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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is accused of bullying his late second wife, Mary Richardson, in a new biography about the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Richardson died by suicide at age 52 in May 2012, two years after Kennedy, 72, filed for divorce. The couple shared four children: Conor, 31, Kyra, 30, William, 28, and Aidan, 24.
In her new book, RFK, Jr.: The Fall and Rise, investigative journalist Isabel Vincent paints a bleak picture of Kennedy’s second marriage, per an excerpt published by People on Tuesday, April 7.
“Mary did not want a divorce, and she did not want to lose custody of her children,” Vincent writes in the book, due for publication on Tuesday, April 14, and for which the author had “exclusive access to RFK Jr.’s personal diaries, candid interviews and previously unreleased material,” per publisher William Morrow.
Vincent quotes a source as saying, “Mary was waiting and hoping for Bobby. And Bobby was cruel about her weight, telling her that she had squandered her beauty. He would put his arm around her and criticize her. It was ugly.”
The author writes, “She was terrified of his bullying, another friend said, especially during the divorce negotiations. But Mary fiercely wanted to remain married.”
“It was the Kennedys or nobody,” Vincent quoted the same source as saying.
According to the book, Richardson, who suffered from depression, struggled in her marriage in part due to her husband’s alleged infidelity.
Vincent writes that sources told her “much of Mary’s depression stemmed from Kennedy’s increasing philandering,” going on to quote one person purportedly close to Richardson as saying, “He definitely gaslit her and told her that she was crazy and that her accusations about other women were fantasies. … She was innocent and naive, but she drank, which was classic in the sense of being in pain a lot of the time.”
“It’s not clear when Mary became aware that Kennedy was a serial cheater, but she clearly resented his behavior even as she was determined to be a good Kennedy wife,” Vincent writes.
The author quotes another source who told her, “[Richardson] was just 200 percent invested in being his wife and living the Kennedy lifestyle.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Kennedy’s office for comment.
Kennedy wed Richardson in April 1994 following his first marriage to Emily Ruth Black. Kennedy and Black — who share two children, Robert III, 41, and Kathleen, 37 — married in 1982, separated in 1992 and finalized their divorce in 1994.
Kennedy began dating his current wife, Curb Your Enthusiasm actress Cheryl Hines, in 2012. They wed in 2014.
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