A new unauthorized biography on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. details the ups and downs of the famed Kennedy-turned-health secretary.
In the book titled "RFK JR.: The Fall and Rise," out April 14 from Harper Collins, author and New York Post investigative reporter Isabel Vincent uses Kennedy's private diary entries to illustrate the intimate details of the controversial figure's life − from the pressures he felt to live up to the legacy of his political family, the grief that followed the assassinations of his father and uncle as well as his trajectory from suspended student to environmental lawyer to cabinet member.
The diaries, which contained more than 1,200 pages of entries, came from a "trusted source" in 2013, Vincent writes. The source was a friend of Mary Richardson, Kennedy's second wife, who died by suicide in 2012. According to the source, Kennedy's late wife allegedly took the journals "for insurance" during their tumultuous divorce.
Kennedy has not publicly commented on the book, but he has previously acknowledged the diaries, calling them "a tool for self-examination and for dealing with my spiritual struggles" in response to the Post's 2013 publication of some details from a 2001 journal. "The Fall and Rise" also includes details from a 1999 and 2000 journal.
