Court papers filed last week show that Mary Richardson Kennedy had been financially cut off by her estranged husband Robert F Kennedy Jr in the months prior to her suicide. Mary was forced to borrow money from friends for such necessities as groceries, gas, and doctor’s visits.
The New York Post reports that an insider close to Mary Kennedy has said that RFK Jr’s wife was forced to ask her children’s classmates' parents for cash to help her pay for basic necessities, including groceries and doctor’s visits, to help support her and RFK Jr’s son.
“Mary was left to sometimes ask for $20 from the parents of her kids’ classmates to buy gas and groceries,” the source said to the New York Post.
Mary Kennedy, mother of four and estranged wife of RFK Jr, committed suicide when she hung herself in a barn this May. Many said she was in the grips of a long-lasting battle with depression.
A petition filed last week in Surrogate’s Court in Westchester County by Mary’s former divorce attorneys, who say Robert F. Kennedy Jr. failed to pay them a promised $278,000 in legal fees, shed light on RFK Jr’s tactics during the divorce.
The petition papers detail RFK Jr’s “scorched-earth litigation approach” that left his wife cut off from a $20,000-a-month, court-approved credit card, leaving her unable to buy groceries, gas or even medical care for their son.
“Somebody living in a fifth-floor walk-up in The Bronx with cash could do more than she could,” said the source close to Mary Kennedy.
The petition said, “Unfortunately, the last months of Ms. Richardson Kennedy’s life were full of daily financial challenges, directly attributable to Mr. Kennedy’s litigation tactics executed through his family office.”
According to an agreement made in October, RFK Jr. was to continue paying his wife’s household and legal expenses. Mary and Robert F Kennedy Jr were supposed to have a $20,000-a-month limit on a joint credit card, with the bills to be paid by the Kennedy clan’s money manager, the Park Agency.
Financially cutting off his estranged wife was a tactic meant “to squeeze her and make her panic,” said the source. Cutting Mary off came during a time when many important issues were being decided upon following the divorce, including custody and division of assets.
Kennedy’s lawyer, Norman Heller, said he hadn’t read the court papers. “Those are very serious accusations,” Heller said. “I can’t comment on something I haven’t seen.”
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