Robert F. Kennedy Jr this week denied claims that he had stopped financially supporting his wife in the months before her tragic suicide.

Kennedy was responding to a recent New York Post report alleging he had cut off Mary Kennedy from a court-ordered $20,000-a-month credit card. The report claimed that her lawyers said she couldn't afford to buy groceries, gas and medical care. Lawyers for Kennedy's estranged wife also added that they were owed $278,000.

But Robert Kennedy's lawyers are adamant that he paid for food, shelter, education and health care and fully funded the monthly credit card allowance. They also insist he wasn't behind in his support payments when his wife died.

Kennedy's 52-year-old ex-wife was found hanged in a barn on the family's rural estate in Bedford, New York on May 16 by her ex-husband.

According to the Daily Mail she was allegedly so destitute in the months leading up to her death that she was forced to borrow money from parents of children's classmates while her former had her locked into a blistering divorce battle, including questioning her capability as a mother.

A source told the New York Post: 'Somebody living in a fifth-floor walk-up in The Bronx with cash could do more than she could.'

Before Mary's death, Robert F Kennedy Jr had taken to appearing at public events with their four children - Kyra, Aiden, Conor and William -  who he had full temporary custody of. Critics also claim that Kennedy flaunted his new romance by stepping out publicly alongside his girlfriend, 46-year-old actress Cheryl Hines.

The domestic turmoil surrounding Mary Kennedy's life also extended into preparations for her funeral, the Daily Mail reported. One of Mary's brothers went to court in an attempt to get custody of her body while the Kennedys planned to bury her near the family's seaside compound in Hyannisport, Massachusetts.

At her funeral her devastated former husband told the congregation: 'I know I did everything I could to help her.'

Kennedy also revealed to mourners that he had spoken to her the day before her death, and that she told him: 'You know me better than anyone in the world.' He continued: 'She said, 'I was such a good girl.' I said, 'I know you are - and you still are.'

But despite these moments of tenderness Bobby Kennedy nevertheless filed multiple restraining orders against his estranged wife in recent months and he sought full custody of their children by claiming she was an unfit mother.

Robert Kennedy's lawyer Norman Heller told the Post he had not read the court filings but that the allegations were 'very serious.'