Tonight, Mary Richardson Kennedy's family will be holding a private memorial to remember her—and they have not invited estranged husband Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The Post reports, "Instead, he’ll take their four children to Florida, according to another source... In Florida, the kids are likely to stay at their grandmother Ethel’s oceanfront home in Palm Beach, said a family friend."
Mary Kennedy hanged herself in a barn on her Mt. Kisco property last Wednesday; she and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had been estranged, with RFK filing for divorce in May 2010, around the time of Mary Kennedy's drunk driving incidents. Her friends blamed RFK's behavior (his alleged cheating and abandonment) for her decline into drinking and depression. They also cited her concern over sharing custody of their four children.
RFK and the Richardsons had been battling over control of Mary Kennedy's body before the funeral, with the Richardsons trying to prevent her from being buried near the Kennedy family compound in Hyannisport, MA. But a judge ruled for RFK, who will also give him the $4 million house she had designed.
A friend told the Post that Robert Kennedy Jr. is a "terrible husband, but he’s a very good father." (The Post has been pretty anti-RFK Jr.) At the funeral on Saturday, RFK said, "I know I did everything I could to help her."
The private memorial is at the Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District.
