Teresa Heinz Kerry in critical condition at hospital

Updated 8:30 p.m. ET

BOSTONTeresa Heinz Kerry, the wife of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, is hospitalized at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

A spokesman for John Kerry says Heinz Kerry was flown to Massachusetts General Hospital on Sunday night after being stabilized by doctors at Nantucket Cottage Hospital.

The 74-year-old Heinz Kerry was admitted to the emergency room in Nantucket after 3:30 p.m. Sunday. A hospital spokesman said she arrived at that facility in critical condition, and remained that way early Sunday evening, although she had been stabilized.

A source close to the family told CBS News that Secretary Kerry is with his wife.

"The family is grateful for the outpouring of support it has received and aware of the interest in her condition, but they ask for privacy at this time," said Glen Johnson, personal spokesman for Secretary of State John Kerry, in a statement.

Heinz Kerry is the widow of former U.S. Senator John Heinz, heir to the Heinz ketchup fortune. She married John Kerry in 1995.

Nantucket Police Lt. Jerry Adams says a call requesting medical aid was received just after 3:30 p.m. for a home on Hulbert Avenue, and an ambulance was dispatched. Online records show the property is connected to Heinz Kerry's family.

Doctors treated her for breast cancer in December 2009.

She previously has said she found in late September that year that she had cancer in her left breast after having her annual mammogram.

A month later, she underwent lumpectomies on both breasts at a Washington hospital after doctors also discovered what they thought was a benign growth on her right breast.

That diagnosis was initially confirmed in postoperative pathology, but two other doctors later found it to be malignant.

In November 2009, Heinz Kerry had another pair of lumpectomies performed at Massachusetts General Hospital.

John Kerry has been at the Nantucket home since returning from a nearly two-week around-the-world diplomatic trip to the Mideast and Southeast Asia in the pre-dawn hours of July 3.

Before his wife's medical problem, he had planned to return to Washington on Monday and then co-host with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew high-level strategic and economic talks with senior Chinese officials on Wednesday and Thursday.

Kerry had also spoken of his desire to make his sixth trip to Israel as secretary starting at the end of the week. State Department officials said Kerry's schedule may now change pending developments with his wife's health.