Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s second wife gave his private diaries to a friend 'as insurance' just weeks before she died, according to a new report.
Mary Kennedy, the second wife of the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, handed his journals over to a confidant who 'knew the family well' before her death on May 16, 2012, investigative journalist Isabel Vincent told People.
Mary, the mother of four of RFK Jr.'s children, was found hanging in a barn at her home in Bedford, New York, at the age of 52.
She made the decision to pass the journals on after the architect's divorce with her ex-husband turned sour following arguments over the custody of their children, and his relationship with his current wife, Cheryl Hines.
The former Democrat, 72, started dating Hines while he was still legally married to Mary.
In one of her final moments, Mary decided to hand his deepest thoughts over because 'she saw them as some kind of leverage,' Vincent told the outlet.
A year after her death, a plastic shopping bag full of the politician's secret thoughts and a list of his sexual encounters mysteriously showed up on Vincent's chair at a Manhattan restaurant, the former New York Post reporter recalled.
Inside the journals were pages full of RFK Jr.'s grief following the assassination of his father, former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy Sr., and his reflection on his drug addiction, which he referred to as his 'lust demons,' Vincent detailed.
He also had a list of his sexual experiences in the diaries, ranking them from number one through 10, with the highest referring to intercourse, she explained.
In one entry, he referred to his late father, who died nearly five years after his uncle, former President John F. Kennedy Sr., was shot dead.
'I knew Daddy was watching me and that he loved me, but I also felt I was disappointing him,' he wrote.
These journal entries are now the focus of Vincent's new biography, 'RFK, JR.: The Fall and Rise', which details his life as one of the members of America's royal family, and how he has been at odds with the Democratic party and his loved ones, especially after being welcomed into Donald Trump's cabinet.
She also interviewed an array of sources close to RFK Jr. for the book.
While covering Mary's death for the Post, Vincent called up RFK Jr. and told him she had seen his diaries, which left him stunned, she explained.
'I think it was September 2013, and I told him, "I have seen your diaries and I wanted to ask you about these women".
'And there was a silence on the phone. He said, "You can't possibly have them." And I said, "I did." And he said, "I’m going to call my lawyer". And nothing ever happened after that,' Vincent recalled.
He previously brought up his journals during a 2023 Vlad TV podcast, addressing reports that Mary had found out through the entries that he had 'various sexual encounters with 37 different women' before she committed [to killing herself].
In it, he acknowledged his diaries as 'my own way of trying to live and examine life' and also how he managed his now 43 years in recovery from his heroin addiction.
RFK Jr. said he kept them locked away, and 'somehow' Mary 'put a lot of effort in getting that safe open' before handing his journals over.
Mary felt 'gaslit' by RFK Jr. before her death
According to Vincent's new book, just months before Mary's death, a source said: 'He definitely gaslit her and told her she was crazy and that her accusations about other women were fantasies.'
Vincent said Mary was also very deep into the diaries before she passed.
'In many ways she was trying to reassure herself that she had been married to a chronic philanderer for nearly 20 years,' the journalist wrote.
Despite it all, Mary still held out hope to remain married to him, Vincent claims.
'It was the Kennedys or nobody,' a source told her.
For Vincent, she said obtaining RFK Jr.'s diaries 'helped me get into his head'.
'People told me she was the love of his life. And Mary still occupies a very important part of his life even though she's dead,' she continued.
Vincent's book goes on sale on April 14 and is currently available for preorder.
RFK Jr. has been married three times. His first wife was Emily Ruth Black, with whom he shares two children, Robert III and Kathleen Kennedy.
He then had four children with Mary: Conor, Kyra, William, and Aidan Kennedy.
The Republican married Hines in August 2014. They do not share any children together.
The couple was recently engulfed in a [sexual texting] scandal after 32-year-old New York Magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi revealed she became 'emotionally involved' with RFK Jr. while she was writing a feature on his 2024 presidential campaign.
Kennedy denied any inappropriate relationship at the height of the scandal - claiming he met Nuzzi only once during an interview - but sources described the connection as 'emotional and digital in nature, not physical.'