Silent movies and the 1929 crisis were the two pillars on which Joseph P. Kennedy built his wealth, power, and influence. From his marriage to Rose Kennedy, nine children were born, Joseph, John, Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia, Robert, Jean, and Ted, and he had a predetermined plan for each of them. He gradually entered politics until in 1939, the Kennedy patriarch reached his peak when Benjamin Roosevelt appointed him ambassador to the court of the Windsors.
His disagreements with the Washington elite regarding his opposition to the anti-Nazi policies of the United States led to his resignation, but did not diminish his desire to orchestrate a plan to bring one of his sons to the presidency. He focused his efforts on his eldest son, but he died while serving as a pilot in the air forces during World War II. Subsequently, his daughter Kathleen and her husband William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington, died in an air crash, and his other daughter, Rosemary, was institutionalized after undergoing a lobotomy.
Thus, all of Patrick Sr's efforts to make one of his offspring President of the United States mainly fell on John, who managed to become the 35th occupant of the White House in January of 1. He also spared no energy on his other sons, as Robert became Attorney General and Ted, a senator from Massachusetts.
From January 20, 1961, to November 22, 1963, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier starred in the historical period dubbed Camelot, inspired by the mythology of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. That magical era, a symbol of courage and political wisdom, led the Kennedys to become legendary and bearers of values that made them the first American royal family.
Six decades later, the splendor of Camelot has fallen into oblivion due to the recent actions of Robert Kennedy Jr. (71), which have led him to confront the rest of the clan, culminating in the recent recorded letter from Caroline Kennedy (67), the only daughter of John and Jackie, in which she dissects the Machiavellian attitudes of her cousin. The tipping point must have been significant enough for the direct descendant of Camelot to speak out because until now, the family had followed the unwritten rule of patriarch Joseph that dirty laundry is always washed at home.
The New York Times already speaks of the end of Camelot. According to statements collected by Laurence Leamer, author of The Kennedy Men and The Kennedy Women, "for generations, they stayed united against the world and did not dare to speak against each other. That's over." When Robert Kennedy decided to run as an independent candidate in the 2024 presidential elections, he had only pulled the pin of a grenade. Upon realizing that he could not even remotely win, he betrayed the Kennedy philosophy to embrace Donald Trump's irrational discourse, who, as a sign of gratitude, appointed him as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Caroline's reaction was strong in her video letter: "He lacks any relevant experience in financial management, government, or medicine. His views on vaccines are dangerous and deliberately misinformed. These facts alone should be disqualifying (...)." "I've known Bobby all my life. We grew up together. It's no wonder he has birds of prey as pets, because Bobby himself is a predator." "Bobby takes advantage of the desperation of parents of sick children: he vaccinates his own children while hypocritically gaining followers by discouraging other parents from vaccinating theirs," among many other remarks. In this way, she urged senators to reject his nomination.
"What we are witnessing is the self-destruction of the Kennedy family," predicts author Laurence Leamer, who added that "the language they are using is not typical of being a Kennedy." These ideas are also supported by Bishop Juan Carlos Méndez, a friend of Robert whose grandmother and great-grandmother had a relationship with the Kennedys. The clergyman told The New York Times: "I don't think the family can go back to what it was, especially after this."
The Kennedys have been magnificent actors in portraying their lives for the public. Their sexual scandals, drug addictions, and abuse of power were pushed aside when they all appeared together personifying harmony. The last great photo in which about fifty Kennedys appeared was taken last April when they gathered to celebrate the 96th birthday of Ethel, Robert F. Kennedy's widow, who was assassinated in June 1968. The only survivor of the golden age passed away in October.
A few days later, six of the eight children of the marriage - Kathleen, Joe, Kerry, Rory, Max, and Christopher - publicly expressed their support for Joe Biden (82) while labeling their brother Robert as "dangerous."
Despite the angelic image they have always tried to show at their main family gatherings in Hyannis Port (Massachusetts), Jerry Oppenheimer, author of RFK Jr. The Dark Side of the Dream and The Other Mrs. Kennedy: An Intimate and Revealing Look at the Hidden Life of Ethel Skakel Kennedy, has revealed to the New York newspaper that "the Kennedy family has a long toxic history of internal struggles. It's just that in the past, before and after the Camelot myth, internal battles were mostly kept silent thanks to dominant media that idolized and exalted them."
When Robert announced his support for Trump last August, five of his siblings described this as a "betrayal of the values our father and our family cherish most. It's a sad ending to a sad story." A family rift that seems to date back to 2018 when Bobby not only revealed that he did not believe Sirhan Sirhan acted alone in killing his father but also agreed to his parole.
Oppenheimer reveals that the lack of appreciation between Caroline and Robert Jr. has been going on for a long time because their respective mothers, Jackie and Ethel, were at odds. "Ethel despised Jackie, mocked her, even about the size of her feet, and Jackie responded with her own artillery, forbidding John John and Caroline from spending time with Bobby and other wild descendants of Ethel. And so on," he concludes.