Joan Kennedy, one drunk-ass bitch

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I've always wanted to see pix of Joan in her pre-Teddy days, she was supposed to be the most beautiful Kennedy wife but in all the pics I've seen she already looked quite bitter (probably post-Chappaquiddick.)

My mother knows her in a distant, social way. Years ago I collected my mother from her apartment after a lunch. A bunch of ladies, tipsy on Champagne, in one of the most drop-dead elegant apartments I've ever seen.

She was quite gorgeous.

On the left, below:

Shit, she was married to that asshole, Ted Kennedy. I think she deserves to be pitied.

Maybe when the Roman Catholic Church annulled her marriage to Ted they also cleansed her liver.

No doubt her life had it's pressures, but you fail to recognize that stress and pressure and trauma don't make you an alcoholic. You are an alcoholic because it is a disease, and you have a predisposition to that disease. The pressure and stress can exacerbate it, but they don't "cause" you to become an alcoholic.

In that photo, R4, Jackie is signaling that she finger-bangs the chipmunk.

OP she stated heavily drinking long before Chappaquiddick. She was drinking to blackout state as early as the JFK years.

Her mother was a fall-down notorious hardcore alcoholic who required multiple hospitalizations herself. Joan was doomed by genetics (with fate playing a hand to worsen things).

She wanted to bail out of marrying Teddy but Old Joe Kennedy got furious at the idea of his precious son being dumped/passed over in public and threatened to ruin her.

She's had quite a life.

[R4] Wow - gorgeous woman. Thanks for the pic.

Joan was stunning and beautiful. She always seemed like a wonderful person.

Did anyone watch that 2001 TV movie JACKIE, ETHEL, JOAN: THE WOMEN OF CAMELOT, with Jill Hennessy as Jackie, Lauren Holly as Ethel, and Leslie Stefanson as Joan?

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R3 Please tell us more about the apartment. Color scheme, ceiling height, view, etc.

Peculiar interview from 1979.

Is Joan sober now?

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OP: always stay classy as you are.

Yes, R13 and I liked it. As far as I know, it was still on Youtube a few months ago if anybody wants to see it.

Wow, Ethel Kennedy next to Joan and Jackie looks like a man in drag. Robert Kennedy really could have done so much better.

Yes OP, Joan has every reason to enjoy a few cocktails or as you put it be a "drunk-ass bitch.

Yes, of course, being a weak woman run over by the hideous Kennedys must justify a life of self-abuse and addiction.

Please.

But at least she is not a nose-picker, a la Skankel.

Nice R21. You're a charmer. How tiny your world must be to not know or care about anyone that has struggled with any kind of addiction.

Given the history of alcoholism in her family; she may have had some unresolved childhood baggage, which would explain the initial need to self medicate.

We met at a charity benefit once, she slurred "quitter" into my ear. Her breath smelled like gin, it was heavenly.

LOL R24.

The Kennedys do have a way of killing women

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R9 and R23 nailed it. Joan's alcoholism has nothing to do with her tough life -- it's about her family. Both parents were falling down drunks at 9:00am types.

Her plastic surgery is pretty awful too. At Ted Kennedy's funeral:

Alcoholism is NOT addicitia, moron r22.

"was she justified in being a drunk?"

This quote reveals a pretty poor understanding of alcoholism. Alcoholism is kind of like any disease. It happens and no alcoholic is happy with being one.

Joan Kennedy was married to an alcoholic. My guess is that when they first married both were heavy drinkers and of course both developed into alcoholics.

Alcoholism is a tragedy OP. It is not a cause and effect problem- it is not something justified- any more that a deadly disease is justified.

R28 You accidentally posted a picture of Mickey Rourke.

Jesus. That picture at R28 makes me realize I got off easy.

Yup. Her family belonged to the same club in Westchester as my family. Both parents had a drinking problem as did mostly everyones' parents. Different times...

Thanks to DL I watched the suggested film on the Kennedy women. Its free on Hulu by the way.

Is it common knowledge that Ethel was a bit crass? and bitchy to the other women in the family? She's very poorly represented in the film.

Jackie, Jack would be spinning in his grave!

Well, you know what they say...

Joan Kennedy was born in 1936. If you really think she didn't start drinking until 1969, then you live in fucking fantasy land.

[quote]Is it common knowledge that Ethel was a bit crass? and bitchy to the other women in the family?

Yes and yes.

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If she married outside that family she probably would have still been an alkie. But being married to a kennedy especially ted im sure made it far worse.

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Holy Shit R28. She looks like a cross between Mickey Rourke and the Wildenstein woman

Anyone who comes into contact with those people is bound to self medicate. Even the young ones are creepy as all hell. Anthony Shriver is dead behind the eyes and has a cruel streak to rival any of his uncles.

The Kennedys are America's Royal Family.

Except for Eunice and (later on, Jackie), the Kennedy women treated Joan like shit. Especially Ethel and Rose, who both seemed to be jealous of her beauty and felt that she should just suck it up and support Ted.

When she went to Jackie to complain about Ted's philandering, she told her, "Kennedy men are all like that" and told Joan to find interests outside of her marriage, which is when Joan went back to school.

Eunice tried to get Joan treatment when the drinking got out of control in the early 70s.When Joan did start 12 step therapy, one of the other patients blabbed about it to the tabloids. Jean and Pat ignored the problem and acted as beards on Ted's behalf--Jean set Ted up with several of his girlfriends during the marriage.

Apparently Joan's drinking started shortly after marriage; Ted had the liquor cabinet locked up as early as 1962.

R43 America has no royalty. We have no monarchy. And if we did, the Kennedy's would be a pretty piss-poor excuse for one.

[quote]America has no royalty. We have no monarchy. A

Pardon me?

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I really hate the Kennedy family. Fucking entitled 1%ers who have a history of raping women & killing them. I'm surprised that Joan is still here because Ted was a murderous asshole for sure.

Further, I hope that Jackie's daughter, the cold blonde cunt, never comes back to the USA.

It looks like a nip-tuck gone really bad! Does anyone agree about this?

Joan took the alcohol route for a way out.

Jackie took money.

Ethel took being a bitch to its grandest level. She usually had undocumented aliens working at her home in Palm Beach....or wherever....one lady later told the story of working for her there.

She said there were so many people and kids in the house that there was laundry done 24/7. She spent most of her time ironing.

The woman as part of her job decided that instead of washing the draperies which should have been done professionally - she sent them out the dry cleaners. When they came back, Ethel saw the bill and told the woman that people were always trying to overcharge her and cheat because she was a Kennedy.

The woman was making $5 an hour. Ethel said she was taking the cost of the dry cleaning out of the woman's paycheck. The woman told her to hold out her hand for the money and shit in the other hand and see which one got full first....

Whoever thought that the raging alkie Joan would outlive nearly everyone from her generation.

[quote]I've always wanted to see pix of Joan in her pre-Teddy days, she was supposed to be the most beautiful Kennedy wife but in all the pics I've seen she already looked quite bitter (probably post-Chappaquiddick.)

I always thought the same thing. My mom and grandma would say how beautiful she was but I thought she looked hard.

If she really has gotten her 40-year chip, that's quite a feat, well done.

If a person wants to stop drinking badly enough, they will. They may relapse again and again but they will stop.

Joan enjoyed being a miserable lush.

The Kennedy clan gets what they deserve. Soon they'll all be dead.

Her parents were drop dead drunken loons - by 10AM every day. She is a perfect example of inherited alcoholism. Doesn't matter what her life was like, she'd be a drunk anyway.

And so will r53. Party at my place!

Did anyone mention that I pick my nose?

R55 I was a raging alcoholic for over 20 years. But I'll still come to your party! Club soda and lime.

Wow..She kind of looked like Christie Brinkley.. I bet the dark witch was jealous of her until she realized she was an alcoholic.

A few years ago, Trent Lott got drummed out of the Senate for making some innocuous, awkwardly fawning statement in praise of the retiring old fossil Strom Thurmond.

But Ted Kennedy was directly responsible for the death of MJK and went on and on as the Lion of the Senate and a serious 1980 presidential contender.

That Mari Jo chick was pregnant? I never heard that. Maybe he drove off the bridge on purpose. With those scum I wouldn't put it past them.

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I don't know much about Joan Kennedy but reading this thread is interesting. I know about Jackie, Lee, and Ethel. But not Joan Kennedy.

She's kind of a new discovery for me.

Ethel Kennedy has never not looked like a PE teacher.

She relapsed badly about 12 years ago -- at one point she was even drinking mouthwash and vanilla extract.

Ethel Kennedy looked exactly like her husband Bobby. Wow, it’s like he married his twin sister.

bump for joan

It's amazing that she has made it to 81 after all the years of abuse. I'm assuming pills were also in the picture at some point. Decades of the kind of drinking described in this thread would put many in an early grave.

What caused that kind of heavy drinking. Is it really that hard to be a Kennedy? Especially with all of the $$$$$ everyone in that family has access to.

You'd think life would go a bit smoother.

R68 I’m sure scandal after tragedy exacerbated Joan’s alcoholism. Joan had a hell of a lot to deal with in that family. Money only provides a certain level of comfort. It is a miracle she’s still alive.

Drinking one’s self into oblivion seems like a sensible reaction to being trapped in the Kennedy menagerie.

Alcoholism is preventable.

There are people who recognize it’s in their genes and they choose not to use alcohol.

Of course, if a person has an addictive personality, they’re going to become addicted to SOMEthing. My SIL quit drinking booze and has become addicted to diet soda and exercise. She readily admits that she transferred her addiction to something that won’t kill her or destroy her family.

I would be hesitant to call Joan Kennedy "beautiful." She had been drinking alcohol for the effect before she married Ted, but I can certainly agree that being married to Ted would cause her to drink even more. Teddy was so wild: It's become part of the accepted as truth folklore that during the marriage, Ted took a hooker to some high level European state dinner. Both were high quaaludes and began explicitly making out on the couch in front of all the guests as the hooker pissed all over the sofa. Yes, I'd say Joan had good reason to drink.

Here's a pic of Joan with the two Bouvier sisters flanking their mother, Janet Auchincloss, as a JFK State of the Union speech:

So it's a disease? Where do I get my shots?

Fascinating thread.

Joan Kennedy, DL hot-mess icon.

R73 Yes, when was being a drunk a 'disease'? Is this just fucking americans having to give a name and excuse for their endless shitty behaviour?

I thought it was a disease. Not R73.

Still think Jackie was prettier even in both of their primes.

If alcoholism is a disease, what’s the cure? Oh, not drinking? Impossible.

Naw. Never beautiful. Sorry.

Joan, young.

if anyone is/was butt ugly it is/was? Ethel Kennedy.....yikes..... and i'm sure she did not appreciate Jackie bedding her husband after JFK was killed by the mafia.......

as far as joan, she was quite beautiful at periods in her life......that daily mail photo, wow, yeah, that plastic surgey is bad.....but i LOVE that outfit! colorfully pretty.

Joan Bennett, model

Werqing for Mr. Oleg Cassini

boy, did SHE settle......Ted Kennedy? ooofff

As I recall, I remember reading that Joan was an accomplished pianist, concert level classical pianist.

Yikes, Janet Auchincloss reminds me so much of my mother.

Ethyl looks horrible. She even admitted she’s an alcoholic in a recent documentary about her; refuses to stop, or even cut diwn, her daily drinking.

That whole clan is cursed with entitlement.

I I recently saw a candid photo of June talking on the telephone in JFK's presidential campaign. she was lovely and had a beautiful body. Later in life she wrote a book about music appreciation.

Being an alcoholic is hell and being married to Ted Kennedy must have been worse hell. I always felt very sorry for Joan Kennedy. Jackie Kennedy sympathized with her – she felt she was too sensitive to deal with that loud, brawling, ego-driven family which could never countenance any weakness.

From 1974:

[quote]One Massachusetts friend says he thinks Joan’s real problem stems from fear of the future—that Ted may already have decided to run for President. Such a campaign would be a “pure nightmare” she has said. She knows Teddy receives more death threats than any other man in public life. When younger, their children used to ask, “Will they shoot Daddy like they did Uncle Bobby and Uncle Jack?”

She had great style during the Sixties.

That People article is very illuminating. I'd drink too!

[quote]“Politics is consummately antiwife—she (the wife) is to say little, to think less. And yet in no other profession are wives so used—at least so publicly.”

[quote]In the high-powered Kennedy atmosphere, Joan Kennedy has always struggled with feelings of inadequacy, thinking she could never be “the superstar” Jackie was, nor the “super mommy” Ethel represents, nor the “super saint” Eunice is.

[quote]Then came young Teddy’s illness. Though much has been made of the senator steeling himself to tell his son about the operation, there are those Kennedy intimates who say it was Joan who actually took on this heartbreaking job.

[quote]She has accepted the realities of her married life—the senator’s frequent neglect (“Ted only pays attention to Joan when he needs her,” says one jaundiced Washington source), his eye for a pretty girl, his early-to-late political working habits.

Joan is movie star beautiful in R89 pic.

It's cruel to make fun of an alcoholic. It's a really horrible life. You have no idea.

Sexy

Workin' it

I’m surprised she didn’t do more than alcohol being married to Ted Kennedy — in the same category as asshole as Trump.

Campaigning for Ted

Meh. Joan Kennedy being beautiful is the same as Princess Diana being beautiful. She wasn't beautiful, but for some reason the media insisted that she be thought of as such, and so she was.

Susan Blakely as Joan Kennedy in the TV Movie- her wig will give you everything you need to live today.

Bump Bump Bump for more Gossip!!!

Drunk Joan was more attractive that annoying ultra Catholic clown car Ethel.

There was gossip that drunk Joan used to call up journalists in the 70s claiming that Rosemary Keough was in the car at Chappaquiddick and that Mary Jo was in the backseat. That ties in with theories that Ted and Rosemary were going to fuck and Mary Jo was asleep in the backseat and they didn't know.

R84 young Ted Kennedy was equally as attractive as his brothers.

Young Joan looked like a B - list movie star.

Ethel looked like she was an unfortunate Kennedy cousin who got all of the recessive genes.

Ted was a drunk scumbag. But, he was better looking than Jack and Bobby.

When Ted was in shape, he had a hot body. He was definitely the best looking of the three younger brothers. The one who died first, Joe Jr?, was the handsomest of them all.

Joan was beautiful, no matter what bitchy DLers have to say.

Ethel was probably pissed that she was the ugly wife.

Joan arrived in Charlottesville In Teddy's 3rd year as a new wife and she fit right in with her huge glowing mop , her silver Buick convertible and her german shepard in the back seat. She looked more like the Stork Club than Carroll's tea room

Joan arrived in Charlottesville In Teddy's 3rd year as a new wife and she fit right in with her huge glowing mop , her silver Buick convertible and her german shepard in the back seat. She looked more like the Stork Club than Carroll's tea room

R107 Ted had an okay body. Nice thighs.

In pic R105 Jackie is the only one who looks like a true society lady in the pic.

She looks like a UES/Palm beach society woman all day. She looks like she doesn't belong in that photo.

^Jackie is and certainly was the star of that shit show all day every day - Janet Auchincloss may have been a bitch, but she was a bitch on a mission and guided her daughters to their rightful places in society

When I met Teddy in the early 90's he looked like the Pillsbury Doughboy. He had to wear these thick-soled athletic shoes and he always wore his back brace. I think he was hopped up on pain meds. His face was lumpy. Like too many carbs.

This is a damned good read about Teddy K - written by his personal assistant. It goes way beyond all the official doings pertaining to his political life - this one is PERSONAL. The author barely evaded an attempt on his life if you know what I mean. Teddy was SO WILD! "The Senator" by Richard Burke

Who ever would have thought that falling-down drunk Joan would outlive nearly everyone from her generation of the family?

I met both of them years ago When Ted was running for president. It was clear they were emotionally disconnected by then (1980). Probably happened years before.

Elder gay here laughing at that pic at r94. That is Imelda Marcos, former first lady of the Philippines, giving Joan the "up and down" as she walks by, probably jealous of those boots. Imelda had a vast collection of shoes and was routinely blasted for them because the country was so poor.

I see Pat Nixon standing by and she was also rumored to like a tipple or twenty. Is that Eethel with her back to the camera?

Joan looks fab-u-lous!

Married into the fucking crazy family? The teeth and the hair for starters. I'm surprised she lasted as long as she did.

R119 Well to be fair Ted's teeth weren't all bad compared to most of the other siblings.

[quote]I see Pat Nixon standing by and she was also rumored to like a tipple or twenty.

Pat was an alcoholic and a chain-smoker for decades. Can you really blame her, considering who she was married to?

So sad !!

R118, Imelda has long been rumored to make the lez-lez, so it probably wasn't just the go-go boots she was lusting after.

Whichever surgeon did that last round of work on her should be shot. She still looked good into the late '90s/early aughts.

[quote] Ted took a hooker to some high level European state dinner. Both were high quaaludes and began explicitly making out on the couch in front of all the guests as the hooker pissed all over the sofa.

Hyannis Port, MA Election Night 1960

Ethel's a drunk? I didn't know that.

Truman Capote has ruined the sexy image of the three Kennedy brothers for me. He claimed that he witnessed all three of them swimming naked and all together they could not hustle up a decent, averaged sized dick. I keep imagining all those ladies they seduced being tragically disappointed with the big reveal.

I believe that Gloria Swanson also wrote that her semi-rape/seduction by Papa Joe was a huge disappointment.

My eye is immediately drawn to Jackie @ R105. She has that confident gaze and wry smile. The rest look like grinning fools.

[quote]You are an alcoholic because it is a disease

Cancer is a disease. Drinking is a hobby.

I was 12 when this issue of LIFE arrived in the mail. I jerked off to Ted's hairy chest countless times.

I remember this photo making many newspaper front pages the day after Joan attended a White House reception.

Pat Nixon does not look amused.

R124, if you ask me that picture was taken exactly after the first one surgery too many... if she'd stopped then her face would have probably relaxed into something normal with a little time. But she obviously kept going.

Wasn't she the one who found out, while watching an old wedding video, that Kennedy Jr said to Ted on his wedding day, that being married doesn't mean he has to be faithful to his wife.

*that Kennedy Sr said to Ted

^^ I thought it was JFK who said that.

BTW JFK used to refer to Joan as "The Dish".

I can't believe she's still alive.

[quote]^^ I thought it was JFK who said that.

Sorry, I thought it was his father, but you are right it was JFK who said it to Ted.

The Kennedys were scum bags. But, I'm hoping that the Trumps will eventually end up with a Kennedy type curse.

So where does joans $$$$$ come from these days? Her divorce from Ted was forever ago. So how does she afford to live in luxury and comfort all of these years later especially with a serious drinking habit?

I'm always fascinated by the financial and living situations of these divorced socialite ladies who we're once married to wealthy and powerful men.

I believe that Joan's family was well off. And since Joan never remarried after the divorce from Ted, she would still have been entitled to whatever alimony or support payments were stipulated.

I think her family was wealthy.

I think Joan took Ted to court during the Palm Beach rape trial and got more alimony as a result

If it hadn't been Irish whiskey it would have been pills and coke like her children and grandchildren. But in her case being steamrollered by the Kennedy family it might be understandable.

Which ever one of you compared the Kennedys to Donald Trump, fuck you a hundred times.

Senior was a Nazi, so there's that.

R146, He was also a lousy lay.

When Joan's daughter Kara died suddenly in 2011 at age 51, I thought that might push her over the edge, but she seems to have coped with it.

R147

I remember some years back that Chris Matthews (an old Kennedy true believer) had 2 guests. One was a man, and the other was a woman who had written a book about JFK. A large part of the discussion was about Kennedy's womanizing. The woman stated very clearly that Kennedy had a rep as you mention about about his father. He was a rotten lay.

The funny thing was that THAT little tidbit was totally overlooked by Matthews and the other man who went on and on about JFK and all the women with Matthews saying how JFK had a "European" attitude toward sex.

The woman author just looked back and forth at the two guys because they were clearly ignoring the elephant in the room.

They were totally clueless.

[quote] Truman Capote has ruined the sexy image of the three Kennedy brothers for me. He claimed that he witnessed all three of them swimming naked and all together they could not hustle up a decent, averaged sized dick. I keep imagining all those ladies they seduced being tragically disappointed with the big reveal.

I thought Gore Vidal said that.

I personally don't think Ethel is that unattractive. Plain, yes. Not ugly.

[quote] So where does joans $$$$$ come from these days?

I'd imagine the Kennedy family rewarded her fairly well for staying quiet during the 1970s when she could have derailed Teddy's presidential dreams.

Maybe a trust perhaps? Because someone up thread mentioned Joan lives in a well decorated and luxurious apartment somewhere in Manhattan I believe. And it takes a lot of money to live that way. Especially when you have a full staff of people catering to you're every whim.

I can no longer find the picture where Ethel Kennedy appears to be picking her nose.

Anyone have it?

Joan Kennedy hated the gays: once, while drunk, she called Truman Capote a limp wristed little fag.

[quote]I'd imagine the Kennedy family rewarded her fairly well for staying quiet during the 1970s when she could have derailed Teddy's presidential dreams.

I don't think they had to reward her during the 70s, the Chappaquiddick accident derailed Teddy during the 70s. They might have had to pay her show up and be the "wife" for the 1980 run.

The Kennedys probably paid secret money to Mary Jo Kopechne's parents in addition to the insurance money that was public record. There were probably pay outs to Kopechne's fellow Boiler Room girls to keep quiet about what really went down at Chappaquiddick. Many people believe that Ted was having an affair with Rosemary "Cricket" Keough or another Boiler Room girl and that they drove off with a drunk passed out Mary Jo in the backseat. It was also reported somewhere that Ted made Joan give condolence call to the Kopechne parents.

I don’t believe that, r156. Most people believe that Mary Jo was picked up by Ted Kennedy that night. It’s ridiculous to believe she was passed out in the back seat while he had no idea. Kopechne was supposed to have been a very naive girl, who’d been badly affected by Bobby Kennedy’s death. She was seen by witnesses dancing and being intimate with Ted Kennedy that night.

The truth is rather more simple: he was driving her somewhere while he was shit faced drunk in order to have sex with her. I don’t understand why people are still trying to make excuses for him. He left a girl to drown in order to save his own ass.

The divorce settlement was kept secret, but I know that Joan went back to court in 1994 to redetermine that settlement. She also got to keep the house on Squaw Island (just a stone's throw from the compound). I read a book which showed she was no fool at the time the divorce proceedings began. She had bought huge supplies of home necessities on credit, and billed to Ted. Imagine starting divorce proceedings and going to Costco with your husband's credit cards to buy HUGE and in BULK for all those things - that's essentially what she did. And if the book disclosed that, then we are left to wonder what else she bought and had him pay for before the divorce was finalized. Maybe she bought out the Mass State Liquor Store, eh? haha

[quote]I don’t understand why people are still trying to make excuses for him.

Politics.

At least on this board, if he were a Republican, we'd have him frying in an electric chair.

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Either way I'm sure Joan walked away with a huge settlement check. Especially after everything she had to put up with in that family.

Money always makes everything a little better as the old saying goes.

She also got to keep the luxury apartment along the Charles River in Boston - Ted got the house in McLean, Va.

Interesting article, R160, and nice to see. The Kennedy's provide us with lots to talk about in the negative fashion, I suppose. Important to remember that they ARE human. They HAVE done good, too.

r67 I've always wondered if she had a secret liver transplant at some point. Alcoholics go to the bottom of the list for liver transplants, but with her money and connections, I'm sure it wasn't a problem.

I think I read somewhere that the house on Squaw Island had originally belonged to Joan's parents.

And, yes, Ted did send Joan to offer condolences to the Kopechne family. Joan was pregnant at the time and miscarried.

Ted Kennedy - what a shit.

No, that home on Squaw Island never belonged to Joan's parents, and it was purchased by Ted Kennedy after he couldn't get one of the owners of a few of the neighboring houses to the compound to sell.

Even in the 21st century, some Democrats are crazy for the Kennedys. Back when that NY senate seat was open and Caroline Kennedy was suggested, we had a rollicking discussion here on Datalounge. I argued that she was unqualified and "entitled." I was informed that I was a Republican.

You must be a Trumpster R166!

As a lifelong Democrat, I have a love/hate view of the Kennedys. I think Bobby would have made a fine president.

Ted should have resigned after the Chappaquiddick incident. I hope Caroline Kennedy's political career is limited and Joe Kennedy III is nothing special.

Joanne did not call anyone a fag. It was Lee Radziwill.

I remember that picture (r94) being published in The Boston Globe at the time and there being a huge stink. It was well known that Joan had a drinking problem, and her decision to wear a see through top ( and otherwise inappropriate outfit) to a state dinner was seen as a giant faux pas and evidence that she was desperate and out of control.

Now look at the white house. It truly is a fucking mess now with that stupid orange asshole at the helm.

The Kennedy's we're definitely hot messes. But at least they we're competent for the most part.

Unlike the new guy in office at the moment.

Local police used to have to drag Joan out of the cars of strangers on Cape Cod back in the 70s/80s, at the peak of her alcoholism. She be passed out in the backseat alongside other drunks in and around Hyannisport. They'd realize she was missing and send out the local PD and sure enough, they'd find her.

Are you serious? That really use to happen? I've never heard that before.

I've read that in several sources, r172. She'd get shitfaced drunk at home and then go out driving. She'd be blackout drunk by the time the cops found her. It's a miracle she never got in an accident. Like others have said, it's also a miracle she's still alive, considering the huge quantities of alcohol she drank for so many years.

I really can't blame her, though. I'm sure being married to Ted Kennedy would've turned any woman into a blackout drunk.

I sympathise, yet reject the disease model thinking regarding alcoholism. It has always bothered me, as it is not logical. One cannot catch it, there is no identified gene, or concert of genes involved, and there isn't a pathogen involved. It's a slippery slope of poor choices, and an inability to cope effectively muddled with despair and denial. I don't believe it to me a moral weakness, but an utter lack of self control.

I had family who used to live a few streets up and over from the Kennedy Compound on the Cape r173, during those years. They knew all the local PD, it was locally known.

R170, Is that Imelda Marcos giving Joan the stink eye at R94?

On a flight from Boston to Chicago in 1982, I sat next to this smoking hot jock type who told me he was Joan Kennedy's tennis instructor. He said she was a very good player and fun to be around. If Joan wasn't fucking that guy, she should have been.

Imagine getting into your car in the morning, and finding Joan Kennedy, reeking of booze and passed out in a pool of her own vomit.

Good times!

Joan is hanging on so she could outlive that bitch Ethel.

I remember reading a story long ago that at one point, the naive Joan asked Jackie if Truman Capote was really a homosexual.

Jackie laughed and said, "Oh, Joan, he's as gay as paint!"

[quote]I reject the disease model regarding alcoholism ... One cannot catch it, there is no identified gene, or concert of genes involved, and there isn't a pathogen involved

I agree - there is no pathogen but genes can most definitely can be involved. It can be a heritable condition. It's a condition not a disease. it doesn't create alcoholism. It creates a propensity to be an alcoholic or addict under the right circumstances.

Jackie married Onassis because if she remarried she would be cut off her Kennedy allowance

Nice distinction there R182. I can accept heritable condition, or propensity to not handle alcohol well. I feel the word disease also lets a lot of toxic blackguards off the hook sometimes; that I don't care for.

Totally agree - when I think if "disease" I think of something biological/organic. Long-term and abusive drinking can make changes to the central nervous system that can cause a variety of awful symptoms including lack control over drinking and difficulty quitting. People in in this condition can have seizures and need to go through withdrawal . Still, this isn't a disease but the the result of bathing the brain with large quantities of alcohol or long periods of time.

People drink because they have severe issues their dealing with.

So this definitely applies to Joan. She was married to a kennedy after all and that comes with a lot of heart ach I assume.

[quote] The Kennedys are America's Royal Family.

So, was Princess Margaret her counterpart in Britain's Royal Family?

Maybe for brief moment the Kennedys were a quasi Royal family in the USA .. but that moment long gone. It lingered awhile in Massachusetts but they have moved on too. Just a historical blip ...

[quote]Joan is hanging on so she could outlive that bitch Ethel.

Joan and Ethel should have a televised drink off and go shot for shot.

r187 - Princes Margaret was certainly a nasty piece of shit. She started drinking young and never really stopped for the next 50 years (she died at 71). I'm sure her brain was completely fried. IMO she has almost no redeeming qualitative. She lived a life of self-absorbed entitlement and yet was bitter that life hadn't treated her better.

"qualities"

There's a great book called "Jackie, Ethel, Joan" by J. Randy Taraborrelli that's very gossipy and full of great anecdotes. Joan and Jackie really liked each other and got along well. Neither one of them were the least bit athletic and had zero interest in sports, and loved art, literature and classical music so they really bonded over that. They were both real outsiders and never really fit in with the Kennedy family. When Jackie and Joan were staying at Hyannisport, Rose Kennedy irritated the hell out of them both. Jackie and Joan thought Rose had a few screws loose.

Alcoholism is a form of brain damage.

Two of three of Ted and Joan's kids have or had normal lives and aspirations.

The other looks like he suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome, so he was made a Congressman

[quote]Alcoholism is a form of brain damage.

Alcohol abuse can cause major damage the brain and nervous system.

A friend I totally trust had a locker next to JFK Jr.'s at the gym, and he reported back that John-John was VERY nice in the dick dept. I trust my friend a lot more than vicious old queens like Truman and Gore.

The last of JFK's siblings left alive is Jean Smith, who is now 90.

When Jean goes it will officially be the end of an era.

As far as the original Kennedy siblings are go.

Joan was drunk at Ted's funeral.

[quote] Joan was drunk at Ted's funeral.

How appropriate. And, no, I'm not kidding.

I wonder if Joan is off the wagon. I know if I were 81 years old, I'd just say "fuck it" and start pouring the drinks at 4pm every day.

Why wait till such a late hour r202? Citrus flavored Metamucil and vodka make a great breakfast screwdriver.

I wouldn't be surprised if 80 something Joan is suffering from dementia.

In you're 80s you can do whatever the hell you want. I'm sure Joan does too. After all she's filthy rich and a kennedy. So there you go.

The life she lived would drive you to drinking.

In the magazine cover in the OP's link she looks like Bob Hope in a blonde wig.

I didn't know she was still alive.

Joan came from money herself. I don’t know how much, but I do remember reading in one of the Kennedy books about how Joan’s “pedigree” was considerably more established and blue blooded than either Jackie or Ethel.

After she freed herself from Teddy, I think it was after Jackie died too, her children were trying to get her declared incompetent. Joan claimed her children only wanted control of her money. Caroline stepped in on Joan's side, and if what was reported was correct, got her cousins to back off the incompetent claims, set up an annuity or trust for Joan and both agreed to them being POAs or guardians for Joan. Apparently Caroline is very fond of Joan and has no use for her Ted Kennedy cousins, actually most of her Kennedy cousins.

[quote]Apparently Caroline is very fond of Joan and has no use for her Ted Kennedy cousins, actually most of her Kennedy cousins.

You can't blame her, most of them are entitled pieces of shit. Jackie had the right idea by keeping her kids at arm's length from their Kennedy cousins. Ethel and Bobby's kids in particular were wild and fucked up with drugs.

R203

Not so far off, actually. Patrick once wrote about the start of a "normal" day at their house was breakfast where everyone ignored/pretended not to notice Mom was hammered and staggering around in her bathrobe at 10 in the morning. She's not only been found drunk in other people's cars - she's been busted behind the wheel of her own cars.

When she fell in the street in Boston's Back Bay in 2006, she was abusing mouthwash and vanilla. She was buying huge quantities of vanilla to drink but told friends she'd "taken up baking."

She was dating a plastic surgeon in the 1980's who had a very high-end surgical center at the Hotel Vendome around the corner from her apartment but I have no idea if he did the good work or the bad.

You know you have a serious alcohol problem when you're found in the street passed out drunk.

That is just sad.

Joan probably went on a binge back on April when that Chappaquiddick movie was released. If she makes to next year for the 50th anniversary of the accident, maybe there will be a new "Joan Kennedy found drunk on the street" story.

She's lucky she never killed herself or anyone else, with all the years of driving shitfaced drunk all over Cape Cod and the Boston area.

Amazing she's still alive at 82, with the amount of booze she drank.

She and John McCain are the same age.

Or were...

Hope the Palins are funeral invitees, mainly to see how hunky Todd is aging.

R216 Don't discuss that Palin trash in this thread please. Don't you dare.

Fuck!!!!

Joan's dad was an ad exec, but I'm not sure where the Bennet money came from

She wanted to be me and FAILED at it, MISERABLY.

But she's still a historical figure though.

Too had we missed out on drunk Joan being First Lady. She would still have a better one than Melania "Hooker" Trump. Ted should went through with the lie that Mary Jo was driving the car in Chappaquiddick.

R221, We also missed out on Kitty Dukakis as another drunken FLOTUS.

I was the drunk FLOTUS.

As if she would've allowed herself to appear drunk as first lady.

She would've been a better first lady than Melania she literally does nothing at all.

Neither does Trump.

Joan Kennedy is my spirit alcoholic.

I drink and haven't been through ONE IOTA of what that bitch had to endure.

Some people are just weaker I assume. Maybe that was joans problem.

All Joan had to do to assuage her crippling need for drink was take matters into her own hands. All she had to do was take a baseball bat to Teddy as he slept in the morning to release all that pent up pain and frustration. It would have felt good for her to rage once in a while, and he damned well deserved it. But no. She had to turn to that lying son-of-a-bitch, Johnny Walker instead.

Didn’t Joan’s mother have some sort of breakdown after Chappaquiddick? I remember reading in The Kennedy Women that she was put into a home or something.

She was interviewed extensively about Ted and the family in that book. None of them come off well in her recollections,except Eunice and Jackie. Jean, Pat and Ethel treated her like shit. Rose thought she should shut up and ignore his indiscretions. Shortly after the book was published, Joan took Ted back to court and won a bigger financial settlement.