In 2011 affidavit, RFK Jr. says estranged wife Mary Kennedy was abusive, threatened suicide

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says in a newly revealed legal filing that his estranged wife, Mary, was abusive toward his children from an earlier marriage and asked the court to prohibit her from threatening suicide in front of their kids.

Mary Kennedy killed herself last month at the family's estate in Bedford, New York, two years after Robert Kennedy filed for divorce.

Portions of a confidential affidavit filed in 2011 in connection to divorce proceedings were posted online Sunday by The Daily Beast as part of a cover story in Newsweek magazine about Mary Kennedy. A spokesman for the site is declining to comment on how the affidavit was obtained.

The couple married in 1994 and had four children together.

Calls to lawyers for both Kennedys were not immediately returned.