Who Is RFK Jr.? All About His Family, Controversies, Political Career

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr., John F. Kennedy’s nephew, was nominated as HHS Secretary in Trump’s Cabinet.
• Kennedy has espoused baseless, controversial views related to vaccines and public health.
• He ran for president in 2024 and is married to “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor Cheryl Hines.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ties to one of America’s most prestigious political dynasties and controversial views on public health have made him a prominent political figure.

Though he unsuccessfully ran for president in 2024, he later endorsed now-President Donald Trump and landed a Cabinet nomination. Trump said he would let Kennedy “go wild” on public health issues as the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Kennedy’s confirmation chances remain uncertain after a rocky hearing on Wednesday. He can only afford to lose three votes if all Senate Democrats and lawmakers that caucus with the party oppose his nomination.

Here’s an overview of Kennedy’s life, career, and controversies.

Early life and family

Robert F. Kennedy, 71, was born on January 17, 1954 in Washington, DC.

He is the third of 11 children born to Robert F. Kennedy, a US senator who was assassinated in 1968, and Ethel Kennedy, a human rights advocate. He is the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy.

Kennedy graduated from Harvard University in 1976. After briefly attending the London School of Economics, he graduated from the University of Virginia Law School in 1982. He also earned a master’s degree in environmental law from Pace University School of Law in 1987.

Legal and environmental career

In March 1982, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, whom JFK had previously appointed to lead the famous Southern District of New York, hired Kennedy as an assistant district attorney. Kennedy struggled to pass the bar exam and resigned in July 1983.

Months later, Kennedy would spark his largest legal scandal. While on the way to receive treatment in South Dakota for his addiction, a fellow passenger found him sick in an airplane’s bathroom. Local authorities later found a small amount of heroin in his belongings. He faced up to two years in prison but was sentenced to probation and community service.

As part of his community service, he worked for the Natural Resources Defense Council and was later connected with the Hudson River Fishermen’s Association. Robert Boyle, founder of the New York environmental group, began to mentor Kennedy. The organization already had notched major legal victories, but Kennedy’s star power would help take it to new heights.

Kennedy’s environmental advocacy became the foundation of his fame. In 1999, Time Magazine named Kennedy one of its “Heroes for the Planet” as part of a series of reports on leading environmentalists.

In 2000, Boyle and other board members later resigned in protest over Kennedy’s rehiring of a scientist who had previously been fired by Boyle and served time in federal prison after being convicted of violating wildlife protection laws.

“I think he’s a despicable person,” Boyle told Kennedy’s unauthorized biographer in 2014.

While gaining fame, Kennedy began to notice problems with his voice. Kennedy was later diagnosed with spasmodic dysphonia, a rare neurological condition that affects muscles in one’s voice box.

Anti-vaccine views

After years of environmentalism, Kennedy became the face of anti-vaccine advocacy.

In 2005, he wrote a piece for Salon and Rolling Stone that is now regarded as establishing him as a major player in spreading vaccine skepticism. Despite his claims of a major conspiracy over a mercury-based preservative that had already been “removed from all childhood vaccines except for some variations of the flu vaccine in 2001,” according to STAT. Within days, Salon, which published the piece online, issued five corrections. In 2011, the site decided to retract the article entirely.

In 2022, he invoked the Holocaust at a rally opposing vaccine mandates, saying, “Even in Hitler’s Germany you could cross the Alps into Switzerland, you could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did.” He later apologized, saying, “My intention was to use examples of past barbarism to show the perils from new technologies of control.”

At an event at a New York City restaurant in 2023, Kennedy said that COVID-19 was “targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people” and that “the people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.” He later released a statement on X saying, “I have never, ever suggested that the COVID-19 virus was targeted to spare Jews.” He added: “I do not believe and never implied that the ethnic effect was deliberately engineered.”

He has promoted other baseless conspiracy theories related to public health, including claims that WiFi causes cancer and that antidepressants marketed by pharmaceutical companies are to blame for mass shootings.

Controversies and criticism

Kennedy has been involved in several controversies regarding dead animals.

Kennedy’s daughter, Kick Kennedy, told Town & Country magazine in 2012 that her father had beheaded a dead whale and tied the head to the roof of their minivan when she was a child.

During a 2012 divorce deposition, Kennedy said that he experienced “cognitive problems” that a doctor told him could be “caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died,” The New York Times reported. Kennedy told The New York Times in May 2024 that his memory issues had been resolved.

In August 2024, Kennedy revealed that he had left a bear carcass in Central Park in 2014 and speculated that it could have been the source of his brain worm.

Kennedy was also involved in an undisclosed relationship with a reporter. In September 2024, Status newsletter author Oliver Darcy broke the news that Kennedy was having an affair with New York magazine political reporter Olivia Nuzzi. Kennedy denied the report, but the relationship reportedly became an open secret in some circles as Kennedy bragged about receiving photos from Nuzzi.

Nuzzi was placed on leave and subsequently left the magazine.

2024 presidential campaign

In April 2023, Kennedy announced that he would run against President Joe Biden in the Democratic primaries. In October 2023, he switched his political party affiliation to independent.

He named Nicole Shanahan, a California attorney who founded the patent technology company ClearAccessIP, as his running mate in March 2024.

Kennedy dropped out of the race in August 2024 and endorsed Trump, saying that he was “surprised to discover that we are aligned on many key issues.” Trump then chose Kennedy to lead his transition team along with former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.

After Trump won the 2024 election, he nominated Kennedy to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services in his Cabinet.

Personal life

Kennedy has been married three times and has six children.

He was married to his first wife, fellow University of Virginia law student Emily Black, from 1982 to 1994. They had two children, Robert Francis “Bobby” Kennedy III and Kathleen, known as “Kick.”

He married his second wife, interior designer Mary Richardson, in 1994. They had four children — Conor, Kyra, Finn, and Aidan — and divorced in 2010.

Kennedy has been married to “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor Cheryl Hines, since 2014.