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‘Lust demons’: Trump nominee’s secret sex diary

A sdiary has been uncovered from one of Donald Trump’s picks for senior office – including a ranking of women and his battle against “lust demons”

Will Donald Trump’s 2024 Cabinet picks make him unstoppable?

Donald Trump’s pick for a senior US ministerial role grappled with his “lust demons” — while keeping a scorecard of more than two dozen conquests, according to his secret diary.

The thick, red journal was found in the home of Robert F Kennedy Jr by his wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, who, distraught over their impending divorce and Mr Kennedy’s serial philandering, committed suicide last year.

Mr Kennedy stood as an independent presidential candidate before jumping to Donald Trump’s campaign. A noted sceptic of vaccines, Mr Trump has nominated him for the post of health and human services secretary.

Eyebrows have been raised since Mr Trump’s victory when healthy eating advocate Mr Kennedy was pictured on board the Trump private jet chowing down on a McDonald’s meal.

Is RFK Jnr up to being US health secretary?

A copy of the diary and its 398 pages, reviewed by The New York Post, details RFK Jr’s daily activities, speeches, political activism, and the lives of his six children in the year 2001.

But they also record the names of women — with numbers from 1 to 10 next to each entry.

The codes corresponded to sexual acts, with 10 meaning intercourse, Mrs Richardson Kennedy told a confidant.

There are 37 women named in the ledger, 16 of whom get 10s.

On November 13, 2001, RFK Jr. recorded a triple play.

The separate encounters — code 10, 3, and 2 — occur the same day he attended a black-tie fundraiser at the Waldorf-Astoria for late actor Christopher Reeve’s charity, where he sat next to the paralysed Superman star, magician David Blaine and comic Richard Belzer.

It was a hectic month for Mr Kennedy, who travelled to ­Toronto, Louisiana, and Washington, DC — and listed at least one woman’s name on 22 different dates, including 13 consecutive days.

US President-elect Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Photo by SAUL LOEB and Olivier Touron / AFP)
US President-elect Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Photo by SAUL LOEB and Olivier Touron / AFP)

Most women are identified only by their first name in the ledger.

They included a lawyer, an environmental activist, a doctor, and at least one woman married to a famous actor.

A Post reporter who questioned Mr Kennedy on Friday about the diary was first met with six seconds of stunned silence.

“I don’t think there is any way you could have a diary or journal of mine from 2001,” Mr Kennedy then said. “I don’t have any comment on it. I have no diary from 2001”.

The diary is laced with Mr Kennedy’s Catholic guilt over his infidelities, which follow the same pattern of affairs pursued by his uncles, John F Kennedy and Edward Kennedy, as well as his own father.

On days without a woman’s name, Mr Kennedy would often write “Victory.”

This meant he’d triumphantly resisted sexual temptation, according to a source close to Mrs Richardson Kennedy.

“Despite the terrible things happening in the world, my life is … great,” he wrote on November 5, 2001.

In this photo of April 6, 2010, Robert Kennedy Jr and his wife Mary Richardson Kennedy pose for a photo outside their Bedford New York home. (AP Photo/Mark Vergari, The Journal News)
In this photo of April 6, 2010, Robert Kennedy Jr and his wife Mary Richardson Kennedy pose for a photo outside their Bedford New York home. (AP Photo/Mark Vergari, The Journal News)

“So I’ve been looking for ways to screw it up. I’m like Adam and live in Eden, and I can have everything but the fruit. But the fruit is all I want.”

The 59-year-old son of the assassinated US senator was so tortured by his desire that spending a month in jail in Puerto Rico was a welcome respite.

“I’m so content here,” he writes during his July 2001 incarceration for taking part in protests of the US Navy’s bombing exercises in Vieques, an island which is part of the US territory of Puerto Rico.

“I have to say it. There’s no women. I’m happy! Everybody here seems happy. It’s not ­misogyny. It’s the opposite! I love them too much.”

Yet Mr Kennedy adds, “I love my wife and I tell it to her every day, and I never tire of it and write her tender letters”.

Robert F Kennedy Jr and his wife Mary Richardson Kennedy in 2004.
Robert F Kennedy Jr and his wife Mary Richardson Kennedy in 2004.

Nine years later, Mr Kennedy and his wife separated when he filed for divorce.

And on May 16, 2012, Mrs Richardson Kennedy, 52, committed suicide on the couple’s Bedford ­estate, north of New York City.

Mr Kennedy’s cheating had become a huge issue in the marriage.

Mrs Richardson Kennedy told a friend that her husband noted the names of his romantic conquests on pages in the back of his journal under the preprinted heading “cash accounts”.

The journal begins with word that Mrs Richardson Kennedy is pregnant with the couple’s fourth child.

Donald Trump, his son Donald Jr, RFK Jr and Elon Musk with their McDonald’s meal on their way to the UFC fight Credit: Margo Martin
Donald Trump, his son Donald Jr, RFK Jr and Elon Musk with their McDonald’s meal on their way to the UFC fight Credit: Margo Martin

The couple had known each other since Mrs Richardson Kennedy was 14 and a boarding-school roommate of Mr Kennedy’s younger sister, Kerry. They married in 1994, weeks after Mr Kennedy divorced his first wife, Emily Black, with whom he had two children.

Mrs Richardson Kennedy was pregnant with their first child, Conor, when they married. They moved into the 1920 clapboard house in Westchester County, north of New York City.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., left, kneels with his children at the casket of Mary Richardson Kennedy, in St. Francis Xavier Cemetery in 2012. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., left, kneels with his children at the casket of Mary Richardson Kennedy, in St. Francis Xavier Cemetery in 2012. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Actress Susan Sarandon, second from left, reaches out to hug a member of the Kennedy family after the funeral of Mary Richardson Kennedy. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
Actress Susan Sarandon, second from left, reaches out to hug a member of the Kennedy family after the funeral of Mary Richardson Kennedy. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

Mr Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and board president of the non-profit Waterkeeper Alliance, spent much of his time travelling to give speeches, according to his diary.

He had recently been weighing a possible Senate run for New York before Hillary Rodham Clinton stepped into the race. Mrs Richardson Kennedy stayed home with the children.

The beautiful brunette struggled with depression and alcoholism. Her husband described her at her funeral as “fighting demons”.

The couple was not yet divorced when she died and were bitterly arguing over issues involving custody and finances.

Mr Kennedy had temporary custody of the four children and was dating actor Cheryl Hines.

A sealed document in which Mr Kennedy portrayed his wife as an abusive alcoholic who beat him up and threatened suicide in front of the children was leaked to the press.

Mr Kennedy said in the affidavit that by 2001, he had “lost hope” in his marriage and was “committing numerous infidelities to keep my sanity,” according to a published report.

Kennedy tragedies through the years

But his journal paints a different picture. He barely mentions his wife’s emotional problems, making just a passing reference to her struggles with depression.

When he is jailed in Puerto Rico, he writes on July 8 that “I finally spoke to my wonderful wife and that was a joy. She is very strong and cheerful”.

The couple’s son, Aiden, was born just days later. He writes: “I’m so proud of my Mary. She has become the woman I fell in love with — through hard work. She has overcome her fears, enshrined her faith, abandoned self-pity and blame, and immersed herself in gratitude and God gave her a baby … a beautiful and serene and happy soul. I am so happy. I couldn’t be happier or more grateful for the life and the wife God has given me”.

He also found time to muse on his own weakness.

“After daddy died I struggled to be a grown-up … I felt he was watching me from heaven. Every time I was afflicted with sexual thoughts, I felt a failure. I hated myself. I began to lie — to make up a character who was the hero and leader that I wished I was,” he writes on July 25.

Former presidential candidate Robert. Kennedy Jr speaks at a Donald Trump campaign rally on November 1, 2024. (Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / AFP)
Former presidential candidate Robert. Kennedy Jr speaks at a Donald Trump campaign rally on November 1, 2024. (Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / AFP)

‘Lust demons’

Mr Kennedy writes near the end of his jail sentence that he has a “three-point plan” for “fixing my greatest defect … my lust demons.”

He doesn’t write down the plan, leaving the subsequent days of the diary blank.

An entry five days later reads, “Drove to Cape with Mary and all the kids”.

By mid-August, he again records women’s names in the back of his journal.

Mr Kennedy holds back on any detailed description of his conquests and bizarrely portrays himself as a kind of victim.

He uses the word “mugged” as shorthand for being seduced.

“I narrowly escaped being mugged by a double team of [two women]. It was tempting but I prayed and God gave me the strength to say no,” he writes on February 6. A few days later, on Valentine’s Day, he gives his pregnant wife orchids, he notes.

On May 21, he writes about hosting a dinner for Leonardo DiCaprio, driving the actor to the city and then meeting someone else in Manhattan.

He notes he “got mugged on my way home,” recording a 10 with the name of a woman next to it”.

“I’ve got to do better,” he adds.

In another entry, he tells himself to “avoid the company of women. You have not the strength to resist their charms,” and to “be humble like a monk. Keep your hands to yourself. Avert your eye”.

In the summer of 2001, Mr Kennedy writes that “I have been given everything that I coveted — a beautiful wife and kids and loving family, wealth, education, good health and a job I love yet always on the lookout for something I can’t have. I want it all,” he writes. “No matter how much I have — I want more”.

This story appeared in The New York Post as is reproduced with permission.

Read related topics:Donald Trump

Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/us-politics/lust-demons-trump-nominees-secret-sex-diary/news-story/b144d07262a4106cb9984242b0f84f74