The estranged wife of Robert Kennedy Jr. hanged herself in an outbuilding at her home, multiple news outlets reported on Thursday.
Mary Kennedy, 52, the mother of four children aged between 17 and 10, was found dead early on Wednesday afternoon after police were called to her home in Mount Kisco, 30 miles north of New York City.
The Westchester County Medical Examiner's office reported that an autopsy had shown that her death was due to asphyxiation caused by hanging.
The New York Post reported that Kennedy was alone in the house at the time of her death and she left behind a suicide note. The New York Daily News reported that her body was found by a housekeeper.
“We deeply regret the death of our beloved sister Mary, whose radiant and creative spirit will be sorely missed by those who loved her,” the Kennedy family said in a statement.
“Our heart goes out to her children, who she loved without reservation. We have no further comment at this time.”
The Post said RFK Jr., the third of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s children, showed up at the home, which he did not share with his wife, at around 8 p.m. on Wednesday, more than six hours after her body was discovered.
Robert and Mary Kennedy married in 1994, just a month after his first marriage had ended. She was already pregnant with their first child, Conor. The couple had known each other for years as Mary had gone to school with Robert’s younger sister Kerry and had been maid-of-honor at her wedding.
He filed for divorce in May 2010, two days after police were called to the home for a domestic incident in which he claimed she was too intoxicated to look after their children. Three days later Mary was charged with drunk driving. She was arrested again in August that year on a charge of driving under the influence of prescription drugs, after being stopped while driving at 82 mph on her way to a yoga class, the Journal News of Westchester reported.
The Daily News said she went into rehab in February this year.
Locals in Mount Kisco told the Daily News that Mary had never gotten over the split. “She always seems lost these days, whenever she came into the village,” a neighbor told the Daily News. “Lost and alone and sort of out of it.”
They said she had not found new romance after the couple had gone their separate ways. Robert, an environmental attorney with the group Riverkeeper, is now reportedly dating “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star Cheryl Hines.
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