This Is The First Person Ted Kennedy Called After His Chappaquiddick Crash

May 2024 ยท 2 minute read

By 1980, Helga Wagner had moved to Florida to start a jewelry-making business, as The Washington Post reports. She still operates the business to this day, where, as the Helga Wagner Collection website says, she produces "pearl, shell and coral jewelry for the discriminating lady." 

Wagner expressed her opinions about the Chappaquiddick incident as far back as 1980, saying (per The Washington Post), "It was so long ago and it really has nothing to do with anything ... it is finished and closed." Of Ted Kennedy, she said, "He is a very deep person. He really wants to help ... really wants to do something about this country ... really feels about it and wants to bring it back again to a good level," and finally, "People have to forgive and forget." Later, in 2018, People reported that she said Kennedy was a "strong presence" in her life. In his 2011 book "Edward Kennedy: An Intimate Biography," author Burton Hersh said that Kennedy called Wagner the "love of [his] life," quoting a source within Kennedy circles. 

In 2009, a few weeks before he died, Kennedy called his former lover one last time. "He knew what was going to happen in a very short time and you could tell he was just trying to keep it all together because that's just the way he was," Wagner said (via People). "He was very strong in many ways."

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunB9j2tnaWhoZMGptdJmoKxlpJ2ybrLIq6qtZaCav7S7zWarnpxdoLKvusSdsGabkaG5prCMmp2tnaJitaq%2FjJyfmqiglr62tcOdoJyjXZi%2For%2FHaA%3D%3D