Ethel Kennedy, Widow of Robert F. Kennedy, Dead at 96

The Kennedy family is in mourning. 

Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy and sister-in-law of President John F. Kennedy, died Oct. 10, one week after being hospitalized for a stroke. She was 96.

"It is with our hearts full of love that we announce the passing of our amazing grandmother, Ethel Kennedy," her grandson Joe Kennedy III shared in a statement on behalf of his family posted to X, formerly Twitter. "She died this morning from complications related to a stroke suffered last week. Along with a lifetime's work in social justice and human rights, our mother leaves behind nine children, 34 grandchildren, and 24 great-grandchildren, along with numerous nieces and nephews, all of whom love her dearly."

"She was a devout Catholic and a daily communicant," the statement continued, "and we are comforted in knowing she is reunited with the love of her life, our father, Robert F. Kennedy; her children David and Michael; her daughter-in-law Mary; her grandchildren Maeve and Saoirse; and her great-grandchildren Gideon and Josie. Please keep her in your hearts and prayers."

Ethel’s daughter Kerry Kennedy announced on Oct. 8 that her mom had recently suffered a stroke in her sleep. 

“She is comfortable, she is getting the best care possible and she is surrounded by family,” the statement shared on X said. “She is, as you know, a strong woman who has led a remarkably fulfilling life. We are looking after her.”

Kerry also gave insight into her mother's life these past few months. "Every day she enjoyed time with her children, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren," she wrote. "She was able to get out on the water, visit the pier, and enjoy many lunches and dinners with family. It has been a gift to all of us and to her as well."

Ethel and Robert shared 11 children: Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, 73; Joseph P. Kennedy II, 72; Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 70; Courtney Kennedy Hill, 69; Kerry, 65; Christopher Kennedy, 61; Max Kennedy, 59; Douglas Kennedy, 57; and Rory Kennedy, 55. In addition, they were parents to sons David, who died of a drug overdose at 28 in 1984 and Michael, who died as a result of a skiing accident at 39 in 1997.

Ethel, the daughter of coal businessman George Skakel and Anne Brannack, first met Robert during a ski trip in 1945 while he was dating her older sister Patricia, according to the JFK Library. After Robert and Patrica broke up, Ethel began dating the second-eldest Kennedy son and the two were married in 1950.  She and Robert—a former U.S. Attorney General—were married until his assassination in 1968 amid his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Following his death at age 42, Ethel, who founded the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, never remarried. And as her 11 children grew up, they reflected on their complicated relationship with their mom.

"From my angle, her love didn't always feel unconditional," Robert Jr. wrote in his 2018 memoir American Values: Lessons I Learned from My Family. "Her approach was what today people would call 'tough love,' for which I proved a tough audience. Her exceptional qualities were mainly invisible to me as a child."

But at the same time, the former 2024 presidential candidate—who shares son Robert Kennedy III, 40, Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy, 36, with ex Emily Ruth Black; Conor Kennedy, 30, Krya Kennedy, 29, William Kennedy, 26, and Aidan Kennedy, 23, with ex Mary Richardson—also noted that he was also to blame for their tumultuous mother-son dynamic.

"I seem to have been at odds with my mother since birth," he wrote. "Her flurries of temper appeared to me haphazard and desultory, and, of all of us siblings, most often directed toward me. My rebellious nature, and my inclination for pointing out her caprices may have sharpened her disfavor. My involvement with drugs after my father's death certainly inflamed it."

But Rory previously gave insight into her mother's stoic nature. "That's who she is," she told Vogue in 2012. "She doesn't reflect back on these moments in the way that we might imagine, or do ourselves. She kind of forges ahead and moves on."

Keep reading for a look at the full Kennedy family tree.

Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy married Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald on Oct. 7, 1914.

By 1932, they had nine children together: Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., John F. Kennedy, Rosemary Kennedy, Kathleen Kennedy, Eunice Kennedy, Patricia Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Jean Kennedy and Edward Kennedy.

Born July 25, 1915, Joe Jr. was going to be president, as far as his father was concerned.

He was a delegate to the 1940 Democratic National Convention and planned to run for Congress after he got out of the Navy. But the 29-year-old and his co-pilot Wilford John Willy were killed Aug. 12, 1944, when explosives they were carrying detonated prematurely while on a bombing run that was part of Operation Aphrodite.

Neither pilot's body was ever recovered and their names are among those on the Tablets of the Missing at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial honoring casualties of World War II.

It was John, born May 29, 1917, who made it to Congress, then became a U.S. senator and ultimately was elected president in 1960.

He married Jacqueline Bouvier on Sept. 12, 1953, and they welcomed daughter Caroline Kennedy on Nov. 27, 1957, and son John F. Kennedy Jr. on Nov. 25, 1960. 

A daughter, Arabella, was stillborn in 1956 and son Patrick, born prematurely on Aug. 7, 1963, lived for only 39 hours.

JFK was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, one of the defining events of the 20th century.

Caroline, the U.S. ambassador to Japan during the Obama administration and to Australia for the Biden administration, married Edwin "Ed" Schlossberg in 1986.

They share daughters Rose Kennedy Schlossberg (born June 25, 1988) and Tatiana Kennedy Schlossberg (May 5, 1990) and son John "Jack" Bouvier Kennedy Schlossberg (Jan. 19, 1993).

TV producer Rose went to Harvard like her mom and married restaurateur Rory McAuliffe in 2022.

Tatiana—a journalist who didn't know at the time that her 2014 New York Times article about a dead bear being found in Central Park involved her cousin RFK Jr.—graduated from Yale and married college sweetheart George Moran in 2017. They welcomed a son, Edwin Jr., in 2022.

Jack—a Yale alum, graduate of Harvard's JD/MBA program and quite the hoot on social media—spoke at the 2024 DNC Convention and is a political correspondent for Vogue.

The former first son, named People's Sexiest Man Alive in 1988, was considered one of the most eligible bachelors on the planet before he married Calvin Klein publicist Carolyn Bessette on Sept. 21, 1996.

In a shattering twist of fate for his oft-grieving family, JFK Jr. died young like his father, his potential snuffed out when he was killed, along with Carolyn and her sister Lauren Bessette, in a plane crash on July 16, 1999.

Rosemary (at right, with sister Kathleen and mom Rose) was born Sept. 13, 1918.

While she attended a special boarding school for students with learning difficulties, Rosemary had behavioral issues that led to her father's decision to have her undergo a prefrontal lobotomy when she was 23.

Rosemary emerged from the experimental procedure—which was touted as a potential cure for mental illness and Joe did hope it would help her—severely disabled and spent the rest of her life (she lived till Jan. 7, 2005) institutionalized.

"All along I had continued to believe that she could have lived her life as a Kennedy girl, just a little slower," Rose told historian Doris Kearns Goodwin years later. "But then it was all gone in a matter of minutes."

Born Feb. 20, 1920, Kathleen got a kick out of life, hence her jaunty nickname.

She married William Cavendish, the Marquess of Hartington, in a civil ceremony in London on May 6, 1944—against her mother's wishes, as her beloved wasn't Catholic, so the bride's big brother Joe Jr. was the only member of her family who attended the wedding.

A month later, William, a major in the British Army, was killed by a sniper in Belgium.

She remained in England and fell for still-married William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 8th Earl Fitzwilliam. Before he could secure a divorce, they both died when the plane carrying them to the French Riviera crashed on May 13, 1948.

Eunice was born July 10, 1921.

The devoted philanthropist and founder of the Special Olympics married Robert Sargent Shriver Jr. on May 23, 1953.

Their had five children—Robert "Bobby" Shriver III (born April 28, 1954), Maria Shriver (Nov. 6, 1955),  Timothy (Aug. 29, 1959), Mark (Feb. 17, 1964) and Anthony (July 20, 1965).

When she died at 88, Eunice had 19 grandchildren, including Maria's four kids with now-ex-husband Arnold Schwarzenegger: Katherine (born Dec. 13, 1989), Patrick (Sept. 18, 1993), Christina (July 23, 1991) and Christopher (Sept. 27, 1997).

The son known familiarly to the whole country as Bobby Kennedy married Ethel Skakel on June 17, 1950.

They went on to have 11 children: Kathleen, Joseph II, Robert Jr., David, Courtney, Michael, Kerry, Christopher, Maxwell, Douglas and Rory.

Ethel was pregnant with Rory when Bobby was fatally shot on June 6, 1968, shortly after winning the California Democratic primary.

David Kennedy died of a drug overdose on April 25, 1984, at the age of 28. Michael Kennedy was killed on Dec. 31, 1997, when he slammed into a tree while on skis and simultaneously tossing a football around during a family trip to Aspen, Colo. The 37-year-old shared three children with wife Victoria Gifford.

Her husband died when their eldest child was only 16, but Ethel Kennedy went on to be a grandmother of 34. Two of her grandchildren have died: Courtney and husband Paul Hill's daughter Saoirse Hill, 22, in 2019 of an accidental drug overdose and Kathleen and husband David Townsend's daughter Maeve Kennedy McKean, 40, in a 2020 canoeing accident.

RFK Jr., born Jan. 17, 1954, is a thrice-married father of six.

He shares son Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy III (born 1984) and daughter Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy (born 1988) with first wife Emily Black.

They divorced in 1994 after 12 years of marriage.

RFK III has been married to CIA analyst turned author and TV host Amaryllis Fox since 2017.

They share daughter Bobby (born Jan. 7, 2019) and son Cassius Watts Thoreau Kennedy (Aug. 30, 2021), as well as Amaryllis' daughter Zoë from a previous relationship.

 

"I like to say life is just a collection of experiences—some good, some bad—and the more you have the better," the Stanford grad told Town & Country in 2012.

And merely knowing Ben Affleck "in passing," as a source put it, brought Kick Kennedy to the top of the trending bar in August 2024 days after Jennifer Lopez filed for divorce from the actor.

Affleck's rep was quick to shut down romance speculation, telling E! News, "Everything about him and Kick is untrue."

So nothing about being a Kennedy had really changed in a decade. Or a century.

"People ask me, 'What's it like to be a Kennedy?'" she told T&C. "Maybe it's just the temperature of the water, but I'm just like, 'I have no idea.' When I see my face or name in the tabloids, I get a knot in my stomach. It's just not me—it's reading something that's not real."

But she did feel a kinship with the great aunt she was named for, who died two years before her father was born.

"It's funny how similar we are," Kick mused. "She was fun and social and a performer in many ways."

RFK Jr. married Mary Richardson in 1994 and they went on to have four children: Conor Richardson Kennedy (born July 25 ,1994), Kyra LeMoyne Kennedy (Aug. 22, 1995), William Finbar "Finn" Kennedy (Nov. 8, 1997) and Aidan Caohman Vieques Kennedy (July 13, 2001).

The couple were legally separated when Mary died by suicide in 2012.

Father and sons: Conor, Aidan and RFK III.

Conor has maintained a fairly low profile, high-profile activism and other exploits aside, since rocketing to fame as an 18-year-old Harvard student and happened to bring Taylor Swift home to meet the family.

Their romance only lasted a few months, and Conor went on to grow up and graduate from Georgetown Law School. But, the headlines were made.

"Taylor Swift's ex Conor Kennedy" is now engaged to singer Giulia Be.

Kyra, a regular among the high-fashion set, lives in Milan.

She said in an Aug. 27, 2024, video posted in partnership with Elle and Bvlgari that she's working on a project in memory of her late mother.

"Have I experienced a rebirth in my life?" she asks in the clip. "Yes, I definitely have. As a little girl, I was one person. And when I became a young adult, I did a complete 180."

RFK Jr. married Curb Your Enthusiasm star Cheryl Hines in 2014.

The actress shares daughter Catherine Young (born March 8, 2004) with ex-husband Paul Young. 

In wishing her dad a happy Father's Day in 2018, Kick wrote on Instagram, "Thanks for giving me all these wacky brothers and sisters!"

Sen. Ted Kennedy, more scandalous than 90 percent of his family put together, shared three children with first wife Joan Bennett: Kara Kennedy (born Feb. 27, 1960), Edward Kennedy Jr. (Sept. 26, 1961) and Patrick Kennedy II (July 14, 1967).

He and Joan divorced in 1982 after 24 years of marriage and he wed Victoria Reggie in 1992.

Kara suffered a fatal heart attack on Sept. 16, 2011, two years after her father died.

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