Ethel Kennedy Raised 11 Kids Alone After RFK’s Assassination. “Ethel” Reveals Her Grit and Legacy (Exclusive)

Greta BjornsonWed, October 7, 2026 at 12:45 PM UTC

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Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy attend the opening of the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center in New York City on Sept. 16, 1966 (L); Ethel Kennedy: The Extraordinary Life and Bold Legacy by Kerry Kennedy (R)Credit: Circa Images/GHI/Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty; HarperOne -

Kerry Kennedy chronicles the awe-inspiring life of her mother, Ethel Kennedy, in her new book, Ethel Kennedy: The Extraordinary Life and Bold Legacy

While Ethel saw her fair share of tragedy — including the assassination of her husband, Robert F. Kennedy, and the deaths of two of her 11 children — she never wavered

“She had a lot to live for,” Kerry tells PEOPLE of her mother, who died at age 96 in 2024

No matter what the hit Hulu show Love Story says, Ethel Kennedy would never deny anyone a meal. Her daughter Kerry, 67, scoffs at the very idea that she’d have a breakfast “sign-up” sheet, as depicted in the series about John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s relationship. “She’s all about, ‘Come in. Let me get you some food,’ ” Kerry says of Ethel’s perennial mothering. “ ‘You’ve already eaten? Let me get you some cake. You’ve already had cake? Here’s some chocolate.’ ”

The mother of 11 was three months pregnant with her youngest, Rory, when her husband, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, was shot on June 5, 1968, and died the next day, just five years after his brother President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. In the aftermath of twin tragedies, she became the one who carried the torch, and her family.

While that was far from the last strike against the dynasty — granddaughter Saoirse Kennedy Hill died in 2019, granddaughter Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean and great-grandson Gideon McKean died in 2020, and she lost sons David and Michael Kennedy in 1984 and 1997, respectively — Ethel never broke.

“Turning suffering into strength,” Kerry writes in her new book Ethel Kennedy: The Extraordinary Life and Bold Legacy, “became her healing.”

Kerry and Ethel Kennedy in 2008Credit: CLINT SPAULDING/Patrick McMullan via Getty

Ethel had a rags-to-riches childhood. She was born on the South Side of Chicago as one of George and Ann Skakel’s seven kids before the family settled in Greenwich, Conn., when she was 11. In 1945, when she was 17, she met Robert F. Kennedy, who began dating Ethel’s sister. That relationship didn’t last. She and RFK fell in love and married in 1950.

Their union became an adventure like no other, Kerry says, as Ethel joined the “big, fun” Kennedy family. She exchanged witty letters with her mother-in-law, Rose Kennedy, hosted legendary pool parties at the family’s Hickory Hill home in Virginia and traveled both across the country and around the world by her husband’s side, rubbing elbows with everyone from Martin Luther King Jr. to Elizabeth Taylor along the way.

Book cover of “Ethel Kennedy: The Extraordinary Life and Bold Legacy” by Kerry KennedyCredit: HarperOne

Ethel was fond of spinning even life’s harrowing moments into memorable tales, like the time in 1965 when she saved Kerry and four of her siblings by sailing the family to safety amid a storm that rocked their boat with 20-ft. waves. With the captain locked safely away in his quarters, Ethel took charge.

It wasn’t until decades later that she revealed she had suffered a miscarriage after that day. “You look back as an adult and say, ‘Wait a second, how in the world did she manage? Where does that courage, self-determination and grit come from? And how do you pass that along?’ ” Kerry says. “It’s pretty extraordinary.”

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In the decades to come, Ethel continued to turn her suffering into action. When her sons Bobby and David both became addicted to heroin, their mother poured all of her resources into helping them heal. “You have a problem, you find out what you do about it, and then you go to work solving. And that’s what she did,” Kerry says.

Through the tumult Ethel grew close to her sister-in-law Jackie Kennedy. As different as they were, they built an “extraordinary bond,” Kerry says. When Jackie was dying of cancer, Ethel and Kerry shared a final poignant moment with her. “It was very beautiful and tender that evening. It was sad, yes, and it was letting go, but it was also these two women who had shared so much, who had given their lives so much and shared this deep faith and understanding of one another’s pain and trauma,” Kerry says.

Ethel turned her formidable will to the world beyond her own family’s problems too. She founded the Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center in 1968, advocated for the rights of farm workers, led efforts in urban restoration and fought to cement her late husband’s legacy as a civil rights champion until she died from complications of a stroke at age 96 in 2024.

The Kennedy family, from left: Michael; David; Robert Jr..; Joseph; Kathleen; Matthew; Senator Robert F. Kennedy; Christopher; Ethel and Mary.Credit: Bettmann/Getty

Perhaps because of her long career in public service, she didn’t shy away from challenging differences of opinion either. When Bobby endorsed Donald Trump for President, Kerry says, her mother disagreed but still loved her son, now Trump’s controversial Secretary of Health and Human Services. “She felt a comfort level with making her mind known and being at odds with Bobby,” says Kerry. “I think that there was a great lesson there that you can love somebody and disagree vehemently with them on a number of issues.”

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She also imparted that loving someone doesn’t require diminishing one’s strength. “My mother was the most competitive person I’ve ever met,” says Kerry, who shares three daughters — twins Cara and Mariah, 31, and Michaela, 29 — with her ex-husband, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo. “She taught each of [my daughters] how to play backgammon from the time they were 5 or 6 years old. None of them ever beat her in a single game.”

Despite more than her fair share of wins and losses, Ethel never wavered. “She had a lot to live for,” Kerry says. “She had 11 children who needed her to be there and be present. She was going to be there for those kids. She never described herself as a victim at all.”

Ethel will hit shelves on Oct. 13 and is available now for preorder, wherever books are sold.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”