RFK Jr. Speaks Out Following 'Role Model' Mother Ethel Kennedy's Death: 'I Credit Her for All My Virtues'

Mar. 15, 2025

Robert F. Kennedy Jr and his mother Ethel Kennedy in 2013.Photo:Stephen Lovekin/Getty

Stephen Lovekin/Getty

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.is speaking out for the first time since his motherEthel Kennedy’s death at age 96 on Thursday.

Sharing a poston X(formerly Twitter) on Thursday, Oct. 10, Kennedy wrote at length of his mother’s many qualities and strengths, how she was a “role model” for her children and credited her for all his “virtues.”

“My mom, Ethel Skakel Kennedy, passed peacefully into Heaven this morning,” he began his tribute.

Kennedy described how despite his mother’s decline in recent months, “she never lost her sense of fun, her humor, her spark, her spunk, and her joie de vivre.”

Touchingly, he went on to share that while she “wrung joy from every moment,” his mother had spent the years since her husband, U.S. senatorRobert F. Kennedy,was assassinated in 1968, “yearning” for when they would reunite.

“For 56 years she has spoken with yearning of the day she would reunite with her beloved husband. She is with him now, with my brothers David and Michael, with her parents, her six siblings, all of whom predeceased her, and her “adopted” Kennedy siblings Jack, Kick, Joe, Teddy, Eunice, Jean, Rosemary, and Patricia,” he wrote.

He described the late Kennedy matriarch as “a collection of irreconcilable convictions,” noting her perspective on the Catholic Church and U.S. presidents as examples.

He went on to detail her “moral and physical fearlessness,” as her “most defining qualities,” including how his mother was a “peerless equestrian” and noting that “critics named her among the best female amateur tennis players, and she was a competitive diver.”

“But she did every sport well — from football to skiing, waterskiing and kayaking,” he added.

Kennedy wrote that Ethel’s “disciplined stoicism and her deep faith in God,” had assisted her during “ten years of pregnancy” as well as “the murders of her husband and Uncle Jack, and the early deaths of two of her children,” referring toDavid Anthony Kennedywho died in 1984 from an overdose at age 25, andMichael LeMoyne Kennedywho died in 1997 in a skiing accident.

“Various air crashes killed both of her parents, her brother, her sister-in-law, and her nephewJohn [F. Kennedy Jr.]. She never enjoyed flying, but her worry never stopped her from boarding a plane. While giving short shrift to her own monumental suffering, she always showed intense compassion for others,” he continued.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr and Ethel Shakel Kennedy in 2012.Marion Curtis/Starpix/Shutterstock

Marion Curtis/Starpix/Shutterstock

Kennedy described his mother as himself and his siblings', “role model for self-discipline, for resilience, and for self-confidence.”

“She deeded to each of her 11 children her love of good stories, her athleticism, her competitive spirit, and the deep curiosity about the world, and the intense interest in people of all backgrounds, which caused her to pepper everyone she met — from cab drivers to presidents — with a relentless cascade of questions about their lives. She also gave us all her love of language and for good storytelling,” he continued.

Kennedy ended his tribute to his mother with a touching moment of appreciation for what she had given him, and how she had parented him.

“I credit her for all my virtues. I’m grateful for her generosity in overlooking my faults,” he concluded the post.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Ethel Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy and Mariah Kennedy Cuomo in 2013.Stephen Lovekin/Getty

Kennedy’s sister Kerry first announced that their mother and the widow ofRobert F. Kennedyhad died in a statement shared to social media on Oct. 10. Ethel died “from complications related toa stroke suffered last week,” Kerry confirmed in the statement, posted on X.

“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,” Kerry wrote.

“She was a devout Catholic and a daily communicant, 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,” the statement continued. “Please keep our mother in your hearts and prayers.”

Ethel was the mother to 11 children, onlytwo of whom she outlived. She survived many other tragedies in her 96 years, including the assassination of her husband in 1968, just five years after his older brother,John F. Kennedy’sassassination.

“From my angle, her love didn’t always feel unconditional,” Kennedy wrote of his mother. “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."

Kennedy revealed that he had struggled with drug addiction as a teenager, and wrote that he and his mother grew closer once he got sober as an adult in the ’80s.

As he wrote, he eventually discovered that much of her toughness was in response to the many losses she had endured. “Everyone takes their licks,” she once told him. “We feel like we ought to be able to write our own scripts to our lives, and sometimes we feel disappointed in God when life rewrites the plot. The key is acceptance and gratitude. We need to practice wanting what we’ve got, not what we wish we had.”

Ethel and Robert F. Kennedy.Bettmann/Getty Images

Bettmann/Getty Images

Ethel was born on April 11, 1928, the sixth of George and Ann Skakel’s seven children. Her father made a fortune as the founder of Great Lakes Carbon Corporation and their family grew up wealthy in Greenwich, Conn.

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

It was her faith that allowed her to keep going after the many deaths in her family, she previously told PEOPLE in a 2012 interview. “I’d wake up in the morning and think he was happy in heaven and he had Jack — and they were together as they had been together on earth.”

“I didn’t think how I would survive,” she said. “I knew it would happen but I didn’t know how.”

source: people.com