Her parents were Virginia Joan Stead (1911–1976) and Harry Wiggin Bennett Jr. (1907-1981)[1] Her father was a graduate of Cornell University and worked as an advertising executive.

Ted suffered a severe back injury in a 1964 airplane crash while campaigning for his first full Senate term.

In July 1969, Ted Kennedy was involved in a car accident at a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts that resulted in the death of his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne.

[7] Although pregnant and confined to bed in the wake of two previous miscarriages, Joan attended Kopechne's funeral.

Three days later, she stood beside her husband in a local court when he pled guilty to leaving the scene of an accident.

The alcohol problem escalated with sporadic, uneven sobriety, repeated drunk-driving arrests,[2] court-ordered rehabilitation,[2] and a return to drinking.

That year she was hospitalized with a concussion and a broken shoulder after being found lying in a Boston street near her home.

[2][13][14] In 2005, she requested that her second cousin, financial planner Webster E. Janssen of Connecticut, establish a trust to control her estate.

[citation needed] Her children later took successful legal action against Janssen, removing him as trustee and later filing a complaint against him with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.