LF: EXCLUSIVE: Why the Kennedys loathe Andrew Cuomo: He failed to pay tens of thousands for family expenses while married to RFK’s daughter, pressured an ally to charge his ex for drug-driving and used Kennedy name to further his ambition

Title: EXCLUSIVE: Why the Kennedys loathe Andrew Cuomo: He failed to pay tens of thousands for family expenses while married to RFK’s daughter, pressured an ally to charge his ex for drug-driving and used Kennedy name to further his ambition
Source: Daily Mail Online
URL Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art ... ing-used-Kennedy-ambition.html
Published: Dec 9, 2015
Author: Martin Gould
Post Date: 2015-12-09 17:29:02 by cranky
Keywords: None
Views: 1358

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo failed to pay tens of thousands of dollars into a fund as his share of the family's expenses while married to one of Robert F. Kennedy's daughters, Daily Mail Online has learned exclusively.

The result of his inaction is that ex-wife Kerry Kennedy is considerably worse off than her eight surviving siblings or other members of the Kennedy clan.

And that is why Kerry, 56, has been determined to battle the husband she divorced more than a decade ago for child support for their three daughters, who are all now at Ivy League universities.

'Kerry never thought to check to make sure Andrew was paying the money in while she was married, it was only after they split that she realized,' one inside Kennedy source tells Daily Mail Online.

Cuomo and Kennedy finally came to an agreement on the cash to fund their daughters' education late last week after The New York Post started digging into the matter.

The Post said the dispute surrounded 'substantial amounts' of child support payments for the past two-and-a-half years.

The Post claimed Cuomo, who is seen as a likely future Democratic presidential candidate, only paid up a few hours after learning that the paper was preparing an article in a bid to avoid adverse publicity.

But sources tell Daily Mail Online this isn't the first time that Cuomo, 58, has tried to avoid paying money to his ex. He did the same when they were married.

Cuomo was married to Kerry Kennedy, the seventh of Bobby Kennedy's 11 children, for a decade and a half before their 2005 divorce, which came years after the marriage had broken down.

They have three daughters, 20-year-old twins Cara and Mariah and 18-year-old Michaela. Cara is now a junior at Harvard while Mariah and Michaela both attend Brown.

'Kerry has been at the end of her rope over this because nothing seemed to convince him to do the right thing,' the Post quoted a source close to Kennedy.

And a second source tells Daily Mail Online: 'At the beginning of the marriage Andrew agreed to pay his share of the bills by paying a check into the Kennedy family office which deals with all of the different branches of the family and deals with their taxes and that sort of thing.

'But throughout the marriage Kerry never checked that the money was going in and it was only after it became that she learned he had not made the contributions she thought he was making.'

Bobby Kennedy's children are not as well off as other members of the Kennedy clan for several reasons, the source continued.

For starters, he and wife Ethel had so many children the money was split more ways, and he spent so much on the 1968 presidential campaign that ended in his assassination that the family finances never had a chance to recover fully, the source said.

'Kerry is not exactly poor, but she does not have as much money as the rest of the family, so she cannot afford to pay the Ivy League expenses of three children, the source explained.

The total cost of tuition and board at Harvard is a little over $60,000 a year, while at Brown it is slightly less, meaning that education costs for the three girls comes to $179,515 a year — $515 more than the New York governor's pre-tax salary.

Cuomo's spokesman did not reply to Daily Mail Online's request for comment. but the governor and his ex told the Post in a joint statement that 'rumors of discord’ are ‘unfounded and untrue gossip, and as such their publication would be hurtful and inaccurate.' In a second statement the pair added: ‘Kerry speaks for herself and only she would know the truth.'

But bad blood between Andrew Cuomo and the Kennedy clan has been building ever since the marriage ended.

Many Kennedys believe that Cuomo pressured his close ally, Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore, to charge Kerry with drugged driving after she sideswiped a tractor trailer in 2012.

She claimed she had accidentally taken an Ambien instead of her thyroid medication and the jury acquitted her.

Political couple: Kerry Kennedy Cuomo and then husband Andrew Cuomo arrive at a White House Gala in honor of visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair February 5, 1998 in Washington, DC

One happy family? Andrew Cuomo poses with wife Kerry Kennedy, mother-in-law Ethel Kennedy and sister-in-law Rory Kennedy in 2002. But a biography claims Cuomo only showed up to family events when they were covered by the media

Six months before her arrest DiFiore had pursued harassment and child endangerment charges against Kerry's younger brother Douglas claiming he had assaulted two nurses who tried to stop him taking his two-day-old son out of Northern Westchester Medical Center for some fresh air. That case was also thrown out.

Last week Cuomo nominated DiFiore to the $198,600-a-year post of chief judge of the New York state Court of Appeals - the highest judicial post in the state.

The free-wheeling Kennedys never took to the buttoned-down Cuomo even when he was still married to Kerry.

In a biography about Cuomo, The Contender, published earlier this year, author Michael Shnayerson said the large clan always looked at him with suspicion, thinking he was using the Kennedy name to improve his name recognition.

'He wasn't fun: he didn't get fun. He was, to put it mildly, a spoilsport,' Schnayerson wrote.

'Unlike the Kennedys, too, he didn't mask his ambition with charm, and no one, not even his in-laws, would stand in his way.'

The biography said Cuomo 'hated' family gatherings at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis, Massachusetts. 'He always felt like the odd man out. The joshing around, the freewheeling talks — Andrew was just too tightly wound to join in.'

He eventually stopped going to any Kennedy family event that wasn't covered by the media, Schnayerson claims in the book.

But when the press was there, he made sure he was front and center.

'He would always find the exact perfect place to stand so he could be in the newspaper the next day,' recalled a relative.

'So if that meant grabbing (Ethel's) hand and walking to the grave, or standing next to John or Caroline, he would get himself in the frame. That was his whole thrust.'

One of the most cringeworthy moments of the relationship came when Cuomo launched his ill-fated 2002 campaign for governor, with many Kennedys turning up for the announcement, only to find the Rolling Stones number 'Sympathy for the Devil' — with its famous line 'I shouted out "Who killed the Kennedys?" when after all it was you and me' — blasting from the speakers.

Insiders say Kerry found out soon after their 1990 marriage that she and Cuomo had little in common.

Swearing in: Andrew Cuomo is sworn in as Governor of New York at his inauguration in the War Room at the state Capitol in Albany by Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals Jonathan Lippman January 1, 2011. His girlfriend Sandra Lee and his daughters Michaela, Mariah and Cara stood by his side

Many Kennedys believe that Cuomo pressured his close ally, Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore, to charge Kerry with drugged driving after she sideswiped a tractor trailer in 2012. Last week Cuomo nominated DiFiore to the $198,600-a-year post of chief judge of the New York state Court of Appeals - the highest judicial post in the state

She discovered that he had little appetite for anything but his work as deputy secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

'He would go to his daughters' soccer games and sit in his SUV reading briefing papers,' one insider said.

Eventually the marriage broke down but Kerry agreed to stay with him until after the 2002 governor's race, when Cuomo lost the Democratic nomination.

With the marriage in tatters, Kerry had an affair with close friend Bruce Colley - whose 83-year-old mother Lois was brutally murdered at her home in North Salem, New York, last month - increasing Cuomo's dislike of all things Kennedy.

He eventually hooked up with TV chef, Sandra Lee, and they now live together in New Castle, New York, just a 10-minute drive from Kerry's home in nearby Bedford.

Friends say that since meeting Lee in 2005, Cuomo has become less self-centered and even Kerry Kennedy believes he is a better father now than he was when they were married.

All three of the daughters are said to be devoted to him. Last December on his 57th birthday, Michaela wrote an open letter to her father, that was published in the Westchester paper, the Journal News calling him 'so much more than the most accomplished governor in recent history — he is the most supportive, attentive, and reliable friend and father any child has ever had.'

'Andrew Cuomo has not only passed four budgets on time for the first time in 40 years, but he has also been on time for every soccer game, basketball game, tennis match, track meet, ski race, concert, and play, for the past 19 years of my sisters and my lives,' she added.

'My friends envy my relationship with my Dad. And their parents admire the work that he has done. Each Sunday evening, we sit down to our traditional sausage and meatballs with pasta, and the governor talks about the latest global, national, and local issues, and how he is approaching them.

'I give my Dad my opinion and we discuss and debate. There is no wall between political and family life, yet there is distinctly devoted time for both individually. I do not know how he does it.'