What Patrick Kennedy Blames For The Deaths Of His Aunt Rosemary And Cousin David

Many people strongly believe in the existence of a Kennedy family curse simply because of all the tragedies that have befallen its members across multiple decades. Back in 1941, John F. Kennedy's father, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., ordered his eldest daughter, Rosemary Kennedy, to undergo a lobotomy. Rosemary had intellectual disabilities when she was young and became "increasingly irritable and difficult" in her early twenties, according to her sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver, so her father scheduled the then-promising and newly up-and-coming procedure in the hopes that it would help Rosemary to develop a more even temperament, per the JFK Library. 

Reports also suggest that the Kennedy family patriarch could have asked Rosemary to undergo a lobotomy because he feared her intellectual differences would hamper her brothers' burgeoning political careers. The JFK Library notes that 23-year-old Rosemary couldn't move around or communicate after the botched procedure. She eventually regained parts of her speech with extensive therapy but spent her life away from the public eye, with scarce visits from most of her family members. While some people may be quick to attribute Rosemary's tragic story to the so-called "Kennedy Curse," her nephew, Patrick Kennedy, didn't share the same belief. 

Speaking to People in 2015, Rosemary's brother, who was also Ted Kennedy's son, posited that she may have developed mental health issues. Patrick believed that if her family had understood her problems better and got her the appropriate help, she may have never undergone the life-altering procedure and "lived a life very free of disability." Likewise, Patrick reckoned that another Kennedy family tragedy could have been avoided with a greater focus on mental health too.

On April 25, 1984, Robert F. Kennedy's son, David Kennedy, sadly died from a drug overdose at the age of just 28. During his cousin Patrick Kennedy's chat with People, he argued that David had developed undiagnosed PTSD from his father's assassination in 1968. As Patrick pointed out, "David lost his father so violently and then, having to watch it all on television. I don't think anybody understood that [PTSD] was a real injury that, if untreated, would kill him." In the 1983 book, "Kennedy: The New Generation," Robert's and JFK's rebellious sister, Kathleen Cavendish, wrote that David was supposed to have been asleep at the time of his father's assassination, but the high-energy day had caused him to stay up later than usual. Presidential biographer Theodore White was the first to notice that then-13-year-old David was understandably "'devastated at the sight he had just seen,'" per The New York Times.

Decades later, in 2019, another member of the Kennedy family, Patrick's cousin, Saoirse Roisin Hill, also passed away following an accidental drug overdose. In the aftermath, Patrick wrote a piece for USA Today in which he commended Hill for being so open about her mental health struggles. The former congressman also stated that the term "Kennedy Family Curse" was pretty insulting. The mental health advocate proclaimed that they came from a "painfully typical" family, further contending, "We have an unsurprising incidence of mental illness and addiction — our illnesses are no different than anyone else's and our tragic losses to them have not been so out of the ordinary." 

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).