By An unusual story involving Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a beached whale has resurfaced, sparked by unsubstantiated rumors linking his daughter, Kick Kennedy, to actor Ben Affleck.
The tale, which originally appeared in a 2012 Town & Country interview with Kick, has gained renewed attention amidst recent political controversies surrounding the Kennedy scion.
In the interview, Kick Kennedy, now 36, recounted a vivid childhood memory of her father’s unconventional approach to marine biology.
According to her account, upon hearing of a dead whale washed up on Squaw Island in Massachusetts, the elder Kennedy, known for his interest in animal skulls and bones, rushed to the scene armed with a chainsaw.
Kick described how her father, then in his late 50s, decapitated the whale and secured its head to their family minivan with a bungee cord. The family then embarked on a five-hour journey to Mount Kisco, New York, with the macabre cargo in tow.
“Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would pour into the windows of the car, and it was the rankest thing on the planet,” Kick recalled in the interview.
She added, “We all had plastic bags over our heads with mouth holes cut out, and people on the highway were giving us the finger, but that was just normal day-to-day stuff for us.”
This resurfaced story follows closely on the heels of another unusual animal-related incident involving Robert F. Kennedy Jr. On August 4, he admitted to dumping a dead bear cub in New York’s Central Park in 2014, staging it as a bicycle accident.
Kennedy explained that he had found the cub hit by a car during a falconing trip and, unable to take it home immediately, chose to dispose of it in the park.
The renewed interest in these stories coincides with significant political developments in Kennedy’s career. Recently, he abandoned his independent presidential bid and endorsed Republican nominee Donald Trump for the 2024 election, a move that drew sharp criticism from his own family.
Five of Kennedy’s siblings released a statement calling his endorsement of Trump “a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear.”
The dating rumors connecting Kick Kennedy to Ben Affleck, which prompted the resurfacing of the whale story, remain unsubstantiated.
PEOPLE magazine reported conflicting accounts, with one source claiming the two are “hanging out,” while another insisted, “I don’t think they even know each other. There’s definitely nothing going on.”
Interestingly, in the same 2012 interview where Kick shared the whale incident, she joked that her parents would only turn their backs on her if she were to become a Republican. This comment takes on new significance in light of her father’s recent political shift and endorsement of Trump.
As these stories circulate, they highlight the complex and often controversial nature of the Kennedy family’s public life, blending elements of political discourse, environmental activism, and celebrity culture in unexpected ways.
Credit: People.com
