The Post recently reported how Robert F. Kennedy Jr. grappled with his “lust demons” and kept a scorecard of more than two-dozen conquests in a secret diary. He also used the diary to bash everyone from then-brother-in-law Andrew Cuomo to the Rev. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. But the 2001 journal also offers a glimpse into the not-so-ordinary life of one of the nation’s most storied political families.
The Kennedys are not like us. Just ask Larry David.
The “Seinfeld” co-creator lunched with RFK Jr. on the late billionaire Teddy Forstmann’s 140-foot yacht in the summer of 2001. Kennedy later notes that David and his activist wife, Laurie, were nervous “about being on any kind of boat” and that David’s parents would never board a vessel.
“Our family is exactly the opposite of yours,” the comedian told Kennedy. “The Davids are antithetical to the Kennedys. With the exception of politics, we have nothing in common. We are appalled by the things you do, the way you people live your lives.”
David wrote in Forstmann’s guest book: “People and boats, what a terrible combination.”
Kennedy recorded David’s comments on Aug. 10, 2001, in his secret diary, a copy of which was reviewed by The Post.
The 2001 journal not only lists the political scion’s sexual exploits and provides a glimpse into his tortured soul, it reveals the rarefied world of a Kennedy — an existence peppered with boat races, ski trips, summering at the family compound in Hyannis Port on Cape Cod, and cocktails with celebrities.
It’s a world of White House invitations, falconry, regular television appearances, dinner with Leonardo DiCaprio and phone calls from Alec Baldwin.
Days after the yacht excursion, where the guests also included Arianna Huffington, Kennedy gushes, “I’ve got the best family ever! They love each other and love their lives and love the adventure. God bless us.”
Outwardly, the family was living a charmed life.
In August 2001, Kennedy’s wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, had just given birth to the couple’s fourth child. Kennedy’s two children from his first marriage were frequent guests at the family’s Westchester County estate in Bedford.
But the marriage was rotting from within. In his 2001 diary, Kennedy mentions 37 women, 16 of whom received a “10” next to their names — his code for intercourse, his wife believed.
By 2010, the union had completely unraveled and Kennedy filed for divorce. Richardson, who struggled with depression and alcoholism, committed suicide in May 2012 as the divorce proceedings grew uglier.
Even the most mundane rituals of suburban life were a trial for the slain senator’s son.
“I’m embarrassed to say we went to a mall today with the kids and Mary,” he writes on April 8. “I tried to be stand-up about the experience. But it was one of the worst nightmares of my existence.” Adding to the misery was a visit to a toy store where “the kids turned into savages. I had to leave.”
More common activities are “hawking” and “falconing,” including an outing at Martha Stewart’s house across town.
Kennedy is a master falconer and former president of the New York State Falconer’s Association. His home included falcon breeding aviaries.
The famously physical Kennedy clan hosted games of “capture the flag” at their home, and guests on Sept. 23 included Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, who had a house in the next town.
“It was a perfect day,” he writes.
Kennedy’s social invitations came from no less than world leaders.
He writes that newly elected president George W. Bush asked him and Mary to dinner and to view “Thirteen Days,” the movie about the Cuban missile crisis and its handling by Kennedy’s uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and his father, then-US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
Kennedy mulls going to a Republican White House, and even runs the invite by Al Franken, the comedian who later became a US senator.
“It’s being heralded as a brilliant political move by Bush,” he writes on Jan. 31.
He doesn’t record whether he attended the movie screening.
Kennedy later calls Bush an “idiot” and a “simpleton” in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
For someone not an elected official, Kennedy had easy access to those in power.
When he wanted to press his activist stance against the Navy using the Puerto Rican island of Vieques as a bombing range, he called newly named Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. He writes on Jan. 15 that First Lady Hillary Clinton urged him to make the call.
“He was very jolly and talked a lot about my mother and how much he loved her and how ‘tickled’ he was over his appointment,” he writes. “I gave my rap on Vieques.”
Bold-faced names sought Kennedy’s counsel. Alec Baldwin called Kennedy to talk about his divorce from Kim Basinger and his concerns about his daughter, Ireland.
“He is directing his first movie when she presented him with divorce . . . and moved to LA, a town he hates,” Kennedy writes.
Kennedy said he gave Baldwin “encouragement” based on his own experience with first wife, Emily.
Economist Jeffrey Sachs and DiCaprio were dinner guests at the Kennedy home in May 2001 and the actor played with Kennedy’s children, including Finn, then 3 years old.
“Finn, looking at Leo’s ponytail asked him, ‘Are you a girl?’ and was emphatic that he did not want such a haircut” writes Kennedy on May 21. “Leo was very sweet.”
Later that night, DiCaprio, who had recently started a charitable foundation, picked Kennedy’s brain on “environmental stuff.”
“He wants to spend his life and resources on a clean environment,” Kennedy notes.
Kennedy writes of his famous family, including some of its more infamous members.
Cousin Michael Skakel visited, Kennedy notes on May 5. He wanted to discuss their relationship, which had been strained since Skakel was fingered in June 2000 as a suspect in the 1975 murder of his 15-year-old Greenwich, Conn., neighbor Martha Moxley.
“I told him I’d never done anything except my best to help him — which is true. I loved him and forgave him, but that I would have a hard time trusting him,” writes Kennedy.
“He walked away from a 16-year friendship without explanation and spread lies about me and my family.”
Kennedy forgave Skakel during this meeting and they hugged when he left, Kennedy writes.
Kennedy vigorously defended Skakel in articles, and after Skakel’s conviction in 2002, Kennedy would go on to write a controversial piece for The Atlantic Monthly proclaiming his cousin’s innocence.
At a family celebration for Eunice Shriver’s 80th birthday party in August — an event that was attended by Kennedy’s uncle Sen. Ted Kennedy and his cousin Maria Shriver along with her husband, Arnold Schwarzenegger, he says he gave an impromptu toast to his aunt.
He “talked lots to Arnold and Maria about marriage and divorce and health and wealth,” he writes on Aug. 17.
After the party, Kennedy seemed to gain new appreciation for his own mother, Ethel Kennedy.
“It occurred to me that I’ve never heard my mother use a curse or say a bad word. That’s something!”
Despite his privileged life, Kennedy had his limits.
On Aug. 25, 2001, he flew from Cape Cod to the Hamptons to attend a Western-themed party hosted by socialite Anne Hearst to benefit the Peconic Baykeeper organization and the restoration of Hearst Castle in California.
“It was a show, a scene and made me so grateful to be at the Cape where people don’t put on makeup and fancy dresses on Saturdays,” he writes.
He notes that he returned at 10 p.m., in a private Cessna.