Joan Bennett Kennedy, the first wife of a US senator, the mother of a congressman and the sister-in-law of a slain president, has died at the age of 89, US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has said.
A daughter of privilege who could trace her lineage back to one of the victims of the Salem witch trials, Joan Kennedy's marriage to Edward Kennedy tied her to an American political dynasty and tumultuous personal life marred by bouts of alcoholism.
She passed away peacefully in her sleep on Tuesday at her home in Boston, her nephew Robert F Kennedy Jr said in a social media post.
"She was my friend, confidante, and my partner in recovery. Joan inspired me with her courage and humility," he wrote.
My beloved aunt Joan Bennett Kennedy, former wife of the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), classical pianist, music teacher, and advocate for mental health and addiction services, passed away peacefully in her sleep at her home in Boston, Massachusetts yesterday at the age… pic.twitter.com/a7B145a3Ay
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) October 8, 2025
Virginia Joan Bennett was born into a wealthy Catholic family and attended the private Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart in suburban New York.
In 1958, she married Edward 'Ted' Kennedy and the couple moved to Boston. In 1960, she gave birth to their first child, Kara, followed by Ted Jr in 1961 and Patrick in 1967.
Her husband went on to serve as US senator for Massachusetts from 1962 until his death in 2009, while son Patrick would go on to become a US congressman from Rhode Island from 1995 to 2011.
Her brother-in-law John F Kennedy, meanwhile, would become president.
She maintained her composure in the public eye during difficult times that included the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy and the 1968 assassination of Edward's brother Robert Kennedy, the US attorney general and presidential candidate.
She suffered three miscarriages, watched her young son Ted Jr lose a leg to bone cancer, and bore her husband's highly publicised marital infidelities.
But by the mid-1970s, she began to speak publicly about her hospitalisations for alcoholism, which saw her arrested several times for drunken driving, and emotional distress.
Although by then they were unofficially separated, she campaigned for her husband during his unsuccessful bid in 1980 for the Democratic Party presidential candidacy.
Not long after announcing their divorce, her sister-in-law Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis told her, "I am so sorry, because now I feel I should have told you to do this 15 years ago. Then maybe you wouldn't have gotten so sick," according to the book 'Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot'.
Joan Kennedy settled in Massachusetts, dividing her time between their home in Boston's Back Bay and the Kennedy compound in Hyannis.
During the 1980s, she returned to college, receiving a master's degree in education. She slowly re-entered public life, among other things serving as head of the Boston Cultural Council and writing a guide to classical music.
