In a letter to the New York Post, Kerry Kennedy, the best friend of the late Mary Richardson Kennedy and sister of Robert F Kennedy, Jr, details how Mary was a victim of a debilitating depression which eventually drove her to suicide.
Kerry Kennedy bluntly opens her saying, “If difficult divorces caused people to commit suicide, nearly half the adults in America would be dead.” There are many who believed Mary and RFK Jr’s divorce, coupled with his newly public relationship with actress Cheryl Hines, may have driven Mary to take her own life.
Kerry Kennedy had been best friends with Mary Richardson since the two were teenagers and writes fondly of the vibrant, talented and beautiful Mary she knew. It was Kerry who introduced Mary to Robert F Kennedy, Jr. The two were later married, had four children, but divorced in 2010.
“For six agonizing years,” writes Kerry Kennedy of Mary, “she embarked on an odyssey so harrowing that Dante himself would tremble at the courage of that tender, luminous woman who walked through the mouth of hell. She endured unbearable pain for her children and the people she loved. She fought the impulses and kept herself alive.”
Of Mary, Kerry writes “She had a wonderful life with brilliant children, a successful career as a designer, and deep and abiding friendships with people across the globe. She had won life’s lottery over and over again. She was my best friend for 37 years. But since the day I met her, she battled periodic depression.”
“Mary didn’t ask for this disease, she never deserved it, and she took every step, from those prescribed by doctors to looking to God, to try and find a way out of it. Mary recognized part of her was broken. As her husband, my brother Bobby, who spent years and untold efforts trying to rescue her from her depression, said in his eulogy, Mary would be distressed to know so many of her friends feel they should have done more to save her.”
While Kerry admits that her best friend’s suicide is a “personal tragedy,” she hopes that Mary’s death and the hands of depression will grow into a message for the public. “I hope Mary’s struggles will inspire more of us to join the national efforts to address the causes and cures of depression.”
Concluding her public letter, Kerry addresses the slighted public understanding of those who suffer from depression: “When people say there is a ‘reason’ for the depression, they insult the person who suffers, making it seem that those in agony are somehow at fault for not ‘cheering up.’ The fact is that those who suffer — and those who love them — are no more at fault for depression than a cancer patient is for a tumor. And the first step is for us to be honest about who Mary was, and try to understand the painful reality of the agony of her depression and her decision to end her life.”
15 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.McNamara31 | May 26, 2012, 04:53 PM EDT
Bythebay… Stating that someone had suffered from depression (as the Kennedy’s have) does not equal vilification. Vilification is the blame you so freely throw at her husband purely because he happens to be a Kennedy. If you feel sympathy for Mary, why not post a condolence on her site (which is now online) instead of vilifying the children’s father any further.
Bythebay | May 26, 2012, 11:15 AM EDT
I haven't seen any mention that Mary Richardson Kennedy has any Irish ancestry although her Wiki description has been removed and the only reference to her now is on Robert Kennedy Jr.'s wiki. She was a graduate of Brown University and an environmental architect but all that has been thrown out by the Kennedys who want to villify her.
Bythebay | May 26, 2012, 11:09 AM EDT
it's not a question of hating the Kennedys, it's a question of hating what the Kennedys do and what they get away with because they have money and an excellent family run organization. They steamroll anyone once that person is no longer useful to them.
Bythebay | May 26, 2012, 11:06 AM EDT
Mary Richardson Kennedy didn't leave her children, they were taken away from her by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who of course has the staff and long standing Kennedy Organization to do whatever he and the Kennedys want. He also stopped her access to money and of course she had little or no income on her own.
jamthecat | May 25, 2012, 09:11 PM EDT
The Kennedy haters are going to thrash on the clan no matter what evidence comes up. Facts do not matter to them; only their prejudices count. Having had a cousin who killed herself thanks to depression, I know how destructive it can be, even when treated with medication. Anyone who uses this tragedy as an excuse to forward their own hatred is just plain diseased in both head and heart.
moorehall | May 25, 2012, 08:33 PM EDT
McNamara 31...I totally agree with you. No mother in her right mind would leave her children like that. Every one should be thanking God that they don't have a mental illness instead of talking about people they don't know.
Claire2 | May 25, 2012, 06:58 PM EDT
Kennedy men are notorious for thrashing on their wives. RFK Jr's brother, Joe Kennedy, cheated on his first wife, Sheila Rauch Kennedy. He managed to get an annulment from the RCC, without her knowledge. He was married to his second wife for three years before Sheila found out about the annulment! She fought back by writing a book called "Shattered Faith", in which she described the bullying pressure to which he subjected her. She was told that "Kennedy women don't talk"! But she most certainly did talk!! Mary Kennedy was an intelligent, talented woman who was part of the Kennedy family long before she married Robert. How agonising it must have been for her to have been betrayed by her husband, and also to have the family, of which she had been part for so long, to ban her from their gatherings in Hyannis Port. It definitely sounds like she could have been treated with more compassion by a lot of people! Robert's eulogy was extremely self-serving. Kerry sure acted like Mary's "very best friend" when she recently tweeted a picture of Robert with his new squeeze, Cheryl Hines, at the birthday of Mary's other "very good friend", Glenn Close!! It occurs to me that with friends like Kerry and Glenn, Mary did not need any enemies!!! May she rest in peace. R.I.P.
alisaann | May 25, 2012, 05:44 PM EDT
the kennedys have also HELPED people....probably HELPED MORE, then they've hurt. alisa
irishpjk | May 25, 2012, 03:48 PM EDT
Why do so many people refuse to accept the cold hard facts, the Kennedys used and abused people for generations?
89west | May 25, 2012, 02:18 PM EDT
Ironjustice....The deceased is beyond help, however, you did mention, Hereditary Hemochromatosis (HH) which is considered the most common genetic disease in North America and is particularly, common among the Irish here and in Ireland. Basically, HH causes toxic levels of iron to accumulate in vital body organs that can manifest itself as chronic fatigue, mental confusion, depression and memory loss, heart disease, diabetes and liver disease, including cancer and cirrhosis, among others. The disease can be found in persons of all ages from children to seniors and is fatal if not treated. Screening includes both a DNA test along with proper iron tests. By combining the proper blood tests for iron overload with the DNA test, physicians can achieve the most complete picture of the patient's genetic status as well as, the patient's current iron storage levels. Treatment includes a series of Therapeutic Phlebotomy (TP) more commonly called bloodletting, much as occurs when one donates blood to the Red Cross. IC would be doing a public service to the Irish Community here and abroad, if they would provide some insightful information on this silent killer!
McNamara31 | May 25, 2012, 01:57 PM EDT
A mentally functioning mother would never do this to her children no matter what she felt for her ex. Only a very ill mom would inflict this on her own kids.
Bythebay | May 25, 2012, 12:40 PM EDT
More blatant Kennedy spin, Mary Richardson Kennedy is no longer alive to defend herself. She was driven to suicide not by a difficult divorce but by years of philandering by her husband, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
McNamara31 | May 25, 2012, 12:24 PM EDT
Chronic depression is a disease. People who blame a person’s depression on others are ignorant of the disease. Situations may trigger attacks throughout a person’s life; however the disease like diabetes or heart disease is always there and needs to be managed medically like any other disease. Bobby Kennedy is going to have plenty on his plate trying to guide his children through this tragedy without ignorant people hanging the blame of their mother’s death on their father.
Murph46 | May 25, 2012, 11:31 AM EDT
More like Anti Kennedy chromatosis!
hyattsville | May 25, 2012, 10:41 AM EDT
Kerry Kennedy may have been the deceased’s best friend but she is still the sister of the man who was divorcing her which I feel renders her comments a tad biased and not wholly convincing. I’d rather hear the reflections of Mary Richardson’s siblings or even Robert Kennedy’s first wife, the one he divorced to marry Richardson if anything. Enough already Kerry.