A mother-of-three and former special adviser to the governor of New York is believed to have ended her life in Switzerland after being diagnosed with cancer for the third time and fighting a horrific custody battle with her ‘abusive’ ex-husband.
Catherine Kassenoff, 54, from Westchester, took to Facebook on May 27 to write a heartbreaking note in which she announced she was going to “end my own life”.
“It is with deep sorrow, which I hope you will never experience, that I write my last message. Today I will end my own life,’ she wrote in a now-deleted post, “I will do it in a dignified and idyllic setting in Europe. There are simply no other options.
“For the past four years of my life, I have woken up every day to a nightmare like no other. I can no longer bear the abuse and terror of Allan Kassenoff…I have also endured the emotional devastation to be without my children for so long…’
Catherine Kassenoff, 54, from Westchester, took to Facebook on May 27 to write a heartbreaking note in which she announced she was going to “end my own life”. “It is with deep sorrow, which I hope you will never experience, that I write my last message. Today I will end my own life,’ she wrote in a now-deleted post, “I will do it in a dignified and idyllic setting in Europe. There are simply no other options left’
“For the past four years of my life, I have woken up every day to a nightmare like no other. I can no longer bear the abuse and terror of Allan Kassenoff…I have also endured the emotional devastation to be without my children for so long…’
Kassenoff was recently diagnosed with his third round of cancer and this time it was terminal. In addition to the vicious illness, she allegedly suffered abuse at the hands of her husband Allan, whom she captured on video throwing tantrums, calling her a “fat, old loser”, and who allegedly threatened to post a video of her in her underwear on YouTube. .
She posted thousands of court documents, alongside the videos, in a missing Dropbox link in her Facebook farewell.
“Maybe if I had the physical stamina to keep going, I would. But with a terminal new health condition that will soon limit my physical strength as well, and without protection from the courts, I cannot continue to flee Allan’, the late mother, whose death certificate will take up to six weeks to be processed, written.
The mother-of-three said she was not strong enough to undergo ‘again debilitating chemo, surgeries and radiation’.
Kassenoff said she kept her health secrets secret because her husband would have “made a lot more effort to end my existence.”
She claimed that her husband and the courts had prevented her from seeing her children and that, having been diagnosed with cancer for the third time, she would have committed suicide in Switzerland.
The mother-of-three said she was not strong enough to undergo ‘again debilitating chemo, surgeries and radiation’. Kassenoff said she keeps her health secrets secret because her husband would have ‘tried much harder to end my existence’
Allan, who works for law firm Greenberg Traurig, is currently under investigation by the company and has taken ‘voluntary leave to focus on his family’, despite several judges ruling that he shouldn’t. had done nothing wrong.
Allan, who works for law firm Greenberg Traurig, is currently under investigation by the company and has taken ‘voluntary leave to focus on his family’, despite multiple judges ruling that he is not had done nothing wrong.
However, Kassenoff’s videos paint a different picture. The father-of-three was seen in one of the videos standing at the foot of the bed telling his then-wife: ‘I hate you, Catherine, I hate you. I regret every moment of my life that I met you.
Other videos show Allan screaming behind doors, yelling at his children to “shut up”, and dramatically leaving their home and refusing to care for his little ones.
A heartbreaking video that Kassenoff shared showed one of her daughters crying that she doesn’t “want to go with that lunatic.”
The court named Allan as primary parent and Kassenoff accused him of doing everything possible to keep her away from their three daughters – aged nine, 12 and 13 – including several attempts to have her arrested.
She claimed in her Facebook post that Allan made a fake 911 call, saying she was “capable of ‘killing’ him or my own children.”
He allegedly filmed her being questioned by police, who ultimately did not arrest her after determining that she “realized he was lying”, she claimed.
“This is how I’ve lived for years,” Kathy Hochul’s former special adviser wrote. “Like a hunted animal, worried about when Allan will make the next false report. He sees it all as a game and the court won’t stop him…’
She had been arrested in January 2022 for violating a protective order by approaching her daughter. As a result, she was fired from the governor’s office. The charges were later dismissed.
She claimed the courts took away her children, her home, her dogs and her life savings.
After posting the note on Facebook, she filed thousands of court documents and videos, including several showing her husband yelling at her and telling her he “hates” her.
“Their father has spent years and millions of dollars – over $3 million – to cut me out of our daughters’ lives…He will never back down…As long as I am alive and want to see them, they will be damaged over and over again with every attempt I make. What’s the point of this? The last thing I want to do is hurt my own children,” she said.
However, Allan’s attorney, Gus Dimopoulous, told the New York Post, “At every stage of this four-year custody dispute, the justice system has acted responsibly and thoroughly.”
Following the evaluation of a neutral forensic expert, the court ordered an immediate order granting their father sole legal and physical custody.
The court also issued an urgent protective order against Ms Kassenoff, eliminating unsupervised interactions with the children based on what they observed when they were with their mother.
“Although it is always difficult to limit a parent’s access to their children, given the circumstances of this case, it was deemed in the best interests of the children to take these measures as a matter of urgency. The children have been in our client’s care for three and a half years and are safe and healthy.
Kassenof also accused her ex-husband and his team of telling his children to hate her, telling Mme magazine: “My children have been diagnosed with various serious mental health issues as a result of this trauma. They were told to hate me, to call me ‘Catherine’ instead of ‘Mom’.
In an email, filed with the New York court system, shows one of her daughters emailing her: “Mom, I hung up on Dr. Alder because she’s boring and she said that you were dangerous. I hate her and I don’t want Shira to replace you and I miss you and love you so much.
A vigil was held for Kassenoff on Monday at the Stanz Cafe in Larchmont, New York, where friends, advocates and mothers gathered to honor him.
If you or someone you love is having suicidal thoughts or actions, call the National Suicide Hotline at 988.
