Saoirse Kennedy was sexually assaulted by 'someone she knew’ and was 'obsessed' with uncle's drug overdose death, biographer claims
Some disturbing details about the personal life of 22-year-old Saoirse Kennedy, the granddaughter of former presidential candidate Robert Francis Kennedy, who died of an apparent drug overdose last week are coming to the limelight.
Jerry Oppenheimer, a New York Times bestselling author who has written headline-making investigative biographies of the Kennedy family, is now claiming that Saoirse was sexually assaulted by a close friend of hers and was obsessed with the troubled life of one of her late uncles. Oppenheimer's investigative biographies include "The Other Mrs. Kennedy: Ethel Skakel Kennedy", "An American Drama of Power", "Privilege and Politics," and "RFK Jr. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and The Dark Side of the Dream".
On August 1, Saoirse was found unconscious from a suspected drug overdose in her 91-year-old grandmother, Ethel's home in the Kennedy compound, in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. Although she was transported to a hospital in Cape Cod, she died after suffering a cardiac arrest, the Daily Mail reported.
According to Oppenheimer, the members of Saoirse's family were trying to find her a rehab facility in California for the crippling depression she suffered from a very young age, in the months leading up to her death. Writing in the Daily Mail Oppenheimer claimed that Robert's granddaughter wrote about her struggles with depression when she was in high school.
A source to her told Oppenheimer that around the same time she was also sexually assaulted by someone she "knew and loved."
The assaulter was likely "an adult with ties to the family. There was chatter that it might have even been a female, but that is unclear. The family’s bottled it up, especially now with what’s happened. They want her to rest in peace," the insider said.
Apart from depression, a number of Kennedy members struggled with an array of drug addictions - which was often attributed to the newer generations dealing with Robert's assassination.
"The curious theory within the family is that Bobby’s murder in 1968 when he was campaigning for the presidency, is still having a fatal psychological effect on the younger ones a half-century later," the source told Oppenheimer.
The source added that when Ethel heard about her granddaughter's passing, she apparently told a friend: "I truly believe my darling Saoirse’s emotional problems stem psychologically from Bobby’s murder, and the impact it has had on her, even today. I pray for the younger ones every day. I prayed for Saoirse. I still pray for Bobby in heaven."
According to Oppenheimer, one more thing that heavily weighed on Saoirse was the death of her uncle David Anthony Kennedy, who died of a drug overdose at the age of 28.
Although she never met him personally, his fatal, final descent with hard drugs "fascinated, even obsessed" her since last year.
"She tried to learn as much about David’s life and death as much as she could," the source said.
"I believe Saoirse saw herself falling into the same dark emotional pattern as David did. And it appears that maybe she did."
She was laid to rest on Monday, August 5, next to her aunt Mary Richardson Kennedy—the second wife of Saoirse's uncle Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—at Our Lady of Victory Church in the Centerville section of Barnstable, Massachusetts.
"‘It’s not that difficult to understand what happened to her and her terrible plight," a longtime Kennedy observer said. "Just look at the DNA. It was probably all in the genes."