Bobby Kennedy Jr.’s marriage was careering off track even before his allegedly soused spouse slammed the family wagon into a curb at a Westchester County church carnival and was busted for DWI, sources told The Post.
Mary Richardson Kennedy is convinced her husband has been cheating on her, and she has grown frustrated by his time away from home, said a Kennedy family friend.
“It’s no big surprise that she’s drinking. She has problems, and in the past couple of years — certainly the last year — it’s gotten worse,” a source said.
“Bobby has been quietly dealing with it, but this was bound to happen sooner or later. She’s just lucky she didn’t hurt anyone.”
Friends said the arrest followed months of escalating arguments between the couple, who have four kids, ages 8 to 15.
“They can get very intense, very vocal,” a source said.
Mary Kennedy, 50, was arrested on May 15 after her 2004 Volvo station wagon hopped a curb at St. Patrick’s school near the couple’s Mount Kisco home.
Cops said Mary had the family dog in the car and told them she was there to pick up “some people” from the school’s carnival. It was unclear whether any of the Kennedy kids were at the fair.
“There was an officer at a traffic post . . . He smelled alcohol on her breath as she spoke, and she had slurred speech,” Bedford Police Lt. Jeff Dickan told The Post.
She failed “a series of field sobriety tests” and blew a .11 on a Breathalyzer, Dickan said. The legal limit for a DWI is .08.
Kennedy pleaded not guilty to DWI charges in Bedford town court last night and was ordered to undergo an evaluation to determine whether she needs to enter alcohol treatment. She is due back in court on July 15.
It is not Kennedy’s first troubling episode, friends say.
“Mary’s issues have manifested themselves in various ways over the years,” one Kennedy confidant said. “There have been many, many incidents.”
Two days before her arrest, Bedford police responded to a “domestic incident” at the Kennedy home, records show — one of several encounters between the Kennedys and cops.
Among the most startling is a Sept. 4, 2007, incident in which Mount Kisco police were called as Bobby, 56, tried to take Mary to see a shrink at Northern Westchester Hospital.
According to a police report, when Bobby pulled up to the hospital shortly before 10 p.m., his wife bolted from the car.
“He stopped her in the roadway,” according to the Westchester Journal News, quoting from the incident report.
Bobby had to hold his wife down “to keep her from hurting herself,” and he asked a passer-by to call the cops.
“Mr. Kennedy stated he wanted his wife to see a psychologist,” an officer wrote. “Mrs. Kennedy stated she was fine and did not want to go to the hospital.”
Bobby wound up taking his wife back home, the report said.
Mount Kisco Village Manager James Palmer and Police Chief Steven Anderson declined to turn over the documents over to The Post.
A spokesman for Bobby Kennedy declined comment, as did a lawyer for Mary Kennedy.