Inside the Chappaquiddick Incident: How Joan Kennedy Handled Her Husband Ted Kennedy's Most Damaging Scandal

Following her death on Oct. 8, 2025, PEOPLE remembers the impact of the 1969 Chappaquiddick incident on Joan Bennett Kennedy, the first wife of Sen. Ted Kennedy.
The Inlander

Chappaquiddick is a well-cast - if a bit dry - film about a 1969 political scandal

Honesty is always the best policy. If only Sen. Ted Kennedy abided by it in the tumultuous year of 1969. Backdropped by his brothers' assassinations, the "giant leap for mankind" and the Vietnam War, ...

Joan Kennedy, First Wife of Ted Kennedy and the Last Survivor of Camelot, Dies at 89

Joan Bennett Kennedy, the first wife of Ted Kennedy, has died at the age of 89. She divorced the late senator in 1983, but ...

Joan Kennedy Was ‘Never Able to Come Back’ From Being Pushed Over the Edge By Kennedy Family

Keeping up with the ruthlessly ambitious political clan that cruelly kicked her to the curb fueled the self-destructive ...

Joan Kennedy, first wife of Sen. Edward Kennedy, has died

BOSTON (AP) — Joan B. Kennedy, the former wife of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy who endured a troubled marriage marked by family tragedies, her husband’s infidelities and her own decades-long struggles with ...

Joan Kennedy, the Last Remaining Survivor of Camelot, Died Peacefully in Her Sleep at Age 89

The last remaining survivor of Camelot has died. Joan Kennedy passed away peacefully in her sleep on Oct. 8. She was 89. A ...

Joan Kennedy's Death Certificate Offers New Insight into Her Final Years (Exclusive)

Ted Kennedy, died at 89 years old on Oct. 8 PEOPLE obtained ... There was also the scandal of Chappaquiddick in July 1969, when Ted's car went off a bridge at Chappaquiddick Island, Mass., killing his ...