The New Face of Borderline Personality Disorder: Mary Richardson Kennedy Abused Her Husband and Children and Committed Suicide as a Final Act of Revenge for Perceived Abandonment
Mary Richardson Kennedy tragically and selfishly committed suicide by hanging herself in the barn of the Kennedy’s Westchester, New York home in May 2012. She killed herself during the midst of a 5-year acrimonious, high-conflict divorce from Robert Kennedy, Jr., after threatening to commit suicide multiple times throughout their tumultuous and abusive marriage.
The Richardson family has gone to great lengths to portray Mary as a long suffering victim of Bobby, Jr. and his multiple infidelities during their marriage. Of course, the Richardsons conveniently forget that the Kennedy’s relationship began as an extramarital affair while Bobby was still married to his first wife, Emily Black Kennedy.
So who is the villain and who is the victim in this sordid mess?
Was Bobby Kennedy, Jr. the abusive, philandering husband who drove Mary Richardson Kennedy to drink and suicide?
Or was Mary a highly destructive, emotionally and physically abusive, yet publicly high functioning and charming woman who kept Bobby trapped in a violent relationship by employing FOG (fear, obligation, guilt) and drove him to seek comfort outside of their relationship?
The Women-Are-Always-The-Victim/Mommies-Can-Do-No-Wrong Brigade have been out in full force condemning Bobby Kennedy, Jr. and his family since her suicide. They also condemned Kennedy for wanting to participate with his children in their mother’s funeral after the stunt the Richardson family pulled trying to bar Kennedy (further traumatizing the Kennedy children). It’s been pretty ugly, in fact. The Richardsons and Women-Are-Always-The-Victim proponents have vilified Bobby and his new partner, Curb Your Enthusiasm actress Cheryl Hines, ever since.
In what seems to be an effort to set the record straight in a particularly nasty smear campaign being conducted by Mary’s negative advocates aka her family of origin, Bobby Kennedy’s divorce and custody affidavit was recently leaked to Newsweek. News reports have been published by The Daily Beast, The New York Post, and several other publications. Newsweek released 8 pages of the 60-page document.
Kennedy’s affidavit begins with the following statements:
I, the Plaintiff in this action . . . am writing this affidavit in support of a motion requiring Mary Richardson Kennedy (“Defendant”) against whom I filed this divorce action of May 2010, to sign a temporary child custody agreement guaranteeing my fair access to our four children . . . until such time as a permanent custody agreement and divorce decree is so ordered by this court, and in support of a motion for a protective order:
a. To require Defendant to stop her physical attacks against me;
b. To require Defendant to remain sober in the presence of our children;
c. To require Defendant to stop efforts to physically restrict my movements including preventing me from driving my car or moving freely from room to room or acting to remove myself from her presence;
d. To require Defendant to stop verbal abuse directed toward me including refraining from all telephone calls and conversations with me that are not directly pertinent to scheduling for our children.
e. To require Defendant to stop stealing my personal property including suitcases, cell phones, toiletry kits, prescription drugs, wallets, passports, computers, papers, briefcases and other items.
f. To forbid Defendant from making uninvited visits to my home at ———– and my summer home at ———–.
g. To forbid Defendant from entering my car uninvited.
h. To prohibit Defendant from following me on vacation trips or business travel where I have asked Defendant not to come.
i. To prohibit Defendant from making disparaging remarks about me to our children,
j. To stop Defendant from engaging in discussion about our marriage in the presence of our children.
k. To prohibit Defendant from threatening suicide in front of the children.
1. To restrict communication between Defendant and myself to written communication by fax, email, text or by a special website http://www.ourfarnilvwizard.com/0fw/ which empowers families to help themselves, track parenting time, reduce divorce conflict and remove the “he said/ she said” that keeps families returning to family law court over joint custody and co-parenting issues. The mandatory use of this website has been court ordered in contested custody cases throughout the USA and Canada.
I read the publicly available portion of Mr Kennedy’s affidavit and it was like reading one of the hundreds of thousands of comments posted by men and women on the Shrink4Men Website, Blog and Forum who have been the targets of abuse of Narcissistic, Borderline and other high-conflict personality disordered partners, exes and family members. By his affidavit, it seems clear that Mary:
- was both physically and emotionally abusive to Bobby and the children from his first marriage and, at the very least, emotionally abusive to the children he shared with Mary;
- was an active alcoholic
- engaged in stalking and harassment behaviors
- engaged in parental alienation
- used suicidal threats to manipulate and emotionally blackmail Kennedy
- engaged in gaslighting (e.g., stealing documents, passports, keys and then claiming no knowledge of the items whereabouts), smear campaigns and other classic abusive behaviors
- murdered a small family pet in order to force interaction with Kennedy after the separation
Many Relationships with Borderlines are Forged through Similar Childhood Traumas
Bobby Kennedy, Jr. comes from a famously dysfunctional family marked by very public tragedies, addictions and other issues. His father was murdered when he was a young child and he became a heroin user in early adulthood (he has been in recovery for many years now). Mary had a similarly dark childhood, including the loss of her father and struggles with anorexia and alcoholism. It would seem that the former couple’s early life tragedies helped to create a strong and codependent bond between them, which is the case in many BPD couplings.
An Intense, Passionate, “Fated” Beginning and the Urgency to Commit
In his affidavit, Kennedy recounts how he and Mary fell in love. He describes their intense bond and all the many wonderful qualities Mary possessed during their courtship that caused him to fall in love with her. They shared similar backgrounds, shared similar struggles, Mary was best friends with Bobby’s sister, Kerry, they were both passionate about environmental issues and social justice and enjoyed travel adventure.
During the courtship and love bombing stage with a BPD, the individual with BPD will mirror their partner’s passions and interests. These relationships are often characterized by an accelerated intense intimacy (fueled by the borderline pathology to secure a love attachment) with a rush to commit either through emotional pressure or “accidental” pregnancies.
Kennedy states in his affidavit that he fell passionately in love with Mary in 1993 while he was still married to his first wife. They then married in 1994 three weeks after his divorce from Emily Black was finished. At the time of the marriage, Mary was 6 months pregnant with their son Conor.
When the Mask Starts to Slip
Once a relationship has been established with a woman with Borderline Personality Disorder, it’s very common for their personality to dramatically change after they have secured an attachment either through marriage (i.e., because they know Family Court will aid and abet women in financially raping their ex-husbands and grant even the most abusive women primary custody) or the birth of a child (i.e., a child becomes an abandonment insurance policy, hostage and/or weapon. Borderline women are especially adept at abusing and controlling their partners via their children).*
The Daily Beast reports that Kennedy says Mary’s abuse and violence began after she became pregnant with their first child before they were married:
“Mary’s violence and physical abuse toward me began before we were married . . . Soon after Mary became pregnant with our first son, Mary, in a sudden rage about my continued friendship with [my ex-wife] Emily, hit me in the face with her fist. She was a trained boxer and I got a shiner. Her engagement ring crushed my tear duct causing permanent damage … Mary asked me to lie to her family about the cause of my shiner.”
In the beginning of their romance, Kennedy states that Mary was warm and loving to his children, Kathleen (“Kick”) and Bobby, III. After they were married and Mary was pregnant, her behavior changed and she began to abuse the Kennedy children. He writes:
“During our early courtship, Mary was a wonderful friend and mother to my children from my first marriage, Robert Francis (“Bobby”) born on September 2, 1984 and Kathleen Alexandra born on April i3, 1988. However, soon after our marriage, Mary began to be abusive toward both my children and particularly hateful toward Kick.
For many years, I was unaware of the intensity of Mary’s abuse and violence toward Kick. However, after only three years of marriage, I saw enough evidence of troubling conduct to trigger my efforts to divorce Mary.
By that time, Kick’s mother, Emily, had remarried and was living in Washington D.C. Bobby and Kick flew up to stay with me three weekends a month. Nearly every Sunday, before I drove them to LaGuardia, Kick would lose some vital item of her travel kit, for example, her wallet or plane ticket. Exasperated by the weekly stress of this routine, I gently chided Kick, then 9 years old, that she had to be more responsible about keeping track of her things. Her eyes filled with tears and she said to me, ‘Daddy, I think Mary is stealing from me.’ I hugged her and said, ‘don’t say that, Mary loves you, she would never do anything to hurt you.’ She looked me in the eye and said, ‘No, Daddy, Mary hates me.’ A few weeks later, looking for something in Mary’s bureau, I found a collection of lost items concealed beneath a layer of Mary’s clothing.”
This is common behavior for many BPD women whose partners have children from a previous relationship. She intensely hates and resents anyone, even a child, whom her partner also cares for and loves. Children, parents, siblings, friends and exes are viewed as competition for her husband’s or boyfriend’s time, attention, resources and love and, as such, they must be eliminated. Isolation and forced family and social estrangement is a common abuse tactic employed by many individuals with BPD.
Oftentimes, a BPD woman will actively campaign to eradicate these other relationships that she perceives as a threat. It appears that this is what Mary Richardson Kennedy was attempting to do by gaslighting both Kick and her husband. Her twisted logic was probably something like this: “If I make the visits as stressful and as unpleasant as possible and make Kick look irresponsible, etc., perhaps the visits will stop and I will no longer have to compete for attention with a 9-year old girl nor will I have to be reminded that Bobby had a life and a relationship before me.”
Kennedy continues:
“Soon afterward, I began to see additional evidence of Mary’s subtle but relentless campaign to make my children unwelcome in my home and to make them feel that they were a burden on her life. Mary’s conduct caused me daily anxiety and a kind of heartbreak beyond my prior imagination, but it would be years before I knew the whole story.”
The Daily Beast also reports that Kennedy alleges:
“Kick told him that Mary would take her into a closed room to harangue her about her many supposed faults, including the way she dressed. On at least one occasion, she slapped Kick for speaking critically to one of Mary’s children, according to the affidavit.”
No One is Safe from the Narcissistic Rage of a Desperate BPD, Not Even the Family Dog
The passages above are only the tip of the iceberg concerning the abuse Mary perpetrated upon Kennedy and their children. She killed the family dog in order to entice Bobby to return home to comfort her the children:
“On May 26, 2011, Mary ran over and killed the dog, Porcia, in the driveway [after the separation]. She had [our youngest son] Aidan call me to tell me. He was disconsolate and crying. I asked to speak to Mom and Mary came on the phone. She said I should come over and spend the night in my old room with the kids who were distraught. She said she intended to kill herself unless I called off the divorce and unless I promised to recommit to the marriage. She promised that if I came over she would stay in her room and wouldn’t see me or harass me.
I drove over in a tow truck with my boat on the trailer in preparation for a planned trip to Cape Cod the following day. When I got there, Aidan was in Mary’s room. Mary was intoxicated. I opened the door and she leapt out of her bed and hit me with a roundhouse punch that, had I not blocked it, would have undoubtedly broken my face.
Pointing to Aidan, she screamed, ‘You told this child you didn’t love me?’ and hit me again, raining blows down on me as I backed down the hall. She struck me maybe 30 more times or more. I moved slowly backward because she was drunk and unsteady and I didn’t want her to tumble over the banister. She screamed at Aidan as she hit me. ‘He is a demon. He is a demon. He is the most evil kind of man in the world. Everything he does is evil and a fraud. He is a philanderer, an adulterer, a sex addict.’ Aidan was crying. I backed down the back stairs blocking her blows—and dodged out the kitchen door. She pursued me, pummeling and pushing me with her fists all the way.”
Although killing a dog is extreme, it is not uncommon for individuals with BPD to manufacture crises in order to manipulate their partners, exes and children. I work with several women clients whose partners were once married to women with BPD, both diagnosed and undiagnosed. They have recounted incident after incident of non-emergency emergencies and crises BPD exes create in order to get their ex-husbands/boyfriends to come back and rescue them the children.
The Kennedy’s long-time housekeeper told The Daily Beast about additional violence she witnessed:
“Once, during dinner, Mary grabbed a plate of spaghetti and threw it all on Bobby in front of the children . . . Once they were having a fight while Bobby was taking a bath. We heard lots of noises upstairs. Mary came down the stairs and took the car and left. Five minutes later, Bobby came down. My sister asked, ‘Are you OK, Bobby?’ Bobby’s face was really white. And then my sister said, ‘What happened to you?’ And he said, ‘Mary attacked me in the bath with scissors.’?”
Physically assaulting your husband is domestic violence. Assaulting your husband in front of the children is child abuse and so is parental alienation. Mary Richardson Kennedy appears to be a batterer. Killing a small animal also makes her a sociopath, in my opinion.
This is beyond manipulative and sadistic. She killed the children’s beloved pet in order to score some face time with her ex. She didn’t care about the children’s feelings or the dog or even about Kennedy. All she seemed to care about was herself, her wants and her pain. This is another trademark of Borderline Personality Disorder. Little to zero empathy and utter tunnel vision regarding their feelings.
If the roles were reversed and Bobby Kennedy had abused Mary in the ways she abused him, rationalizing that her alcoholism drove him to attack her, would so many people be so quick to defend him as they are doing for Mary? Violence is NOT an acceptable response to marital infidelity, no matter what some women (and men) think.
If the roles were reversed and Kennedy had hung himself and Mary came out with this tale, she would be lauded as a brave and courageous woman. Because it’s a man who is being honest about the abuse he suffered at the hands of an incredibly disturbed woman, there’s public outrage. Double standards much?
Nighttime Rages, Otherwise Known as the Midnight Feeding Frenzy
Many of my clients and Shrink4Men participants report that the attacks, rages and abuses of their BPD partners become worse at night after they’ve been at work all day. It’s as if many of them are just spinning their wheels throughout the day and then lash out, needle, poke, harangue and want to “talk” at the end of day when their partners are tired and wanting to relax and/or go to sleep.
Bullies and abusers like their targets to be in a weakened state. It makes it easier for them to abuse. Also, by depriving their victims/partners of sleep, it keeps them off-kilter. Sleep deprivation is a common torture tactic used in POW camps. It would seem Mary Richardson Kennedy exhibited this behavior as well. The Daily Beast reports:
“Bobby couldn’t understand what was happening to this beautiful woman he adored. She would be fine during the day, but he came to dread the evenings. ‘She would go into a kind of altered state which we came to call her ‘episodes,’?’ Bobby said in his affidavit. ‘Her features would change with her jaw set forward, her face paled, her eyes notably darkened, her voice alternatively breathy or hard. Mary’s mood vacillated between rage and self-pity. Her behavior often became violent and destructive.’
Sometimes in the middle of the night, Bobby would awake to find Mary standing over his bed, beating him, according to the affidavit. Bobby tried to protect himself from her punches and even once jumped out a second-story window to escape.”
Suicidal Threats, Selective Amnesia, and Meaningless Promises to Change
Kennedy tried to divorce Mary for the first time in 1997, just 3 years after their marriage. According to the affidavit, her response to impending “abandonment” was volatile. She threatened to commit suicide after she first told the world that Kennedy is a “monster.” From The Daily Beast:
“Whenever Bobby mentioned divorce, she would threaten suicide, but the next morning she would be calm and gentle. She would say she was sorry and didn’t know why she was acting this way. For a time she would be her old wonderful self at night as well as during the day, and Bobby had renewed hope, the affidavit said.”
It is very common for the BPD to return “back to normal” after raging and spewing vitriol. I liken it to emotional projectile vomiting. As their partner, you are expected to pretend as if nothing untoward happened, even though you’re standing there, still dripping in their emotional vomit. If you do not accept her “apology” and apologize for “your part” in her rage, you will often be subjected to more rage and emotional projectile vomit.
The Jekyll and Hyde nature of BPD individuals is often confusing to their partners. How can she go from being so sweet to something like that scene in The Exorcist in which Linda Blair’s head spins round? This causes a profound cognitive and emotional disconnect for many of my clients. It’s very hard to reconcile the fact that the sweet, charming woman and cruel, controlling abuser both reside in the same person.
Also, the moments of kindness and promises to “make things better” often give my clients false hope, which is inevitably dashed after each new rage out or act of covert abuse. According to The Daily Beast, Mary was in and out of therapy for years, including family counseling, but nothing got better. Unfortunately, many BPD sufferers are highly treatment resistant and Mary Richardson Kennedy had the material resources to obtain the very best psychiatric care. It didn’t help.
Extramarital Affairs Do Not Cause Borderline Personality Disorder
It may exacerbate the condition, but marital infidelity is not the cause of the kind of behavior Mary exhibited as the Richardson family claims and so many female commenters on the Internet claim. In fact, Mary’s abusive and unstable behavior may have led Kennedy to seek comfort elsewhere. This is also not an uncommon situation.
While it is better to end a marriage before beginning a new relationship, many men live in fear that their BPD spouses will carry out their threats regarding divorce. Common threats include the threat of suicide, false allegations of sexual abuse and domestic violence, the threat of financial destruction, the destruction of the man’s reputation, and the destruction of the man’s relationship with the children. These are very real threats. Thanks to VAWA (the Violence Against Women Act), all a woman need do is point her finger in accusation at a man, without any evidence, and she can destroy his life. According to Kennedy’s affidavit, Mary made all of these threats.
Kennedy writes in his affidavit:
“She regales her family, her friends, and our children and strangers with a wide range of disparaging falsehoods about me. She repeatedly says she will call the police and say that I beat her if I threaten to leave her. She makes extraordinary efforts to turn our children against me.”
If Kennedy’s affidavit is true, then Mary no doubt had these issues long before her relationship with him. These kinds of characterological issues begin in childhood because of extreme abuse, neglect and/or faulty brain wiring, which is probably why her family of origin is working so hard to deny her problems and blame Kennedy. The Richardsons no doubt have a stake in hiding their own dysfunctional family secrets.
As Mellaril, one of the Shrink4Men Forum moderators and site contributors, has so astutely observed, “These individuals aren’t who they are because of the relationships they’ve had, they have the relationships they have because of who they are.”
DARVO – Deny, Attack and Reverse Victim and Offender
Many individuals with BPD and related personality disorders are masterful at portraying themselves as victims, when, in fact, they are the aggressors. There is a psychological phenomenon described by Dr. Jennifer Freyd, PhD of the University of Oregon who specializes in trauma called DARVO. DARVO stands for Deny Attack and Reverse Victim and Offender.
Many abusers engage in DARVO when confronted with exposure of their disgusting behavior and/or when they experience unwanted consequences for their abusive behavior. One could argue that Kennedy’s affairs were a consequence of the abuse and instability in his marriage. Instead, Mary used his infidelities to portray herself as the victim, gather sympathy from friends and family and to smear Kennedy.
The Daily Beast reports:
“By 2003 Bobby wanted out, and he started living a single man’s life. He began an affair that lasted three years, but after Mary made several halfhearted suicide attempts it scared Bobby so much that he broke off the relationship, according to the affidavit. And then he returned to trying to forget in a series of short-lived affairs.
But Mary learned about the affairs, and she began telling her friends and her family. And a number believed that by having these outside relationships Bobby was emotionally abusing his wife. ‘Mary talked about going to therapy a lot with Bobby and talking about all his affairs,’ says one of Mary’s friends. ‘She tried very hard, and part of it was going to therapy and talking about it’.”
It is regrettable that Kennedy had a series of affairs, but it is certainly understandable that he would seek peace and comfort, no matter how brief or illicit, elsewhere. Kennedy’s affairs seem to be a symptom of Mary’s many abuses rather than the cause of her abusive behavior.
It’s the BPD backward logic that many individuals with the condition seem to exhibit. It’s like saying, “My husband abused me! Just look at this cut on my knuckles!” What did your husband do to cause the cuts? “His nose got in the way of my fist when I took a swing at him! Abuuuuuuuuse!”
The WTF Moment and the A-Ha Moment
In 2006, Mary’s psychotherapist, Sheenah Hankin, told Bobby that Mary suffered from BPD. She recommend the standard reading material, such as I Hate You, Don’t Leave Me by Jerold J. Kreisman and Hal Straus. According to The Daily Beast, that’s when Kennedy first began to understand what was going on with his wife. Many men and women who arrive to Shrink4Men experience similar WTF and A-ha moments. Apparently, Mary met 9 out of the 9 criteria to be diagnosed with BPD (only 5 are necessary).
Kennedy and Mary arranged for her to see prominent Harvard psychiatrist and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) pioneer, Dr. John Gunderson in an effort to get her help. Dr. Gunderson has publicly acknowledged that Mary Richardson Kennedy suffered from BPD. He states:
“I was convinced the diagnosis of BPD was correct. At the heart of this disorder is a hypersensitivity to other people, such that they can perceive rejection and anger from others when it isn’t there, and when it is there, they react with even more desperation. It is thought that this hypersensitivity is present even in childhood, during which they will often feel neglected or mistreated. That sets the stage for their search for an idealized caretaker. The caretaker oftentimes gets exhausted by the unrealistic expectations. But the caretaker finds it difficult to leave as the partner threatens to kill him or herself.”
Many of my clients and participants on Shrink4Men comment on the overlap of narcissistic and borderline behaviors in their wives, girlfriends, exes, parents, and siblings, etc. This is because narcissism is very frequently present in individuals with BPD.
In fact, the greater the degree of narcissistic traits, the more treatment resistant they are (and sociopathic), in my opinion. Mary seemed to have many narcissistic traits. According to The Daily Beast, she appeared to be overly concerned with public appearances, status conscious, materialistic and a bit of a social climber. I’m not surprised she went through over a decade of treatment with zero results. The alcoholism also no doubt exacerbated her condition.
A Relationship with a Borderline Individual Rarely Ends Well
They cannot tolerate rejection, abandonment, feelings of inferiority or exposure. Mary was facing all four with her impending divorce and loss of custody. Many BPD sufferers try to destroy their partners for “abandoning” them and often destroy themselves and the children in the process.
Allegedly, Mary had been trying to block the children from spending time with their father. When she discovered Kennedy was about to file the affidavit cited here, she begged him not to expose her true nature and used access to the children as a bargaining chip in the summer of 2011.
Kennedy writes in his affidavit:
“On Tuesday, June 28, 2011, after reading this affidavit and pleading with me not to file it in court, Mary told me by phone that she would allow me to keep the children during July and August at my house at the Cape. I am grateful for this settlement, but based upon her past behavior, I have little faith that she will abide by this. The following day she told me she had finally signed a child custody agreement and sent it to her lawyer. She promised I would have it in my hand my Tuesday, July 5. On that date, my lawyer called Mary’s lawyer, Peter Bienstock, who told him he never received anything from Mary. Mary called me many dozens of times every day over the July 4 weekend, screaming, crying, threatening to destroy me and telling me she was on her way up to visit.
For the sake of my children and for my own safety and sanity, I need protection from this court to minimized any contact between Mary and myself by granting the requested injunction for a protective order and requiring Mary to sign a fair child custody agreement.”
Less than 8 months later, when it became clear that Mary would not be granted custody due to her continued active alcoholism and non-compliance with court-mandated therapy appointments, Mary hung herself. She seems to have staged it so that Bobby would find her body, and he did.
Bobby and the family housekeeper found her hanging in the barn; her last angry and emotionally manipulative act. No one should have to see something like that. Mercifully, the children did not, but in her blind selfishness, self-inflicted pain and self-pity, Mary does not seem to have considered the children.
In fact, she seems to have been more interested in proving what a bastard she thought Bobby was to the children and the world than staying alive for her children and choosing to fight to get well. One wonders what she told the children about spending time with their father? Did she accuse them of abandoning her, too, as so many alienating mothers do?
Regarding Mary’s suicide, Dr Gunderson states:
“Her suicide was both a statement of hopelessness about her prospects of staying married and it was an angry statement of her perception that she had been abandoned and betrayed. There were two sides to it. One was that she was a horrible person who nobody wanted. The other was that she was an abandoned waif who had been mistreated. And both of these things are inherent in this dramatic suicide.”
Exactly right. Furthermore, it was very prudent of Kennedy to insist upon supervised visitation of the children, otherwise, this could have ended with the murder of the children and a botched suicide attempt of Mary with the always popular, “I blacked out. I have no memory of murdering MY children, My husband was abusive and I murdered MY children to protect them” spin by “clever” defense attorneys and the lemming-like critical reasoning skills of mainstream media — much like Theresa Riggi, Fiona Hutchinson, Kelli Lynn Murphy and other disordered, high-conflict women who murder the children to punish their ex-husbands for divorcing them.
Nevertheless, Mary’s suicide is the ultimate act of violence and anger directed at her loved ones. Yes, she was no doubt in great pain and emotional turmoil, but this is ultimately a woman who had every advantage and resource at her disposal and chose not to do the hard work to try to get well. By staging her suicide in such a fashion, she got the last word and showed the world what a “victim” she was” or as another Shrink4Men moderator stated, “She SHOWED THEM ALL!”
Mary chose to do what many individuals with BPD do, continue to blame others for their misery and lash out and abuse the people who love them. It’s very sad, but at least she didn’t take the children with her.
Wherever Mary Richardson Kennedy is, I hope she is finally at peace. And now, maybe her surviving family members can finally find some peace as well.
*There are similarities in relationships with men with BPD, however, because of law enforcement and Family Court female/mommy bias, it is far easier for women with BPD to abuse their male partners via children, the police and family court through PAS (parental alienation syndrome) and false allegations of sexual abuse and domestic violence.
Shrink4Men Coaching and Consultation Services:
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81 Responses to “The New Face of Borderline Personality Disorder: Mary Richardson Kennedy Abused Her Husband and Children and Committed Suicide as a Final Act of Revenge for Perceived Abandonment”
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Wow, I saw what this for what it was when it happened, but I didn’t know all these details. I felt sick to hear how Bobby Jr said something about always loving her at her funeral, playing the good victim of Crazy. Her family’s behavior during all of that — not giving a crap about the kids — showed that the apple apparently didn’t fall far from the tree.
I felt badly for the kids, for BK and for his girlfriend. The Crazy Lady got what she wanted: a bunch of attention, even from th grave. Hurl.
Ig he claimed he always loved her, that would be a redflag for prevarication. If the allegations against her are true, no way would he stil have loved her by that point.
Something is a litle awry with this whole story. We have a mna with a history of infidelity,not just here, but in a previous marriage, making these allegations.
If his infidelity was strictly associated with this woman, I would be more inclined to beleive his claims. But, there is no indication his first wife was disordered, yet, apparently, he cheated on her, as well.
Infidelity is considered by some therapists to be the most severe form of spousal emotional abuse. It also involves an incredible amount of lying and lack of empathy.
Now, if Kennedy had already demonstrated a willingness to subject his first wife to this abuse, and already demonstrated this amount of dishonesty and cruelty in his first marriage, I think his claims re this woman need to be looked at with a fair amount of skepticism.
She may well have been disordered, I do not know. Bur, kennedy, clearly has issues with integrity, as did she, having been involved with him whenhe was still married.
The real sticking point I have with hisclaims is that he is so wealthy, that he had the resources to really do battle for custody, etc, if she was such a witch. If the divorce was brought in Mass., where that family is held isn such high esteem, he had a very good chance of prevailing. So, why cheat?
Mr. Kennedy may be a downright jerk for being a cheater. He has problems. Sounds like some self-esteem issues too. However, many of our female BPD ex’s were unfaithful too – emotionally and/or physically. So the difference between Mr. Kennedy and his deceased ex is that he did not engage in terrorizing his ex, their children, or the stepchildren. Its important to discern between one issue – what could be sexual addiction for Mr. Kennedy – and a plethora of issues that his BPD ex had. For all we know she may have been cheating on him too, in addition to the other abuses that were documented by therapists and other third parties.
I didn’t know anything about this family until I saw some posts on the Internet and was immediately curious when divorce proceedings were followed by a suicide. Nothing rang true when Mary’s family and friends said that she was victimized and attempted to prevent her husband from burying her where he wanted. I finally found this article and it seems spot-on from my experiences with family members with PDs. My dad had OCPD, mom had dependent PD, and both of my brother’s have anti-social PD. Both parents were alcoholics and both brothers are addicted to prescription pain medications. I left home at 21 and never looked back. I had a limited relationship with my parents in the years before they died but I have no contact with my brothers. Some people are critical that I “ran away” but you can’t change others and there is no other option when these people are toxic.
I feel a great deal of sorrow for the devastation the six children have experienced and hope that they all seek counseling. However, the affects of growing up in this environment will be with them forever. Three years of counseling in my early 30′s changed my life but the impact of growing up with my parents will always be with me. I really believe that our society needs to become educated about PDs and mental health issues because they impact everyone in one way or another.
Thank you for an excellent article.
Very educational, thanks for taking the time to break that down.
Thanks for taking the time to break that all down. Very educational. Great job.
> “No one is safe from the narcissistic rage of a desperate BPD, not even the family dog.”
Ain’t that a fact. It wasn’t until two pets I had for years before I met the nutcase got disappeared that I put it together …
Probably would have noticed sooner, except for all those red flags blocking my view.
This article was like a slap in the face as I’ve seen this behavior out of my brother’s on-again/off-again girlfriend for about 5 years now. Unfortunately, he is much weaker in spirit than Kennedy and has turned against us calling us judgmental. It’s extremely sad and I worry about how far she’ll push him each day
Such an excellent article!!
So glad that finally someone wrote an article about how my mother acts. I knew there was something deeply wrong with her. Her public personae, was the exact opposite of her private one, and how she undermined, and sabotaged people through her FOG ways, and ALWAYS playing the victim especially when she acted particularly vicious. Of course perceived abandonment is on their minds, because these people know what they are doing. Any normal person would EXPECT abandonment, that’s a natural reaction for behaving so cruel, so they try to beat people to the punch by electing new ways to “secure their attachment”, and deflecting the REAL issue. They know they are horrible people and are the poison to anyone they are involved with.
Its been my experience, that these types always misjudge “when their attachment is secure”. Since they lack a true understanding of the human spirit, and do not have an emotional connection to anyone, (not even themselves, as they have not nurtured this), they rely on outside validation, like marriage, and kids.
They think having kids with someone, will, “secure their attachment”. After having our son, my now ex spouse turned into a monster. Of course, the abuse was there all along, but it did not measure on my radar until after the baby was born.
For safety, I divorced, but I lived in a “no fault” state at the time, and judges didnt care about abuse they were still granted all the treasures of seeing the kids.
After the divorce, my ex proceeded with all the guiles that resembles what my mother would do. Never taking responsiblity for such horrible behavior, and claiming abandonment, etc etc etc, my ex continued FOG on me after the divorce, but with distance came clarity, and I didn’t buy it.
The kids were just a ploy for them, and they could not keep up the facade for too long. Eventually, I was able to terminate my ex’s rights to my son, because of all the antics, (and I moved to a better state that took physical violence, and trying to commit suicide in front of the kids more to heart). My ex use to check themselves in hospitals all the time, every time they were about to be outed, they faked heart attacks, and suicide attempts. They would call me from the mental hospital.
I just ignored it all. When my ex realized that I wasnt playing the game and not giving them any attention, this toned down their behavior. They weren’t getting the drama they wanted.
Its uncanny how much in common my ex and my mother have. In fact, my mother really identified with my ex, and they were a united front against me when I was divorcing them.
And thats all that this. Those that are going to side with wife, its because they can identify with her, and they are probably crazy too.
I, along with many others, lost all respect for her when they read how she committed suicide. To normal people, they would see what she did as an atrocity, and someone who is obviously personality disordered. She did herself a favor, ridding herself off the planet. What did she contribute other than pain and misery? Really.
She is not getting the sympathy you think she is getting. People that are going to hate the husband, they are going to hate the husband, and those that side with the wife, are going to side with the wife, period.
Relationships end sometimes. The adult thing to do is do what is best for the kids, and not undermine and cripple them. If this is the type of person she is, and I know she is, then, her abandonment senses are right on.
I feel so happy that abandoned my ex spouse, and my mother. Days aren’t filled with unnecessary crippling grief.
Unfortunately, I can see that my father is going through so much pain with my mother. She is literally killing him. If he is having medical issues, (its because of her) she complains about what he is doing to her. Its so sad. She calls up all the family members, accusing my father of being selfish for his medical condition, and how she doesnt want to make it look like she caused it. Strange thing to say isnt it?
Its because she DID cause it! And guess what! She gets off on it! She has the pleasure of hurting my dad, as well as gaining sympathy for being victim! She is estranged from all her children, as all she did was embark on a universal campaign to abuse us for the rest of our lives, (character assassinations, triangulation, all the guiles they use) and that “right” also entitled her to abuse her grand children, (which is also now estranged from).
But if you hear her side of the story, all she talks about is how she is victim, and how horrible her children are. How she is a victim because she doesnt see her grandchildren. She thought by having grandchildren, and playing her delusional role of grandmother, would “secure her attachment” and she want on an abusive rampage when they were born.
Again, being borderline person she is, she misjudged her importance, or how secured her attachment was, and with her horrible behavior, it was just best for everyone to leave her abandoned.
I really feel for everyone that has dealt with this type of person. I raised by one, and my first marriage, married to one, and it’s the most horrible experience in the world. Everything the person does, has some type of hidden agenda. Nothing is what it seems. They say one thing and do another. They accuse others of what they are doing ! They are jealous, selfish, greedy and petty, and are out to steal the souls of everyone, especially ones that cant protect themselves, like children.
And you just don’t know you are involved with such a person, until you marry them. Then, the experience helps you identify these types later on, and if your born into it, like you had a mother that acted like this, it may take a life time to figure it out!
The court systems are useless when it comes to this stuff too.
Thank you for posting this article and shedding light on the dark side of a mom, that doesnt want what is best for her kids, and used every guile necessary to hurt and cripple them.
Survivor,
Thanks for telling your story. It’s an inspiration. I too have a BPD mother and I married a BPD woman (child, more like). My divorce is about to be finalized. No kids, thank God. For the past year I’ve been doing everything I can do to learn what attracts me to BPD women and avoid them in the future. Your post is really helpful in my journey.
Hi Survivor, thanks for sharing this. Reading the article and the comments, specially yours – left me reading with my mouth open!! I couldnt believe the similarity in the patterns of behaviour of such women. On reading this I can see my Mother also having BPD related symptoms. Scary!