Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s older sister is not seeking family reconciliation.
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, 74, the eldest of the 11 children of Robert F. and Ethel Kennedy, spoke to USA Today about her family’s political legacy and how the shared sense of “obligation” to make the United States more “fair” and “just” has fractured amid her brother’s role in the Trump administration.
“I would not say there’s a lot of peace in my family,” Townsend told the outlet, alluding to the contentious role RFK Jr., 71, has played this year after assuming office as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services in February, despite widespread disagreement within the Kennedy family over his position.
After the assassination of her uncle, President John F. Kennedy, in 1963, 12-year-old Townsend received a letter from her father emphasizing that she had a “special responsibility” as the “oldest of the Kennedy grandchildren” to “be kind to others and work for your country.” She later served as Maryland’s first female lieutenant governor from 1995 to 2003.
Today, her younger brother—who holds the most high-profile political position in the family—has made changes that have sparked widespread controversy across the country after introducing the Make America Healthy Again movement, which has shaken up the nation’s healthcare infrastructure.
In June, the health secretary dismissed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee and replaced its members with vaccine skeptics. Under RFK Jr.’s authority, the CDC stopped recommending COVID-19 vaccines for children and pregnant women and revised its website to include the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism.
That caused a fresh rebuke from his relatives. In an essay revealing her terminal cancer diagnosis, RFK Jr.’s cousin, Tatiana Schlossberg, 35, outlined how she was personally affected by her cousin’s policy changes.
“Bobby is a known skeptic of vaccines, and I was especially concerned that I wouldn’t be able to get mine again, leaving me to spend the rest of my life immunocompromised, along with millions of cancer survivors, small children, and the elderly,” Schlossberg wrote in November, joining other members of the Kennedy clan who have been outspoken against RFK Jr.
After President Donald Trump, 79, nominated RFK Jr. to his cabinet position, Schlossberg’s mother, Caroline Kennedy, 68, wrote a letter to senators outlining her cousin’s “dangerous views” and describing him as a “predator.”
On the 100th anniversary of their father’s assassination, RFK Jr.’s younger brother, Max Kennedy, accused him of a “betrayal” of their father’s legacy in an article in the Boston Globe.
That was echoed by his oldest sister. “I think what my family has done more than anything else is to say we have an obligation to make our country fair, more just, and each of us has an obligation to give back,” Townsend told USA Today, before stating that she remains “proud” of the United States.
“The whole idea of we have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is a wonderful dream, and we keep having the challenge to try and make it come true,” Townsend said, referring to the country whose political history her family has played a significant role in.
Fredrik Logevall, a Harvard history professor who is writing a biography of John F. Kennedy, told the outlet that RFK Jr. “is out of step with what the Kennedy family has stood for politically and continues to stand for.”
Asked if she is the peacekeeper in the family as the oldest sibling during times when one brother does not align with the majority of the family’s views, Townsend dodged the question: “I don’t know if this search for peace is really an appropriate way to live,” she said.
“I think it’s more important to feel other people’s pain and your own pain,” she added.
The Daily Beast has sought comment from RFK Jr.’s office.
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