Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Files for Divorce from Wife of 16 Years
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has filed for divorce from his wife of 16 years, a newspaper reported Tuesday.
The Journal News, citing Westchester County clerk records, said on its website that the filing occurred on May 12, three days before Kennedy's wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, charged with drunken driving.
Details, including grounds cited for the divorce, were not provided.
Kennedy Jr. declined to comment about the divorce to The Journal News, stating: "I'm not going to talk to you about my personal life."
Mary Kennedy was arrested May 15 after a police officer reported seeing her drive her car over a curb near their home in Bedford, 45 miles north of New York City. Police said she had a blood-alcohol level of 0.11 percent; the legal limit is 0.08 percent.
Kennedy Jr. did not appear at his wife's May 28 arraignment, when she pleaded not guilty and agreed to be evaluated to see if she needs treatment for alcohol abuse. She is scheduled to appear in court again on July 22.
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Her lawyer in that case declined to comment on the divorce proceeding to The Journal News.
Police said they had responded to the Kennedy home twice in the week before her arrest but no crimes had been committed.
Lt. Jeff Dickan said that in one call, Mary Kennedy reported a dispute between children. He said the other visit resulted in a state domestic incident report but there were "no crimes committed, no report of assault, no arrests and no need for follow-up."
Kennedy Jr., an environmentalist at Pace University School of Law, is the son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in California during his run for president in 1968.
The couple has four children. Kennedy Jr. was previously married to Emily Ruth and had two children. He and Ruth divorced in 1994.