Joan Bennett Kennedy, the first wife of Sen. Ted Kennedy, died peacefully in her sleep on Wednesday, Oct. 8, at the age of 89, according to a family obituary.
A death certificate issued on Oct. 10 revealed that dementia was the immediate cause of death. It noted that the duration of her condition was unknown, as her diagnosis had not been publicly disclosed. The certificate also listed alcoholism “in remission” as a contributing factor to her natural death — a struggle she had spoken about candidly in the past.
Joan’s life was defined by resilience in the face of both personal and public challenges. She married Ted Kennedy at 22 and the couple had three children: Kara, Ted Jr., and Patrick.
Kara, diagnosed with lung cancer in 2002, passed away in 2011 from a heart attack. Ted Jr., an attorney and former Connecticut state senator, survived bone cancer at age 12 after undergoing partial amputation of his right leg. Patrick served as a Rhode Island congressman for 16 years and became a leading advocate for mental health awareness.
Ted Kennedy’s marriage to Joan endured years of scrutiny due to his infidelity and the 1969 Chappaquiddick incident, in which his car went off a bridge at Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, killing passenger Mary Jo Kopechne. Joan attended Kopechne’s funeral and appeared at Ted’s side when he later pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of the accident.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(599x0:601x2):format(webp)/kennedy-1-b2eb147c1f7045cca43b2970adc6ded1.jpg)
Following the tragedy, the Kennedy family faced relentless media attention. Joan later acknowledged that she turned to alcohol as a way to cope with her unhappiness and the pressures surrounding her life. She once reflected, “At times I drank to feel less inhibited, to relax at parties. Other times I drank to block out unhappiness, to drown my sorrows.”
Embracing the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous, Joan committed herself to recovery and was open about her challenges. “Staying sober is difficult,” she once said while sipping a diet ginger ale. “But I’m sober today, and that’s all that matters. I’m working on my recovery a day at a time.”
In the late 1970s, Joan relocated to Boston to pursue a master’s degree in education at Lesley College. “I know I won’t become a fourth-grade teacher,” she said at the time. “But I want the credibility that little piece of paper will give me. Once I have that, I won’t just be Joan Kennedy. That’s important for a lot of women my age. People listen to you if you went to grad school.” Her degree was later listed on her death certificate, which identified her as a self-employed author.
Joan and Ted separated in 1978 but did not finalize their divorce until 1983, following his unsuccessful 1980 presidential campaign. She never remarried.
In her later years, Joan’s ongoing battle with alcoholism drew public concern and led to several well-documented incidents, including drunk driving charges. After being placed under guardianship in the early 2000s, she lived a quiet, private life in Boston, largely stepping away from public attention.
