Felix Baumgartner stepped out of the space capsule an astonishing 128,100 feet, or 24.26 miles above earth, about three times the cruising altitude of jetliners.  Wow!  The skydiver plummeted for 4:20 seconds, but it seemed an eternity, because his faceplate was fogging up on the way down as he fell through harsh atmospheric conditions at a dizzying speed.  Baumgartner was also thrown into a dangerous tumble shortly after exiting.  “It felt like a flat spin.  I had a lot of pressure in my head, but I felt I could regain control so we could go after the sound barrier,” said Baumgartner.

According to Brian Utley, who’s responsible for FIA certification, roughly one minute into his jump Baumgartner reached a top speed of 833.9 mph, a new record for a skydiver.  That also means he successfully broke the sound barrier, reaching Mach 1.24.  Had his suit torn, however, it would have meant instant death.

He also broke the record for the highest manned balloon flight, unofficially reaching a height just shy of 25 miles.  He did so in a balloon that’s also the largest ever manned.

Baumgartner’s long-anticipated leap from the edge of space was the Austrian daredevil’s attempt at breaking all those records, most notably the highest successful jump and becoming the only skydiver to break the sound barrier.  Baumgartner is the first skydiver to ever break through the sound barrier, and remarkably, it comes 65 years to the day after Chuck Yeager, flying in his X-1A, first broke through the harrowing milestone.

As Baumgartner opened the hatch of his capsule and stepped out onto the platform, he said before jumping, “I wish the whole world could see what I see.”

After landing, he said the only thing he was thinking about once on the platform was getting back to earth alive.  “At that height you become so humble, you don’t think about breaking records anymore.  You just want to come back.”

The Red Bull Stratos project had been seven years in the making. Baumgartner, 43, made the leap while wearing a pressurized space suit.  He jumped from a pressurized capsule that was hoisted toward the heavens above Roswell, New Mexico, by a towering white stratospheric balloon.

During the marathon free-fall, Baumgartner’s unofficial speed of 706 mph came while passing through sub-freezing air zones.  While falling, he was communicating with mission control that his visor was fogging up, which is the likely reason behind his early parachute deployment, at 4:20.

The epic jump, the team has maintained, represents more than a mere stunt.  Extensive research that went into this mission is expected to help scientists design safer and more effective space suits for future astronauts.

Family and friends were on hand, with his mother, Eva, describing the feat as Baumgartner’s “biggest dream coming true.”

Baumgartner, whose mission was planned cautiously and meticulously by a team of scientists, shattered a 52-year-old skydiving altitude record of 102,800 feet.  That belonged to Joseph Kittinger, a former U.S. Air Force colonel, who joined the Red Bull Stratos project as chief of flight operations and safety.  Last March the skydiver and famous BASE jumper made a preparation jump from 71,580 feet (more than 13 miles) above Roswell.  During that leap he set a world free-fall speed record of 364.4 mph.  The free-fall spanned 3 minutes, 43 seconds, and included a plunge through temperatures as cold as minus-75 degrees.

Baumgartner became so cold that he could hardly move his hands, and the free-fall was so long that he had to fight the urge to deploy the parachute too early.  Remarkably, two others had survived jumps from similar altitudes–both in the 1960s. They were Russia’s Eugene Andreev and American Joseph Kittinger.  In July Baumgartner made his final test jump, from 97,146 feet, also in Roswell.

The balloon was launched from the back of a pickup truck.  For 52 years Kittinger, who also wore a pressurized suit, held the distinction of taking what had been described as “the highest step in the world.”  It was during an era in which nobody knew whether a human could survive a jump from the edge of space.  A handful of people died while trying to beat Kittinger’s record.

Before Sunday’s jump, Baumgartner said of the mental struggles: “You get claustrophobic fast in the pressurized suit.  You start to let your mind go, and you think of people who lost their lives trying to do what Joe Kittinger did.  You have to get your mind in a different place.  Count backwards … whatever you have to do.”

Kittinger added: “Of course it’s not easy.  It takes a special combination [of talents].  The best partner you can have is Felix Baumgartner.”

On Sunday, Kittinger had a special message for all the doubters at the post-jump press conference.  “I’d like to give a special one finger salute to all those who said he’d come apart going supersonic.”

When Felix Baumgartner was asked what’s next now that he’s achieved this long awaited dream, he replied, “Well, in forty years I’d like to be in the seat Joe Kittinger is in today, helping somebody try to break my record.”

Tuition-Free Schools

Recent graduate Greg Serrao saved nearly $150,000 earning his college degree by attending one of the country’s tuition-free universities.

The 23-year-old just finished his degree at Cooper Union in New York City, where tuition is technically listed as $37,500 per year.  But for the approximate 8% of applicants who get accepted each year, that cost disappears, thanks to a four-year scholarship.

“I still had to pay for room and board, which can be expensive living in New York City, but tuition was covered fully by the scholarship.  Other students…went completely for free either by working as a resident assistant in exchange for free housing, qualifying for scholarships or by living at home,” says Serrao.

On the country’s shortlist of colleges and universities offering free tuition, there’s Alice Lloyd College in Kentucky, Curtis Institute of Music in Pennsylvania, Deep Springs College in California and St. Louis Christian College in Missouri.

Search “Free”

Staying on top of the news may also help you come across free tuition opportunities. For example, a quick news search of ‘free college tuition’ leads to an announcement called ‘Michigan 2020,’ a new plan in 2012 that gives the state’s resident high school seniors a $9,500 grant each year – roughly the cost of attending a local state school or community college.

Watch For Full Scholarships at New Schools

Keep an eye out for brand new institutions offering inaugural classes where they lure in students with free tuition deals.  For example, after going out of business in 2008, Antioch College in Ohio re-launched its curriculum last year and now promises a 4-year tuition scholarship to the fall classes in 2012, 2013 and 2014, a savings of more than $100,000.

Cast a Wide Scholarship Net

If your dream school doesn’t offer a full scholarship like Antioch, remember there are millions of dollars worth of other academic scholarships awarded each year.  To win as much as possible, you need to act fast and cast a wide net.

“People should start searching for scholarships as soon as possible. Don’t wait until the spring of your senior year in high school because by then you’ll have missed half the deadlines during the senior year alone,” says Mark Kantrowitz, founder of FinAid.org and author of the book, Secrets to Winning a Scholarship.

One myth many have about scholarships, says Kantrowitz, is that you need to be a top student or have years of community service to qualify.  Not true.  The AXA Achievement Scholarship, for example, doesn’t require straight A’s, and winners receive up to $25,000.  Other generous scholarships include the Intel Science Talent Search, where the top award is $100,000, and the Coca-Cola Scholars Program, which gives $20,000 to the top 50 finalists.

“You also want to apply for every scholarship for which you’re eligible.  It’s a bit of a numbers game,” adds Kantrowitz.  “Even among the most talented students, winning involves a bit of luck, not just skill.”

Check out free scholarship databases online at Fastweb.com and Scholarships.com.

Join the Army

One final strategy for those seeking free tuition is to join the army.  It’s not for everyone, but there are various armed forces colleges that charge no tuition in exchange for active service after graduation, including: The U.S. Military Academy, the U.S. Naval Academy and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.

It’s no secret that women live longer than men.  But a new study by the Wharton School’s Retirement Research Center suggests that some professional financial advisers neglect to take that fact into account when they tell clients how to time their Social Security benefits.

The mistake could cost women who outlive their husbands, and who might benefit from a significant monthly check into their 80s or 90s.  Slightly more than half of women 65 and older rely on Social Security for three-quarters of their income, according to the Employee Benefits Research Institute. Choosing when to start taking benefits—a decision that can be affected by factors like health, savings and other sources of income is complex even for pros.

While seniors can start receiving checks as early as age 62, doing so means they’ll get less each month than they would if they waited until the maximum age of 70 to start taking distributions.  Spouses that don’t work, usually women, in the baby boomer generation currently reaching retirement age—also receive benefits based on their partners’ earnings.

But women’s longevity is not being taken into account in the calculus, the study found.  “At age 62, there’s a lot you can do,” says co-author Andrew Biggs, a former Social Security Administration official.  “You may have a big 401(k), you can go still go back to work.  At 72, there are a lot fewer options.”

The study, which posed questions about a number of specific scenarios to a group of about 400 professional financial advisers, suggests that many are tailoring their advice to the needs of the husband without thinking as carefully about the impact on the wife.

For instance, presented with a 62-year-old man in average health who wants to retire right away but has, together with his wife, saved $800,000, only one in five advisers suggested he put off taking Social Security as long as possible.  The recommendations were made despite the fact that with such a large nest egg, the couple appeared to face little immediate need for cash and the decision would significantly crimp the woman’s survivor benefit should she become a widow.

Of course, while most financial advisers are men, the study doesn’t prove that these conclusions were driven purely by chauvinism.  A more charitable explanation might be that the advisers perceived the chief breadwinner in each scenario as their client.

Another, says Biggs, is that the educational materials provided by the government, while recently improved, haven’t historically done a good enough job of emphasizing the issue.

I’m sure those of you following this Ann Curry departure saga at the TODAY show are fairly regular watchers.  We are all familiar with Savannah, as she has been a legal correspondent, as well as a co-host during the 9 o’clock hour of the TODAY show.  She’s smart, she’s bubbly, and, yet, there is much more to her pretty face.  Here are 10 things you should, or may just want to know about your new co-host:

1. She’s not named for the city in Georgia. She was actually named after her great-grandmother. And her middle name is Clark. (So is her grandmother’s.)

2. Australia born, Arizona raised. Guthrie grew up in Tucson, Ariz., where she attended Amphitheater High School, graduating in the same class as Olympic medalist and NFL player Michael Bates.

But she was actually born in Melbourne, Australia, where her father was stationed for work. She lived there two years before the family returned to the United States.

3. Higher education. Guthrie earned an undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Arizona in 1993, where she graduated cum laude.

Years later, in the midst of a thriving broadcast journalism career, Guthrie attended Georgetown University Law Center. She earned her Juris Doctor there in 2002, graduating magna cum laude.

Guthrie is also a teacher: She led a first-year Legal Research and Writing workshop for first-year Georgetown law students.

4. She scored highest in the Arizona bar exam. Of the 634 people who took the Arizona bar exam in July 2002, Guthrie scored the highest, according to the state Supreme Court.

After also passing the D.C. bar, she worked as a litigation associate, specializing in white-collar criminal defense at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, a D.C. law firm.

5. Broadcasting bona fides. Guthrie got her first break in broadcast journalism in 1993 with a weekend anchor gig for the ABC affiliate in Columbia, Mo. In 1995, she moved back to Tucson to work as an anchor and reporter at the NBC affiliate.

She left for Washington, D.C., in 2000, where she worked as a freelance reporter at NBC affiliate WRC-TV, covering the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon and the 2001 anthrax mailings.

She joined Court TV (now truTV) in 2002 while working at Akin Gump, where she worked as the national trial correspondent, covering such high-profile cases as the Michael Jackson molestation case, the Boston clergy sex abuse scandal trial and the sentencing of Martha Stewart.

6. A quick rise at Today. After serving as NBC News White House correspondent from December 2008 to June 2011, reporting for NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams, Today and MSNBC (where she co-hosted The Daily Rundown for a little over a year), Guthrie was asked to join Today full time in June 2011 as co-host of the show’s third hour. She also serves as the show’s chief legal analyst.

7. She plays hardball. Guthrie has said that her approach to any interview is “to try to think of the one question they would rather not be asked, just to see what they would say.”

8. She isn’t immune to controversy. In a Today Show segment from August 2011, Guthrie asked a doctor guest if “it’s proper to breastfeed in public.” Later, she compared breastfeeding to going to the bathroom, saying, “You have to go to the bathroom but you don’t do that in public, hopefully. Is there a difference?”

The comments earned an angry protest on Twitter, where outraged moms marked their outraged tweets with the hashtag #NIP (a punny acronym for “not in public”).

9. She is single. Guthrie met her husband, then-BBC journalist Mark Orchard, while both covered the Jackson trial in 2005. The two married December 2005, but the marriage had dissolved by January 2009.

Guthrie was later romantically linked to political consultant Mi­chael Feldman, a former aide to Al Gore.

10. Her dream is to play guitar with Shawn Colvin and Patty Griffin. She admitted this in a question-and-answer session with Today viewers.

Ann Curry announced, just before the 9 o’clock hour, that she will be stepping down as co-host of the TODAY show. She stated that she will be taking on a new challenge at NBC News.  As TODAY Anchor at Large and National and International Correspondent for NBC News, Curry will lead a new team covering stories spanning the globe.  She’ll anchor prime-time specials and report for TODAY, Nightly News, Rock Center, Dateline and MSNBC, and will have a major presence across all digital properties.

“We’re going to go all over the world and all over this country at a time where this world needs clarity,” she said.   “After all these years I don’t even know if I can sleep in anymore,” she joked.  Matt, Al and Natalie “seemed” to express their love. “You have the biggest heart in the business,” Matt said.  “You put that on display every single day for almost 20 years.  Most importantly, you’ve made us better, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”

Over 15 years at NBC News, Ann has covered violence and ethnic cleansing in Sudan, interviewed the Dalai Lama, reported from Japan after 2011’s devastating earthquake and tsunami and broke the news that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would release the two American hikers held hostage in that country for two years.  She has earned seven Emmy Awards.  “I know of only one journalist who in just a matter of years has travelled to Sudan six times, broken exclusive world news with top world leaders, and broadcast live from both the South Pole and Mount Kilimanjaro,” said TODAY Executive Producer Jim Bell.  “Ann has quite literally reached amazing heights in her career, and with this new role, she will continue her intrepid climb bringing viewers her signature brand of humanitarian reporting.”

At this point, there is no word on the deal she struck with NBC to leave TODAY, but it has been rumored that she was asking for the remainder of her contract, $20 million.  Nothing has been announced officially, but the front runner for her position is Savannah Guthrie.  It has also been swirling that Natalie was threatening to quit if she was passed over again, as well as Matt’s wife threatening to divorce him if Natalie gets the position.  I’m sure many of these rumors will be addressed throughout the day.  Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Matt Lauer’s wife WILL be accompanying him, along with his 3 children to the Olympic games in London this summer.  She generally not travel with him, as it is a lot of work to tote along 3 children, let alone across an ocean.  They will be staying at a different hotel then the rest of the cast and crew.  Annette clearly still has concerns about Natalie and is not taking any chances.   Radar Online reported, “Annette has made no bones about the fact she will be keeping close tabs on Matt.”

All of this controversy stems from rumors that seem to never cease about Matt Lauer cheating on his wife.  It had once been said he had an extramarital affair with Meredith Vieira, as well as fathering a love child with Natalie Morales.  Are the tabloids right?  Is Matt not the family man he portrays on tv?

UPDATE:  Savannah Guthrie will be taking over Ann’s chair next to Matt tomorrow morning.  TMZ has also reported that, “it’s ‘likely’ they will formally announce the big switch during the show.”

UPDATE: No replacement has been named as of yet.  It appears it is still up in the air.  They are still debating between Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie.

UPDATE: Savannah Guthrie HAS been named, on the TODAY show website, as the new co-anchor of the TODAY show.  She will now officially be sitting alongside Matt Lauer each morning.

Subway has decided to expand its menu to attract more vegan customers.  The company says it will begin a limited test of three new vegan sandwiches in 8 locations throughout Maryland, Washington D.C., and Virginia, according Kevin Kane, Subway’s public relations manager.  They are set to be released this week.

The three new options: Malibu Greek, Sweet Riblet, and Italian Black Bean – all are available meat free, and dairy free.

“We’re testing to see what what the reception is, if people like them,” says Kane who added that there are no plans at this time to add the vegan options on menus nationwide.  Kane says the idea for the sandwiches was presented to Subway by one franchise owner in the mid-Atlantic region.  The sandwiches are available on the vegan breads available at the restaurant: Roasted Garlic, Sourdough, Light Wheat English Muffin, Hearty Italian, and Hearty Italian White.  The cost is $7.00 for the foot-long and $4.50 for the 6-inch.

Animal advocacy organization, Compassion Over Killing, says it convinced Subway to sell the new options after it launched its “We Love Subway” campaign, after the group lobbied the fast food chain to introduce the “Totally Vegged” vegan patty in Canada.

Locations to get new sandwiches:

Washington, DC:

• 555 13th St NW, Washington, DC 20005 — (202) 347-4616
• 455 Massachusetts Ave, NW (1st Floor) Washington, DC 20001 — (202) 638-0348
• 550 First St., NW, Washington, DC 20001 — (202) 661-6639

Maryland

• 8145 Main St, Ellicott City, MD 21043 — (410) 418-4330
• 5520 Research Park Dr, #107, Catonsville, MD 21228 — (410) 455-5222
• 300 Sentinel Dr, #100, Annapolis Junction, MD 20701 — (301) 490-6553

Virginia

• 320 King St, Alexandria, VA 22314 — (703) 879-4321
• 2361 Eisenhower Ave, Alexandria, VA 22314 — (703) 879-4321

As you’d expect, today’s Apple WWDC keynote drew big crowds of Apple fans eager for hardware and software news. Yet, you might be surprised that even the most devout Android enthusiasts were watching along to see what the “competition” was doing.

After two hours crammed full of products and services, we came away with some wonderful stuff. What we didn’t get, though, is a new iPhone or any promise of when one might come. And while that’s surely disappointing for some, it opens the way for a sunny Android summer, dominated largely by Samsung.

Outside of Apple, there are few handset manufacturers able to garner such stratospheric buzz for the release of a new smartphone. Part of it has to do with Android’s sheer volume of handsets (there’s almost a new one every week), but also no other company has mastered Apple’s art of building hype. Samsung, however, is on to something. While nearly every other Android device generated just a bit of Internet buzz, Samsung’s Galaxy S III stands to generate iPhone levels of excitement.

Indeed, no other Android phones thus far has produced months of speculation and rumors or this level of enthusiasm. Sure, they were popular, but the Motorola Droid, the HTC Evo, and not the first Android ever, the T-Mobile G1, didn’t exactly send people into a frenzy or the rumor mill into overtime.

Thanks to a unified brand and singular form factor across five major carriers, however, things look pretty rosy for the Galaxy S III. The handset, which features cutting edge smartphone technology and a sprinkling of Samsung’s own innovation, will have people talking this summer just as they’ve been talking about it already for several months. And with the next iPhone not expected until fall, Samsung could steal away a number of iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 owners who are off their contract and waiting to upgrade.

What’s more, as one of the biggest sponsors for the London 2012 Olympic Games, Samsung will be investing millions of dollars to show off their new baby. For consumers living in the United States, the timing of the event falls within days (or weeks) of the phone hitting various carriers. If done right, Samsung will have users flocking to their respective wireless provider, asking for “the one on TV”.

Consider also the silence from Samsung’s competitors. Of its two main competitors in the Android wars, Motorola has been nearly silent since the Droid Razr Maxx hit, and HTC hasn’t broken the bank rolling out the One X. Depending on what you believe, the One X might be the only handset worthy of knocking the crown from the Galaxy S III, but it’s only available with AT&T and Samsung is playing a better marketing game.

To really see Android’s response to Apple, we’ll have to wait for Google’s annual developer conference, Google I/O, which kicks off in two weeks. With Jelly Bean and a Nexus 7 tablet rumored for the three day event, Google is poised to build on Android’s momentum. At the moment, however, nothing has as much momentum right now as the Galaxy S III. And until the next iPhone is a reality, I don’t see anything coming over the horizon that looks to get in Samsung’s way right now, including offerings from other Android handset makers.

If someone works hard to earn a scholarship, should it matter how much their family is worth?  When Justin Combs turned 16, his father, hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, gave him a $360,000 silver Maybach.  When Justin Combs decided to play football in college, UCLA gave him a $54,000 scholarship.

As UCLA confirmed this week that the recent graduate of New York’s New Rochelle Iona Prep would enroll on a full athletic scholarship, some questioned if the cash-strapped school should pay for the education of the son of a man worth an estimated $475 million… or  whether the 18-year-old should have accepted the offer.  (I for one think he had every right to accept the scholarship without thinking twice).

Justin Combs took to Twitter to defend his scholarship:  “Regardless what the circumstances are, I put that work in!!!!” he tweeted on Wednesday. “PERIOD.”

“Regardless of what you do in life every1 is gonna have their own opinion,” he tweeted.  “Stay focused, keep that tunnel vision & never 4get why u started.”

It’s not the first time the child of a wealthy celebrity has received a full ride, and many students said they weren’t that concerned since it wasn’t affecting need-based aid.

Combs — a 5-foot-9, 170-pound defensive back who reportedly graduated with a 3.75 GPA, announced in November he would attend UCLA, turning down scholarship offers from Illinois, Virginia and Wyoming.

UCLA was quick to defend its decision, saying the money used for Combs’ merit-based athletic scholarship wouldn’t affect need-based scholarships awarded to other students.  University spokesman Ricardo Vazquez said athletic scholarships were “entirely funded by Athletic Department ticket sales, corporate partnerships, media contracts and private donations” and “do not rely on state funds.”  “There is a big separation between financial aid based on need and how that’s funded and how athletic scholarships are funded and awarded to students,” he said.

The Times reported in October that the university had used more than $2 million from student fees to cover an athletic department funding gap the year before.  That money, Vazquez said, did not go to the roughly 285 athletic scholarships UCLA hands out each year.

Emily Resnick, the outgoing president of UCLA’s Undergraduate Students Assn., said she sees no problem with Combs’ scholarship if needy students are unaffected.  “If his athletic abilities deserve it, then more power to him,” the graduating senior said.

Joelle Gamble, who will graduate from UCLA in a couple of weeks, said the university would likely benefit from the buzz generated by having a celebrity’s son on the team.
“UCLA is a business — to them, giving him a scholarship is some sort of investment,” she said.  “It’s how college athletics works.  This is how we’re going to get money.”  Essentially, the more buss the school creates, the more attention it gets, and in theory, will earn them more money in ticket sales, admissions, and donations.

But UCLA coaches have insisted that Combs is more than just a music man’s son.  “Football is very important to him and that’s one thing I love about him,” defensive backs coach Demetrice Martin told the Daily Bruin in February.  “He’s not just the son of a star … he really likes football.”

Donna Summer was convinced that inhaling toxic air after 9/11 gave her the lung cancer that eventually killed her, as reported by TMZ.  Sources close to the singer told TMZ that Donna was in New York City during 9/11, living at an apartment near Ground Zero.  Eventually, Donna became almost paranoid about breathing the air, which was heavy with a rancid odor.  In the months and years following 9/11, Donna’s feelings intensified.  One source told reporters that when he was around Donna, she would constantly spray some sort of disinfectant in the air.  Deney Terrio, the host of “Dance Fever,” told TMZ that when he was around Donna post 9/11, she would hang silk sheets in her dressing room to prevent dust from coming in.

Another source said that Donna, who was a fervent practicing Christian, believed 9/11 was an attack on Christianity and in some metaphysical way Christians like her were targets.  She somehow felt that her illness was a byproduct of the attack.

And, we’re told, after Donna was diagnosed with lung cancer, several people told her that cigarette smoke may have been the culprit… she was a smoker, and she also frequented clubs where people smoked.  But Donna simply didn’t buy it.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s wife Mary Richardson Kennedy, was found dead in her New York home on Wednesday.  It has been reported that she was “depressed and despondent” shortly before she committed suicide, a source close to the former architect tells RadarOnline.com exclusively.

The long time friend, who spoke to Mary on Monday, said they were sadly not surprised by reports that the 52-year-old had taken her own life, as she was facing mounting financial woes and the end of her marriage.

As RadarOnline.com was first to report, Mary was discovered dead at her Mount Kisco, New York home Wednesday.  A source told RadarOnline.com that she had committed suicide, we have since confirmed that she hanged herself in a barn.

“I spoke to Mary on Monday and she sounded extremely down,” the source tells RadarOnline.com.  “She was very depressed and despondent and worried about the future.  “Mary said she was facing financial ruin, with American Express coming after her hard for an outstanding debt, along with several other creditors.  In addition, she was concerned that Robert was about to substantially reduce the amount of financial support he gave her and she was terrified she would have to file for bankruptcy and lose her home.”

Mary was married to the famed Kennedy for 16 years, before he filed for divorce in May 2010.  The couple had four children together.  Mary lived at the family home in Mount Kisco, while Robert spent the majority of his time in Los Angeles.

“Robert still supported Mary and was there for her whenever he could be, but he had pretty much moved on,” a source close to the radio host previously told RadarOnline.com.  “He has been dating Cheryl Hines for a while now and they are very happy together.”

The initial source tells RadarOnline.com that Mary was struggling to come to terms with the end of their marriage, despite Robert having filed for divorce two years previously, and that the couple was heading to trial.  “It was very tough for Mary to deal with Robert dating someone else,” the source says.  “And it really didn’t help that the new woman is a celebrity.  She would see photos of the two of them together and it would drive her nuts.  I think, deep down, she had still harbored a belief they would get back together but it had recently become blindingly clear that wasn’t to be.”

“Mary was in a very dark place recently,” the second source told RadarOnline.com previously.  “Robert tried to help her all he could but it was difficult for him to be around her.  Robert is committed to his sobriety but Mary had chosen a whole different path to take.”

Mary was charged with driving under the influence in May 2010 by the Bedford, New York police after she failed a number of sobriety tests and her blood alcohol level registered at 0.11.  The incident occurred just three days after Robert filed for divorce.

“Mary has struggled with alcoholism throughout her life,” her friend tells RadarOnline.com.  “She had been hitting the bottle again pretty heavily recently.”

“When I heard the news that she may have taken her own life I was devastated, but not that surprised.  It was in the back of my mind that she may do something like this, and that was compounded by the conversation I had with her Monday.”

“However she died though, this is an absolute tragedy.  Mary was an amazing and beautiful person and she absolutely adored her children.  It is a devastating loss to all that knew her.”

“We deeply regret the death of our beloved sister Mary, whose radiant and creative spirit will be sorely missed by those who loved her,” a Kennedy family representative told RadarOnline.com.  “Our heart goes out to her children who she loved without reservation.  We have no further comment at this time.”