Metro

RFK Jr. cut off late wife’s credit and stiffed lawyers: court papers

Mary Richardson Kennedy had to scrounge for cash to pay for even the most basic needs in the last months of her life, according to new court filings.

“Mary was left to sometimes ask for $20 from the parents of her kids’ classmates to buy gas and groceries,” a source close to Kennedy told The Post.

The revelations come from a petition filed last week in Surrogate’s Court in Westchester County by Mary’s former divorce attorneys, who say Robert F. Kennedy Jr. failed to pay them a promised $278,000 in legal fees.

They say RFK practiced a “scorched-earth litigation approach” that left her cut off from a $20,000-a-month, court-approved credit card, leaving her unable to buy groceries, gas or even medical care for their son.

“Somebody living in a fifth-floor walk-up in The Bronx with cash could do more than she could,” said the source.

The troubled mother of four hanged herself on May 16 in a building on her Bedford estate. Her husband described her at her funeral as fighting “demons.”

“Unfortunately, the last months of Ms. Richardson Kennedy’s life were full of daily financial challenges, directly attributable to Mr. Kennedy’s litigation tactics executed through his family office,” according to a petition.

Already struggling with alcoholism and depression, she was subjected to the humiliation of having her card declined at the local drug store and supermarket. At one point her plastic was denied at her son’s doctor, the source said.

Under an October agreement, RFK Jr. was to continue paying his wife’s household and legal expenses. Each warring spouse was supposed to have a $20,000-a-month limit on a joint credit card, with the bills to be paid by the Kennedy clan’s money manager, the Park Agency.

Cutting her off was a tactic “to squeeze her and make her panic” as important issues — the custody of the couple’s four children, and division of assets — were being hammered out, the source said. Bobby Kennedy also falsely claimed millions in joint assets as his own, according to the court filing.

Kennedy’s lawyer, Norman Heller, said he hadn’t read the court papers. “Those are very serious accusations,” Heller said. “I can’t comment on something I haven’t seen.”