“Skiing accident”
In 1997, the news broke that Kennedy was having an affair with the family's underage former babysitter. Allegations were reported that the affair had begun three years earlier, when the babysitter was 14 years old. Kennedy took and passed three polygraph tests conducted by companies employed and directed by the Kennedy family, claiming he had not had sex with the Cohasset teen until she was 16, the legal age of consent in Massachusetts at the time. Kennedy was placed under investigation for statutory rape.[5] Shortly after the scandal surfaced, Kennedy and his wife separated.[5]
Death
Kennedy died on December 31, 1997, in a skiing accident in Aspen Mountain, Colorado. He was playing football while on skis with several other members of the Kennedy family when, at approximately 4:15 p.m., he hit a tree. Kennedy was not wearing a helmet or other safety equipment. The family had been admonished by the ski patrol to cease the activity.[8] Following the accident, Kennedy was taken to Aspen Valley Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 5:50 p.m.[9]
He was interred on January 3, 1998, in the family plot at Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline, Massachusetts.[10]