Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the third child of RFK and his wife Ethel, had the world at his feet. However, the heir to the Camelot dynasty is now a failed presidential candidate—and with many of his family now disowning him.
The spotlight has proved problematic for many a Kennedy. See the photos below for insight into RFK Jr.’s life through the years.
President John F. Kennedy with his nephew, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in the Oval Office in March 1961.
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. serving as pallbearer at the funeral of his father in New York on June 8, 1968.
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Robert Kennedy Jr. handles an Augur buzzard in August 1974 for The Last Frontier, a wildlife TV special in which he appears as himself.
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Robert Kennedy Jr. reaches out and pets a whale as Glenn Close stretches to reach a whale, in March 1997. Kennedy and Close were part of an environmental meeting and whale watch at San Ignacio Lagoon in Mexico.
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Democratic presidential hopeful US Vice President Al Gore speaks as environmental activist and lawyer Robert Kennedy Jr. listens at the Iowa Earth Year 2000 conference in Des Moines, Iowa, on Jan. 21, 2000.
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Robert Kennedy, Jr. tours Puerto Rico on April 18, 2000, to examine the environmental impact of U.S. Navy training operations on the island of Vieques.
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks to students at Pace University in New York on Sept. 18, 2003, after endorsing Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry at a press conference.
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. takes the stage outside the U.S. Capitol to urge the U.S. Congress to keep the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge off-limits to oil drilling on Sept. 20, 2005, in Washington, DC.
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Democratic presidential hopeful and New York Senator Hillary Clinton and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. greet a customer at the Gala Cafe restaurant on Jan. 4, 2008 in Manchester, New Hampshire.
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivers a speech to the audience at the Green Our Vaccines press conference in front of the U.S. Capitol Building on June 4, 2008 in Washington, DC.
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. officially announces his candidacy for president on April 19, 2023 in Boston, Massachusetts.
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Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. arrives at a hearing with the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government, on Capitol Hill, July 20, 2023 in Washington, DC.
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Robert F Kennedy Jr. announces his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, in Oakland, California on March 26, 2024.
JOSH EDELSON/Josh Edelson/Getty
