Near the end of his marriage to Andrew Cuomo, Kerry Kennedy slept in a locked bathroom to protect himself, according to a biographer who closely examined Governor Cuomo’s life.
The abusive bullying helped end the marriage between Cuomo, now 63, and Kennedy, the seventh son of former Senator Robert F. Kennedy, said author Michael Shnayerson. They were married from 1990 to 2005 and have three daughters.
The charges fit a pattern of brutal intimidation and humiliating treatment of women raised in recent weeks, which has left Cuomo facing widespread calls to resign and possible impeachment if he doesn’t.
Shnayerson wrote that Kennedy wanted to get rid of the marriage in 2001, at a time when Cuomo’s role as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for President Bill Clinton was running out of steam.
“Her problems with her husband were strictly personal,” wrote Shnayerson at Vanity Fair. Part of his complaints revolved around not doing things like visiting his daughters’ schools and reading a book on parenting, but there were also tougher accusations.
“Kerry was tired of being ridiculed and belittled,” says Shnayerson, a source close to the couple. “Either Andrew would work on the marriage or not, and the two would divorce.”
Cuomo submitted an unsuccessful candidacy for governor in 2002, but did not pass the state convention. Kennedy demanded a divorce as soon as he gave up the race.
Shnayerson wrote that, for six months, Cuomo refused to leave the house or respond to his lawyers.
“In more than one night during this period, Kerry slept in a locked bathroom, according to a source close to the family, who reported cases of physical abuse. ‘I have been a human rights activist, and for women who have abusive husbands,’ Kerry said to a friend, ‘and here I am enduring this abuse,’ ”recalls Schnayerson.
The bullying behavior continued in a number of ways, such as making it difficult for her daughters to plan vacations, he wrote, citing a source who said: “There are a million ways a single parent can make the other parent’s life miserable, and he played that match. “
Kennedy was not immediately found by The Post for comment.
A spokesman for the governor told Vanity Fair: “The divorce was more than 15 years ago and has been the subject of tabloids for weeks, with all kinds of false rumors circulating. Time has proved that they are all fake. Andrew is a great father, and his daughters will be the first to say that Kerry and Andrew were great co-parents – and time has shown that those who spread the rumors were actually the problem. “