The Dark History of the Kennedy Family Tree, Explained

Welcome to MsMojo, where we’ll be doing a deep dive into the Kennedy family’s troubled past.

The Kennedy family is easily one of the most prominent families in American history. John F. Kennedy is the most famous, serving as president from 1961 to ‘63, when a tragic fate ended his term early. Many other tragedies have befallen the Kennedys over the years, causing many to wonder if the family is cursed. At first, it’s easy to sound skeptical, but if we analyse the complete family history, could it sound plausible? Today, we’re going to explore that question, so you can decide for yourself whether the Kennedy bloodline is cursed or not.

The family descends from an Irish clan. In 1849, Patrick Kennedy and Bridget Murphy sailed to Boston, where they had five children, including Patrick Joseph “P. J.” Kennedy.

P. J. Kennedy was a Massachusetts State Legislator from 1884 to 1895, and had four children of his own, including Joseph Patrick “Joe” Kennedy Sr., who also went into politics and fathered nine children.

Joe Kennedy is now viewed as the primary patriarch of the Kennedy family. Many of his nine children went on to start their own families, resulting in multiple bloodlines. One of the most famous was JFK’s line. Joe’s oldest son was Joseph Jr., who was born in 1914. Joe had massive ambitions for his firstborn child, hoping he’d one day become president. Unfortunately, Jr. died in 1944 while serving in World War II. It was one of the family’s first major tragedies. This made John F. Kennedy the oldest child, who was born in 1917.

At 43 years old, JFK became the youngest elected president in U.S. history. He also became the youngest president to be assassinated in 1963, when he was fatally shot in Texas. This incident is still widely debated, as the presumed assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was shot a few days later. Oswald’s motivations remain unclear, fueling conspiracy theories about the incident. JFK’s term is also remembered for his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. This 13-day standoff occurred between the U.S. and the Soviet Union over Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. If it weren’t for JFK’s efforts to de-escalate the situation, the incident could’ve escalated into a nuclear catastrophe.

Outside of politics, his death isn’t the only personal misfortune JFK faced. He suffered from multiple health issues, which he sought to keep secret. He contracted scarlet fever as a boy and had extreme back pain during adulthood. Alongside this, he struggled with Addison’s disease, which affected his adrenal glands, making him feel constantly exhausted, among other effects. All these things combined meant Kennedy had to be on a lot of medication constantly.

Unfortunately, family life didn’t provide any respite from personal difficulties. John and his wife Jacqueline had a miscarriage in 1955, a stillbirth in ‘56, and a son born in ‘63 who didn’t even live two days. Only two of their children made it to adulthood: Caroline and John Jr. Caroline is still alive and had an extensive career as a U.S. ambassador. She’s married to an artist named Edwin Schlossberg, and together they’ve had three children: Rose, Tatiana, and John, who all seem to be living happy and healthy lives. John Jr., on the other hand, perished in a plane crash in 1999, dying before fathering a single child.

Another prominent child of Joe was Robert F. Kennedy, born in 1925. Like his older brother, Robert also pursued politics. In 1965, he was elected as a Senator from New York. Before this, he was one of John’s most valued advisors while he was president. The pair of them are now considered liberal icons, both of them being supporters of the civil rights movement. In 1968, Robert suffered the same fate as his brother, getting shot by a Palestinian man over his support for Israel.

Robert’s line didn’t end with him; he and his wife Ethel had 11 children together. Ethel lived until 2024, dying at the grand age of 96. Most of their children are still alive and lived to see old age, but two suffered grisly deaths, furthering the notion of a Kennedy curse. One son, named David, died due to substance use in 1984. Another son, called Michael, died in a skiing accident in 1997.

Robert was of course the father of RFK Jr., who is currently the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. His appointment was an extremely scandalous outcome, as RFK Jr., apart from having no formal health or medical expertise, controversially amplifies a lot of misinformation about health. Among numerous outlandish beliefs on the topic, he’s one of the most vocal opponents to vaccines, which numerous studies prove is an immensely dangerous ideology. RFK Jr. is also skeptical of who killed his father and uncle, believing they were part of a grander conspiracy.

Between 1994 and 2010, Junior was married to Mary Kennedy. The media focused on their split to an excessive degree. In 2012, Mary’s body was found in her home after she took her own life. Before the incident, she’d discovered that Junior kept a journal where he’d taken notes of 37 of his affairs while they were married.

Some of RFK’s other grandchildren have also tragically fallen victim to the alleged curse. Robert’s granddaughter Saoirse, born to his fifth child, Courtney, died in 2019 of substance abuse, aged only 22. Saoirse’s cousins Maeve and Gideon drowned in a canoeing accident in 2020.

Another influential child of Joseph was Eunice, who was born in 1921 and lived until 2009. She founded the Special Olympics and had 5 children with Sargent Shriver, one of whom was married to Arnold Schwarzenegger.

That leaves us with 5 children of Joe Kennedy we’ve not discussed. His eldest daughter, Rosemary, had an exceedingly tragic life. She developed slowly growing up, and was placed in various schools for children with learning disabilities. When she was 22, her sister Eunice claimed she was “irritable and difficult.” The family decided to treat her with a lobotomy, a medical procedure now considered extremely outdated. It left her unable to speak, and she was barely able to move; so she spent the next 6 decades of her life in a care home.

Joe’s second daughter, Kathleen, married British Army Officer Lord Hartington in 1944, only for the young man to die four months later. In 1948, Kathleen also perished in a fatal plane crash.

Another daughter of Joe’s was Patricia, who aspired to become a film producer but was unable to due to the misogyny of the era. But at least she lived until 2006. Meanwhile, Joe’s youngest daughter was Jean, who served as U.S. ambassador to Ireland in the ‘90s and died at age 92 in 2020.

Finally, there’s Ted Kennedy, who was a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts for almost 50 years. Ted died of a brain tumor in 2009, aged 77. His biggest controversy occurred in 1969, when he accidentally drove his car off a bridge, leading to the death of his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne. However, Kennedy’s initial failure to report the accident led to legal issues that derailed his own presidential prospects, and spawned a new rash of conspiracy theories.

All these tragedies combined have led to the hypothesis that the Kennedys exist under a cloud of doom. The family, inexplicably, seems prone to assassinations, plane crashes, and general misfortunes. Ted Kennedy wasn’t the first one to contemplate a family curse, but his words did give it more prominence. To this day, the idea persists.

There are tons of skeptics of the theory, who instead claim that the curse is a myth. They believe it’s exaggerated simply so the Kennedys can avoid taking blame for their mistakes. They argue that the biggest curse they suffer is having too much money and power.

What do you think? Is the Kennedy bloodline cursed, or are they just unlucky? Let us know in the comments below!