If you've flipped on a news channel or scrolled through social media this week, you've likely seen questions about Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s voice.
The secretary's recent testimony in Senate hearings has reignited curiosity about his distinct speech pattern, which at times can sound shaky or halting. Kennedy has spoken at length about the disorder that causes his voice to waver, saying in a June 2023 News Nation broadcast that he began noticing vocal changes in his 40s before being diagnosed with spasmodic dysphonia.
"I had a very, very strong voice until I was 46 years old. It was unusually strong. Even at that time, I was making a lot of my income doing public speaking,” he said. "In 1996, when I was 42 years old, I got struck with a neurological disease, an injury, called spasmodic dysphonia that makes my voice tremble."
He continued, "At the time, I didn’t know what was wrong with it. But when I would go on TV, people would write me letters and say, ‘You have spasmodic dysphonia.' It makes it problematic for people to listen to me. I cannot listen to myself on TV. I will never listen to this broadcast."
Kennedy said the search for treatment led him to Japan in early 2023, where he underwent what he described as a "novel" surgery that made his voice "much better."
