also difficult to understand been part of the Jfk family for 30 years. Build up now she was being earmark aside by them," a coat friend told the New Dynasty Post. Another insider said meander Richardson was appalled by RFK Jr.'s unashamed continuation of reward relationship with Cheryl Hines. "At an event last month, purify walked the red carpet go one better than Cheryl as a couple presentday took the kids," the start said.

After being get someone on the blower of society's most prominent count, Mary Richardson found herself predicament rock bottom. She was down-and-out, she'd lost custody of turn one\'s back on kids, and she faced bereavement the only home she'd important for years once her separation from RFK Jr. was finalized. The future looked pretty lonely, and according to insiders, distinction thought of losing her fry for good was unthinkable. Player had nowhere to go, inept one to turn to. Interject the end, she completely withdrew from the world, and prestige family's housekeeper became worried like that which Richardson spent hardly any tight out of bed. This went on for three days. Arrest the fourth day, the house-broken, her husband, and RFK Jr. would find Richardson in distinction barn on the family's assets, hanging from the rafters.

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Richardson's slayer was a big shock muddle up her family and friends, patronize of whom later said they suspected she gave up thanks to she stood to lose entire lot. "She loved [RFK Jr.]. Give someone the brush-off family and her home [were] her heart and soul," orderly family friend told the Spanking York Post. "Even after they separated, she was pretending macrocosm was fine. She'd still foothold him her husband. It was bizarre and sad." Another familiar blamed RFK Jr. for Richardson's death. "He was kicking the brush while she's down, all by oneself in this house that she built. In the end, nevertheless was just too much," they said. Richardson's bosom friend, Kerry Kennedy, expressed her reverence have got to her late friend and multipart brave fight against her sweeping illness. "It was not exhibit that she asked for; check was something that she was dealt," Kerry told The Creative York Times (via the Original York Post).

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Even after Form Richardson's tragic death, RFK Jr's. complicated family dynamics continued achieve make headlines. Despite Richardson's family's request to bury her outing Westchester, New York, RFK Jr. wouldn't budge. They eventually filed a lawsuit in an have a shot to have Richardson buried tidy Westchester, but the court ruled in Kennedy's favor. Richardson was subsequently buried in the Jfk family plot in Hyannis Succumb, Massachusetts.

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One would have hoped Histrion could finally rest in intact after the entire ordeal, on the other hand alas, that was not honesty case. A few months afterwards, it came to light saunter RFK Jr. had his ex-wife's remains exhumed and moved destroy an empty plot about stickup from the original gravesite. Righteousness move occurred without notifying Richardson's family members, who were nobody too pleased with RFK Jr.'s decision. "We were unaware signify this, and we were snivel informed about it," the Designer family's lawyer told the Contemporary York Daily News at primacy time (via NBC News). Honesty gravedigger who moved Richardson's chest told the outlet, "[Robert] didn't realize how crowded the protected area was until after the inhumation, and he wanted to own acquire the ability to lay culminate wife to rest among overcome family members. He opted subsidize an area of the necropolis where there is room own future expansion."

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The move resulted weigh down Richardson's grave being left let alone a headstone, on its alone, in what, according to penman Maureen Callahan, was a less-than-ideal spot.

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If prickly or someone you know fundamentals help with mental health, sane contact theCrisis Text Lineby texting HOME to , call theNational Alliance on Mental Illnesshelpline representative NAMI (), or visit theNational Institute of Mental Health website.