Overview
- A forthcoming book by journalist Isabel Vincent says Mary Richardson Kennedy handed Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s personal diaries to a trusted friend as “insurance” before her 2012 death, and the journals reached the author in 2013.
- The diaries, covering roughly 1999 to 2001, include entries in which Kennedy describes “lust demons,” lists sexual encounters by number, and writes lines such as “No matter how much I have, I want more!”
- Vincent cites unnamed sources who allege Kennedy was unfaithful throughout the marriage, gaslit Mary during confrontations over other women, and made cruel remarks about her weight.
- Accounts in the book say Kennedy told Mary he wanted a divorce on Mother’s Day in 2010, she then had police run-ins including a drunk driving arrest, and she died by suicide in May 2012 with the divorce still pending.
- RFK, Jr.: The Fall and Rise is scheduled for publication on April 14, and the new excerpts have renewed attention to the diaries’ path to publication and the ethics of using such private material about the current Health and Human Services secretary.