Overview
- People published new details from Isabel Vincent’s book drawing on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s journals from 1999 to 2001 that Mary Richardson Kennedy kept as insurance during their divorce fight.
- Vincent says a trusted source gave her the diaries in 2013, a year after Mary died by suicide, describing how the entries helped her map Kennedy’s private struggles and self-described “lust demons.”
- Excerpts quote Kennedy writing that he always wanted “more,” and they describe a strained sex life, plus lists he kept of sexual encounters that he rated on a numbered scale.
- The biography reports, via friends and acquaintances, that Kennedy was unfaithful throughout the marriage and that Mary felt gaslit as she grappled with arrests, AA meetings, and a looming custody and financial dispute before her 2012 death.
- The book, RFK, Jr.: The Fall and Rise, goes on sale April 14 and its reporting is renewing scrutiny of Kennedy’s personal history as HHS secretary, with outlets like People running exclusive excerpts and the New York Post emphasizing salacious details.