Full Breakdown
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Personal Diaries Surface After Mary Richardson Kennedy’s Suicide
4/27/2026, 9:34:18 PM
Discovery of the Diaries
A journalist reported gaining “extraordinary access” to a set of personal journals belonging to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. nearly a year after his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, died by suicide in May 2012. The notebooks were left in a plastic bag on the journalist’s chair after a dinner with a trusted source at an Upper East Side bistro. The journalist retrieved the diaries on the subway, noting that “nothing was spoken” and that the material was immediately recognized as significant.
Background: Marriage, Divorce, and Death
Mary Richardson Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were in the midst of a protracted divorce when she died. According to the source, Richardson Kennedy handed the diaries to a friend “in case she needed to use them as leverage” during the divorce negotiations, a period when Kennedy was reportedly hesitant to disclose family financial assets. The divorce was never finalized; Richardson Kennedy remained legally married at the time of her death.
Diary Content and Rating System
The notebooks contain “lists of dozens of women” at the back, each entry paired with a numeric rating from 1 to 10 indicating the stage of the relationship. The source explained that a rating of “10” signified intercourse. Most entries list only first names, and the rating system was reportedly devised by Kennedy himself.
Official Statements
Kennedy has publicly asserted that “the diaries were stolen from him,” rejecting the claim that he voluntarily gave them to a friend. He also addressed the handling of his late wife’s remains, stating that he moved her burial plot within St. Francis Xavier Cemetery in Barnstable, Massachusetts, to a location he had recently purchased closer to other family members.
Conflicting Accounts
The source’s account suggests the diaries were deliberately handed to a friend for leverage, whereas Kennedy’s statement frames the loss as theft. No independent verification of either claim appears in the available material, leaving the exact chain of custody unresolved.
Public Interest
Kennedy’s death generated considerable public interest, leading to speculation about the diaries and the relocation of his wife’s remains.
Verbatim Quotes
- “I gained extraordinary access to the diaries nearly a year after the suicide of Mary Richardson Kennedy, his second wife, who hanged herself in May 2012.” — Journalist
- “Flipping through the unwieldy journals on the subway ride home, I confess I was only looking for the sex.” — Journalist
- “I found the lists of dozens of women at the back of the books.” — Journalist
- “Richardson Kennedy had allegedly given the diaries to a friend in case she needed to use them as leverage in their protracted divorce negotiations, at a time when Kennedy appeared to hedge on disclosing his family’s financial assets.” — Journalist
