Her life has been beset with tragedy: Her father gunned down when she was just 16; one brother lost to drugs and a second killed in a freak skiing accident; her daughter and grandson drowned as they ventured out in a canoe.
And now the memories have become too much for Kathleen Kennedy Townsend – she is turning her back on the one place that has been central to her existence.
Kathleen – the oldest of Bobby Kennedy’s 11 children – is leaving Hyannis Port, the Cape Cod conclave that her family has returned to time and time again over the decades.
‘I had a dream that I would recreate the youth, the wonderful youth that I had, for my children and grandchildren, so they could come to the Cape,’ she told the Boston Globe.
‘They could sail, they could walk on the breakwater, and it would be, you know, wonderful summers.
But, she said, her three surviving children Meaghan, 48, Rose, 42, and Kerry, 34, do not feel drawn to the long-standing Kennedy vacation spot, while family awkwardness has made reunions fraught.
‘I had this wonderful dream. But not all dreams work, right?’ added Kathleen, 74.
The one-time lieutenant governor of Maryland snapped up the quaint Hyannis Port property for $1.275million in 2023 after years of visiting the legendary Kennedy compound nearby.
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and younger brother Robert F Kennedy Jr. are now deeply estranged following his support for President Donald Trump and acceptance of a Cabinet position
RFK Jr’s wife, Curb Your Enthusiasm actress Cheryl Hines has expressed her disappointment at the Kennedy clan’s rift
Now she is asking $1.6 million for the property, which is already under contract.
Squabbles – especially with her younger brother Robert Kennedy Jr over his decision to endorse Donald Trump and then join his cabinet – shattered the close-knit reputation of America’s best-known Democrat family.
Now there is virtually no contact at all with RFK Jr from any member of the clan – including Kathleen.
The siblings’ cousin Caroline Kennedy even went as far as to try to torpedo RFK Jr’s Senate confirmation as Health and Human Services Secretary by issuing a letter calling him a predator, who among other things turned his brother David on to the drugs that eventually killed him, and put mice and chicks into a blender before feeding them to his hawks.
RFK Jr ruefully addressed the rift in August 2024, telling Fox News: ‘My family is – I understand that they’re troubled by my decisions.
‘I love my family. I feel like we were raised in a milieu where we were encouraged to debate each other and debate ferociously and passionately about things and still love each other.’
He added: ‘They’re free to take their positions on these issues.’
‘There are many, many members of my family working at my campaign and who are supporting me,’ he added without naming any.
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend’s Hyannis Port house looks deceptively small from the front
But the rear view shows the five-bed, five-bath is spread over three stories and is much larger than it appears
The famed Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port has long served as the family’s summer retreat and symbol of the Kennedy dynasty
Kathleen’s home, now on sale for $1.6million features a large open-plan kitchen
According to the realtor the ‘sun-soaked living room boasts its own fireplace for cozier evenings during the winter months’
Some bedrooms offer bunk beds to allow even more visitors to stay over
‘Located on the pond, often visited by swans, the property offers a serene setting with a deck off the dining area and a lower-level patio and fire pit, perfect for gathering with family and friends and toasting marshmallows,’ the real estate listing says
Wife Cheryl Hines has also spoken about the family feud, describing it as ‘disappointing’ in an interview with CBS Mornings in October last year.
She said: ‘I always thought the Kennedy family, one of their virtues was that family came first, and I admired that.
‘So, when some of his family decided to – there’s no other way to say it – attack him publicly, it was disappointing.’
Kathleen and Robert Jr’s father, Senator Bobby Kennedy was shot dead in the kitchen of a Los Angeles hotel as he campaigned for the presidency in 1968.
Their brother David was just 28 when he succumbed to cocktail of cocaine and two other drugs in 1984.
Then Michael, the sixth Kennedy sibling, died, aged 39, when he smashed into a tree on New Year’s Eve 1997 while playing ski football in Aspen. He had only just come out of rehab for sex addiction after being caught with his 14-year-old babysitter.
Then late one April afternoon in 2020 Kathleen’s second daughter Maeve, 40, died alongside her eight-year-old son, Gideon, when they went to recover a ball that had landed in the water near Kathleen’s home in Shady Side, Maryland.
The Kennedy children spent legendary summers in Hyannis Port – a tradition Kathleen Kennedy Townsend had hoped to continue with her own children and grandchildren
Decades before the family rift, Kathleen, then five and three-year-old RFK Jr attended a hearing of the Senate Rackets Committee
Before their estrangement, Kathleen’s brother RFK Jr announced on Instagram that the rescue operation for Maeve and Gideon (left) had been called off
Dozens of members of the extended family spent July 4 at Hyannis Port in 2019 when Kerry Kennedy, Kathleen’s sister, posted this picture of the get-together
High winds swept their canoe deep into the Chesapeake Bay. Maeve’s body was recovered after a four-day search, Gideon’s two days later.
At the time, Kathleen and RFK Jr were still close with the now 72-year-old announcing that the rescue mission had been switched to recovery in an Instagram post.
He wrote: ‘Tonight, the Coast Guard informed our family that it has terminated rescue operations. The search for remains continues. Rest In Peace Maeve and Gideon.’
In a statement of her own, Kathleen added: ‘With profound sadness, I share the news that the search for my beloved daughter Maeve and grandson Gideon has turned from rescue to recovery.’
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the pair’s funeral was conducted via Zoom before the two were cremated and their ashes scattered off Martha’s Vineyard.
The Kennedy family have long been afflicted by tragedy beginning with the deaths of JFK’s brother Joseph Kennedy Jr who died piloting a bomber plane in 1944 and his sister Kathleen, who was killed in a plane crash in France in 1948.
Since then, the clan has lost scores of members and associates in murky circumstances, most famously the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas in November 1963 and the death of his son JFK Jr and his glamorous wife Carolyn Bessette in a plane crash off Martha’s Vineyard in 1999.
Most recently Tatiana Schlossberg, Kathleen’s niece and JFK’s granddaughter, died from leukemia last December. She was 35.
