[PJ-Comix]

Was the Kerry Annulment before or after the annuled wife of Joe Kennedy III wrote her book on this topic and thus gave annulment a really bad name? I'm curious because before her book there was no big stigma in the public on the topic of annulment but nowadays there is. BTW, isn't that book that she wrote the reason why Joe Kennedy III dropped out of politics?

[Alberta's Child]

I don't think the marriage of Joe Kennedy III was annulled. In fact, I seem to remember his (non-Catholic) wife standing up and making a big deal about it, and contesting it to the point that the annulment was rejected by the Catholic Church.

That's the one thing that seems fishy about this Kerry story. My understanding is that someone can't just decide to get the marriage annulled, and inform the spouse simply as a matter of course. The spouse is an integral part of the process, since the one seeking the annulment is trying to make the case that there was some kind of impediment to the marriage in the first place.