A new report out Monday morning paints a harrowing picture of Mary Kennedy's last days, including heavy drinking, threats of suicide and even physical abuse of husband Robert Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy historian Laurence Learner filed the story in Newsweek, making the cover, after obtaining details from Robert Kennedy's sealed divorce affidavit. In it, RFK said his wife - a trained boxer - punched him, screamed at him in front of the couple's children and even ran over and killed the family dog in the driveway.
Kennedy family members said Mary Kennedy was severely depressed and may have had a personality disorder. She was also upset at the pending divorce with Robert Kennedy and was reportedly angry at Kennedy's new relationship with actress Cheryl Hines. She committed suicide in May.
Authorities also discovered Mary Kennedy had been searching the Internet for weeks on the proper way to make a noose, according to the 60-page affidavit filed in September 2011 in New York Supreme Court.
Robert Kennedy is the second son of the late Sen. Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated in California in 1968 minutes after winning the California primary in his campaign for the presidency.
Lerner's story claimed Mary Kennedy's behavior was so erratic in the weeks before her death that she was only allowed to see her four children when supervised by the family housekeeper.
The housekeeper said in an interview that she once found Mary Kennedy with her head in her dinner plate, passed out from drinking. She was already under the care of a psychologist, the report said, but continually kept cancelling appointments.
In the affidavit, Robert Kennedy described the physical abuse he suffered.
"Mary's violence and physical abuse toward me began before we were married," Kennedy wrote. "Soon after Mary became pregnant with our first son, Mary, in a sudden rage about my continued friendship with [my ex-wife] Emily, hit me in the face with her fist. She was a trained boxer and I got a shiner. Her engagement ring crushed my tear duct causing permanent damage ... Mary asked me to lie to her family about the cause of my shiner."
"On May 26, 2011, Mary ran over and killed the dog, Porcia, in the driveway," Kennedy wrote. "She had [our youngest son] Aidan call me to tell me. He was disconsolate and crying. I asked to speak to Mom and Mary came on the phone. She said I should come over and spend the night in my old room with the kids who were distraught. She said she intended to kill herself unless I called off the divorce and unless I promised to recommit to the marriage. She promised that if I came over she would stay in her room and wouldn't see me or harass me."
The couple were married in April 1994 on the desk of a research boat in the Hudson River. Robert Kennedy was 40; his wife, 34. She was six months' pregnant at the time.
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