I bet you didn’t know about all these Kennedy family secrets!
The Kennedys are one of the most prominent dynasties when it comes to politics in United States history. Their fame stems from their influence and policies that have fundamentally shaped American life, not to mention the many tragedies surrounding the Kennedy family.
Nevertheless, the most fascinating lens through which we can look at this clan is through their many scandals. Like many families with status and extreme wealth, the Kennedys have been at the center of many scandals, and this family tradition is older than many of its most distinguished members.
It’s probably more far-reaching than you would think, with many Kennedy family rumors and wrongdoings concerning members of their extended clan.
From amorous scandals to crimes that members of the public believe were glossed over because of their last name, the Kennedy family hasn’t been able to escape controversy since the beginning of the previous century. So, on that note, let’s pull back the Camelot curtain. Here are 9 Kennedy family secrets they probably wish we’d forget.
Kennedy family secret: RFK Jr. has allegedly covered up many things
Author Kurt Anderson alleged that he purchased drugs from a young RFK Jr. while they were both attending Harvard in the 70s. Obviously, RFK Jr. hasn’t admitted that this was true, and this account doesn’t come with all that much verification.
That is, other than the fact that Kennedy’s long-standing admission that he dealt with over 10 years of substance abuse issues, beginning when he was 15, which included an arrest for possession in the 80s. Kennedy’s recovery has undoubtedly inspired many, as do other facts about this man.
But there are still rumors that his family was worried about his presidential campaign. Regardless, in a 2024 Vanity Fair exclusive, family members were still unwilling to tell all of RFK Jr.’s secrets. Their vague concerns seemingly tried to maintain the Kennedy family name, though some acknowledged that RFK Jr. frequently fell prey to his craving for the public’s love.
Even Kennedy himself posted an August 2024 admission on his X account that he left the remains of a bear cub in NYC’s Central Park in 2014. RFK Jr. declared that he had seen another car hit the animal upstate. Intending to use the meat and fur, Kennedy took the remains.
After a busy day and a pending flight, he remembered that the remains were still in his car. Encouraged by drunk friends, he dumped it under a bush in Central Park. It took him almost 10 years before confessing.
Kennedy family secret: Jackie Kennedy faced mental health issues that were hidden from the public
Even though she may have presented a highly restrained image to the public, behind closed doors, Jacqueline went through severe mental health issues.
Many probably wouldn’t even blame her: She tried to maintain a sense of normalcy for her kids while becoming one of the most scrutinized women in the country, put up with her husband’s many infidelities, and underwent the intense trauma of her spouse’s assassination while she was sitting right next to him in the car.
In 2014, biographers Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince noted in “Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Life Beyond Her Wildest Dreams” that two miscarriages, followed by a bout with depression, earned Jackie a trip to a mental health facility, thanks to her husband. There, she reportedly experienced nightmarish electroshock therapy.
When she was released and driven home by a friend, Jackie found an empty house without any friends, JFK, or any other support. The tale of her time at this clinic was reportedly quashed on multiple occasions because it was considered embarrassing to the powerful Kennedy family.
But, it’s worth mentioning that some have critiqued Porter and Prince for rather shaky sourcing that fails to name sources so that skepticism might be earned. What is more apparent is the fact that Jackie survived great hardship in the aftermath of her husband’s death.
In today’s world, she would likely have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Yet, at the time, her nightmares, scattered thoughts, increased drinking, insomnia, bursts of anger, and many other symptoms were more generally thought of as intense, if little-talked about, grief.
Kennedy family secret: Rose Kennedy taught her daughters to ignore affairs
Rose Fitzgerald was once in love, or so she said. As the Boston mayor’s daughter, she was a highly religious and intelligent young woman who met Joseph Kennedy when she was only 17 years old.
Rose’s father was hesitant to approve of his young daughter’s wedding, but the young couple continued to meet and ultimately got married seven years later, in the fall of 1914. Even though the Kennedys would go on to have nine kids together, Joe proved to be far less than an adoring and faithful husband.
What’s more is that he was clearly unbothered about covering up his extramarital activities, which reportedly included at least two Hollywood starlets. This left Rose to do the lion’s share of sweeping things under the rug.
That concealment typically took the form of not saying anything about her spouse’s affairs and doing her best to ignore his philandering. To make matters worse, she allegedly advised her daughters to do the same, tolerating and ignoring what was framed as the unavoidable unfaithfulness that would occur in their marriages.
Although, some reports suggest that Rose had a distant relationship with her children. In fact, JFK once privately acknowledged that he couldn’t remember his mom ever saying she loved him. Others say that she often spent time by herself, indicating that her plan to ignore the uncomfortable parts of life as a Kennedy didn’t always produce satisfying results.
Kennedy family secret: What we know as the JFK affairs wasn’t exactly common knowledge back then
For people like Jackie and Rose Kennedy, it was understood from the beginning that their spouses would be unfaithful. With an emphasis on preserving the image of the family and their dignity, things had to be kept under wraps for the sake of the Kennedy family name. But, there were a few slip-ups.
While visiting France, Jackie Kennedy is said to have rather bluntly presented Priscilla Wear, a White House staffer as “the girl that’s sleeping with my husband,” and to a journalist, no less. Yet, many people outside of high-flung political circles likely didn’t know that Kennedy and other members of his family were adulterers.
Even insiders were somewhat delicate about the matter, likely covering for themselves if word got out. In an oral history interview with the JFK Library in 1964, a family friend, Kirk LeMoyne Billings, remembered pulling Jackie aside on the night of President Eisenhower’s first inaugural ball, stating:
“I felt I should prepare her a bit for what I felt were some of the issues that Jack might have in marrying at thirty-five, she was going to have to be very understanding at the beginning, that he had never really settled down with one girl before.”
He deduced that Jackie had approved, though plausible deniability meant that he didn’t have to acknowledge outright that JFK was having trysts. These meetings later allegedly included Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe, Judith Exner, and White House intern Mimi Alford.
Kennedy family secret: Jackie Kennedy reportedly considered divorce at one point
When Jackie Bouvier got married to John F. Kennedy in September 1953, reports from within the Kennedy family, radiant press coverage, and the attention of thousands of people made it seem like the ending of a fairy tale. But the reality was a bit more complicated than that.
Multiple accounts reveal that not only was JFK routinely disloyal to his wife but that she was astutely aware of it and supposed it could be no other way. Both the Kennedy and Bouvier families came from highly powerful social circles where a husband’s infidelity was almost a guarantee.
In this world, maintaining dignity and privacy was often considered more important. Some say that Jackie truly loved her husband, with whom she had four children, and did a lot to advance his political career, not just out of duty but admiration and affection.
Others indicate that they stayed together because of the growing power of the Kennedy family’s name. Yet, even though the public perception of the duo could get starry-eyed, reports show that Jackie was hardly satisfied.
Author J. Randy Taraborrelli says that she considered divorcing Kennedy on at least two occurrences, including when JFK was nowhere to be seen after she suffered a traumatic stillbirth, but was discouraged by her own family.
Another unconfirmed rumor claims that Joe Kennedy offered Jackie a $1 million bribe to remain with her husband, with Jackie allegedly responding that the amount would have to be closer to $20 million if JFK brought home an infection from one of his mistresses.
Kennedy family secret: JFK had some serious health problems
Even though he presented himself, and we all knew him as a vibrant young president, the truth of the matter is that JFK had to deal with a ton of health concerns over the years. Even while he was still young, he experienced the first signs of what would be lifelong digestive problems, as well as a host of other conditions like a duodenal ulcer and scarlet fever.
Even his back proved to be so painful that he had four back surgeries between 1944 and 1957. But, rather than helping him, these procedures caused even more concerns, including abscesses and bone infections. While his spinal problems were weakening him, one more issue was even worse: he had Addison’s disease.
This adrenal disorder meant that JFK couldn’t produce stress-managing hormones and had a tough time managing his potassium, sodium, and glucose. During that time, treatment for adrenal problems included steroids, which may have exacerbated his back issues and given JFK osteoporosis.
This former president starts to sound like a pharmacy when you consider his many medications, including sleeping pills, painkillers, amphetamines, antibiotics, hormones, and many more. Yet somehow, Kennedy tended to hide most of this from the public eye.
He was cautious to present himself as physically active. To his voters, JFK was a suntanned, smiling young father who founded the President’s Council on Physical Fitness. Exercise also helped him manage some of his symptoms, which built his vital image even more. Sometimes, he also outright denied having Addison’s disease, including when then-rival Lyndon Johnson brought it up on the 1960 campaign trail.
Kennedy family secret: The Bouviers tried to fabricate an aristocratic history
While Jackie wasn’t always connected to the Kennedys, her story is now so indistinguishably tied to her first husband’s that it’s arguably another source of Kennedy family secrets. And what a source it is, assuming you take a close look at her family tree.
While many folks would argue that descent from immigrants and working-class people is nothing to be ashamed of, that wasn’t the belief in the world of the Kennedys. That’s probably why Jackie’s paternal family, the Bouviers, committed to some creative genealogy.
Her grandfather, Major John Vernou Bouvier Jr., printed a 1940 family history titled “Our Forebears,” he declared that the Bouviers were descended from a long line of French aristocrats. But the sad reality is that he got his “Bouviers” mixed up. The clan’s true ancestors, also named Bouvier, were working-class businessfolk.
When ancestor Michel Bouvier traveled to Philadelphia in 1815, he at least made good money as a cabinetmaker and importer, bringing money, if not ancient prominence, to the family’s name. Meanwhile, family members of Jackie’s maternal line, the Lees, reportedly proclaimed that they came from the high-class Lees of Virginia.
They were descended from Irish immigrants. Later on, as the press painted the Bouvier-Kennedy marriage as a union of aristocrats, writer Gore Vidal stated, “I mean, they were somehow Tudors and Plantagenets. It was just nonsense. They were pretty lowly born.”
Kennedy family secret: The Chappaquiddick incident was a deadly mistake the Kennedys tried to cover up
Even now, more than five decades later, the reality of what transpired in Ted Kennedy’s car on Chappaquiddick island, Massachusetts, is sort of confusing. A big part of that is because the Kennedy family tried to keep everything under wraps.
But the basic outline of the incident is this: On the night of July 18th, 1969, Senator Ted Kennedy’s car went over the Dike Bridge on Chappaquiddick. Inside the vehicle were Kennedy and his aide, Mary Jo Kopechne. Kennedy survived the incident, but Kopechne didn’t.
She appeared to have lasted for some time in the submerged car, yet she had passed away by the time rescuers recovered her remains nine hours later. Other details remain troublingly fuzzy. Kennedy argued that he tried to save the girl, diving repeatedly into the water.
But he went back to his hotel, which was located nearby, and didn’t report the accident. Was Kennedy intoxicated? Was anyone else in the car? Did he suffer from a concussion that would explain his bizarre behavior?
Because Kennedy didn’t contact authorities until the morning of the next day, there wasn’t a way to test his blood alcohol level at the time of the misfortune.
So, he was merely charged with leaving the scene of an accident, got a two-month suspended sentence, and was prohibited from driving for a short period. And even though the accident pretty much ended his presidential ambitions, public support for him increased due to the efforts of the Kennedy family’s public relations and legal teams.
… To learn more Kennedy family secrets, check out The House of Kennedy by James Patterson
Kennedy family secret: Numerous Kennedys have been accused of mistreating women
Some Kennedy family secrets center on male members’ alleged shoddy treatment of women. Perhaps the most famous example is the fact that President Kennedy was less than faithful to and definitely less than supportive of his wife, Jackie.
I mentioned this earlier, but the story is that when she gave birth to a stillborn daughter in 56, JFK was allegedly on a yacht with one of his mistresses, as Jackie’s friend Carly Simon pointed out to the media. But JFK was hardly the only one acting like this.
Author Maureen Callahan said that women who proved problematic to the family were often publicly ridiculed or dismissed in an attempt to keep up the perfect Kennedy family image. These included a former White House intern named Mimi Beardsley, who documented a 2011 portrayal of her alleged affair with President Kennedy and who was scorned by some reviewers as a result.
Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, JFK Jr.’s wife, was also constantly painted as an unreliable and troubled woman who tainted her husband’s image. FYI: Bessette’s family sued the Kennedy estate later for her and her sister’s deaths in the 99 plane crash that also took JFK Jr’s life.
Then, there’s also William Kennedy Smith, JFK’s nephew. In March 1991, he was accused of assaulting a woman at a family property in Palm Beach. In court, Smith claimed that the meeting was consensual, while the judge banned the testimony of three other women who proclaimed to be victims of identical assaults.
So what happened?… Smith was acquitted, and a similar 2004 accusation against him was also dismissed!
How many of these Kennedy family secrets did you know about? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.
And if you liked this article, you’ll also want to check out: 11 Influential First Ladies Who Shaped American History