Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent U.S. presidential candidate, called an article in Vanity Fair “a bunch of nonsense” in response to several allegations, including that he sexually abused a former family nanny.
Vanity Fair reported that in the late 1990s, Mr. Kennedy had groped Eliza Cooney, a recent college graduate who had been hired as a part-time nanny for his children and to help him with his work in environmental law. She was 23 at the time.
When asked specifically about this claim and the other allegations in question on the Breaking Points Podcast“I'm not a church boy,” Mr. Kennedy said.
“I had a very, very exuberant childhood,” he said. “I said in my announcement speech that I have so many skeletons in my closet that if they all voted, I would run for king of the world.”
When pressed by podcast host Saagar Enjeti to elaborate further on the sexual abuse allegation, Kennedy said he did not want to comment.
The magazine also reported that he had had several extramarital affairs and that he fiercely defended a cousin, Michael Skakel, who was convicted of murdering a 15-year-old girl in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Kennedy's campaign pointed reporters to a story on X accusing the magazine of colluding with Democratic Party leadership.
During the podcast's discussion of the article, Kennedy addressed another accusation in the story: that he posed with a barbecued dog during a trip to Korea and later joked about it in a message to a friend.
Mr Kennedy said the photo was not taken in Korea but in the Patagonia region of South America and that the animal depicted was a goat.
Joe Hagen, a Vanity Fair reporter who previously profiled Kennedy for the magazine, said the photo was evidence that Kennedy was “simultaneously ridiculing Korean culture, engaging in animal cruelty and needlessly risking his own reputation and that of his family.”
The story also details Kennedy's alleged affairs and his childhood drug addiction, which the candidate has been open about during the election.
In the same podcast, Mr. Kennedy – the son of Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy – said that while he was determined to run as an independent candidate for president, “the best path for me to the White House is through the Democratic Party.”
“I think that would probably be the best choice for everybody and it's certainly something I would consider” if President Biden were to leave office, he said.
The BBC has asked Vanity Fair for comment.
