The Kennedy 'curse' strikes again: Sudden death of Kyle Kennedy, 42, is latest tragedy to hit dynasty

The granddaughter of Robert F Kennedy has died in her New England home at the age of 42.

Kyle Kennedy passed away at her home in Westwood, Massachusetts, on September 21, according to an online obituary.

A cause of death for the mom-of-three, who suffered a severe spinal cord injury in 2020 that left her permanently paralyzed, has not been revealed. 

Despite her injury, 'Kyle fought to maintain her dry wit and determination through it all, trying to be the best possible mother,' her obituary read. 

Kyle was the daughter of Michael Kennedy, the niece of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and great-niece of assassinated former President John F Kennedy JFK. Her mother is Victoria Denise Gifford, whose father was NFL legend Frank Gifford.

Her death at such a young age is just the latest tragedy to befall her family. 

Her own father Michael died in a freak skiing accident when she was 13, and her daughter Josephine passed away in infancy in 2014. 

The family has also endured assassinations, drug overdoses, tragic accidents and scandal, with some dubbing the US dynasty's ill-fated lives as the 'Kennedy curse.' 

Here, the Daily Mail looks back at the biggest traumas to hit the Kennedy family: 

President JFK's 1963 assassination 

The most famous death in the Kennedy family was that of President JFK who was brutally shot by Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963. 

Kennedy was in Texas with his wife Jackie and Vice President Lyndon B Johnson on the day of his assassination, preparing to deliver a speech on the strength of the US – but he never reached the podium.

The president was shot three times as he rode in an open-top limousine, waving to crowds in Dallas.

Seated to his left was the first lady, his wife of ten years, who cradled him and screamed out for help following the shocking assassination, which was captured by TV crews and reporters in real time.

Three shots were fired in total. The first bullet missed, while the second struck Kennedy near the base of the back of his neck and exited out of the front of his neck.

The third bullet entered the back of his head on the right and exited out the same side, causing the massive wound that ultimately killed him.

Five years later: Robert F Kennedy's assassination

JFK's younger brother Robert was also brutally gunned down, by a man named Sirhan Sirhan, who shot two or three rounds at the former president's brother, just five years after JFK was killed.

Kennedy was killed on June 5th, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, as he and his entourage walked through, shortly after he won the California Democratic presidential primary. 

The US senator from New York died the following day aged 42 and pictures captured at the time showed him clutching rosary beads as hotel staff gathered around to try and save him.

JFK Jr and Carolyn Bessette's fatal plane crash 

Tragedy struck the Kennedy family once more a generation later when the late president's beloved son, JFK Jr, crashed his small Piper Saratoga plane into the ocean around seven miles from Martha's Vineyard in 1999.

The journalist and publisher, 38, was on his way to his cousin's wedding with his wife fashion publicist Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her sister Lauren Bessette.

His plan on the day of the flight on July 16, was to fly with his wife, 33, and sister-in-law, 34, to Martha's Vineyard to drop Lauren off, before continuing with Carolyn to Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.  

But the trio died around seven miles from Martha's Vineyard after it's thought he lost his bearings over the Atlantic Ocean due to poor visibility and a lack of training. 

Senator Ted Kennedy's Chappaquiddick Island crash

While Senator Ted Kennedy, the last surviving brother of JFK did not die in the fatal incident, it still cast a dark shadow over the family.

Ted had visited Martha's Vineyard to race in the Edgartown Regatta in July 1969 and on the evening of the 18th, he attended a party at a rented house on Chappaquiddick Island.

Among the guests were Kennedy family friends and several women, including Mary Jo Kopechne, who had worked on the presidential campaign of his brother Robert F Kennedy, who had been assassinated a year earlier.

Kennedy and Kopechne, 28, left the party together and a short time later their car plunged into Poucha Pond. Kennedy escaped from the submerged vehicle and said he made several futile attempts to rescue Kopechne, who was trapped inside.

The career politician, who died in 2009, later described his failure to report the incident to police for ten hours as 'indefensible.'

The deadly drug overdoses that have claimed two Kennedys

The Kennedy family has been plagued by drug-related deaths for several decades after Robert F Kennedy's son David, 28, was found dead of an overdose in a Palm Beach hotel in 1984.

Almost 40 years later, tragedy struck again when Saoirse Kennedy Hill, the granddaughter of RFK also died following an accidental overdose in 2019.

Paramedics responding to a call of a suspected overdose just after 2.30pm arrived at the family compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts and found the patient in cardiac arrest.

She was transported to Cape Cod Hospital, but tragically died at the age of 22.

2020: Robert F Kennedy's granddaughter and her son, eight, die in a canoe accident 

RFK's descendants continued to feel the effects of the Kennedy curse and in 2020 Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, 40, the granddaughter of RFK, and her son Gideon, 8, drowned.

The pair disappeared as they were canoeing in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland.

They climbed into the canoe to retrieve a lost ball from a waterfront home, but failed to return to shore.

Both the public health and human rights lawyer and her son were seen struggling to return to shore during the canoe trip and Maeve was found 2.5 miles south of the Shady Side, Maryland, the home of her mother, four days after she disappeared. 

Ted Kennedy's daughter, 51, dies of a heart attack  

While Ted may have personally escaped the curse, his children did not and in 2011 his eldest daughter, Kara, 51, collapsed and died on September 16, from a heart attack following a workout at a health club in Washington, DC.

It's believed that the heart attack may have been brought on by the aggressive cancer treatment she was undergoing at the time.

Kara was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2002. At the time, she was reportedly told that her diagnosis was inoperable.

But her father, who died in 2009, helped her find a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston who removed part of her right lung. She then went through chemotherapy and radiation.

Following her death, her brother, former Rhode Island Rep Patrick Kennedy said the grueling treatments had left his sister physically weakened.

'Her heart gave out,' he told reporters, 'She's with dad.'

JFK's son's untimely death at 39 in a skiing accident 

Michael Kennedy, a lawyer and activist, was just ten years old when his father was shot and killed. 

Despite the tragedy, he flourished, attending the prestigious Harvard University before becoming a successful lawyer. 

Following allegations that he had been having an affair with the underage family babysitter, he and his wife Vicki Gifford split in 1997.

That same year, he holidayed with the rest of the Kennedy family in Aspen, Colorado, when he was killed after smashing in to a tree while playing football on skis without any protective equipment on. 

Despite efforts to save him by his younger sister, he died at the scene at the age of 39. 

JFK and Jackie Kennedy's lost baby 

Patrick was the youngest son of JFK and his wife, Jackie Kennedy.

He was born prematurely on August 7, 1963, and died on August 9, 1963. He lived less than 40 hours.

He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, and JFK would later be interred beside him.

JFK's sister 'Kick' Kennedy's death at 28  

Kathleen 'Kick' Kennedy was the daughter of Joseph and Rose Kennedy and a younger sister to JFK.

On May 13, 1948, she was tragically killed at the age of 28 while on a flight from Paris to the French Riviera alongside her married lover.

Because of JFK's blossoming political career and the scandalous circumstances surrounding her death, the family kept Kathleen's death quiet.

She was buried in a small churchyard in Edensor, England and the only Kennedy to attend the funeral was her father.

The gravestone identifies her as Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington.

Young pilot Joseph P Kennedy Jr lost to the Second World War

Joseph Jr was the eldest child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy and the eldest sibling of JFK.

Joseph was killed in a plane crash while serving as a land-based bomber pilot with the United States Navy in World War II.

He was 29 years old when his plane exploded mid-air on August 12, 1944.

Joseph was awarded the Navy Cross posthumously.

Accusations of rape 

William Kennedy Smith is a physician whose work is centered on the rehabilitation of landmine victims. 

He was accused of raping Patricia Bowman in 1991 in Palm Beach, Florida, after a night of drinking with his uncle, Ted Kennedy.

The nephew of RFK and JFK was acquitted by a Florida jury of sexual assault and battery on Bowman following a ten-day trial.

He claimed the sex between him and his accuser had been consensual.

Another sexual assault claim levied against William was dismissed in 2004 while an additional claim was settled out of court the following year.

In 2004, William said his 'family and personal history have made me unusually vulnerable to these kinds of charges'.

Dangerous driving 

In 1973, Joseph P Kennedy II, then aged 21, was found guilty of driving to endanger after a car accident in Nantucket left Pamela Burkley partially paralyzed. 

Burkley became paralyzed from the chest down when the vehicle driven by Joseph overturned on a country road.

Others were also injured, including his brother, David Kennedy, and Burkley’s younger sister.

Burkley decided not to sue Kennedy after getting $668,000 from an insurance settlement.

A secret lobotomy

Rosemary Kennedy was the third child and first daughter of Rose and Joseph P Kennedy.

She attended the Edward Devotion public school in Brookline, Massachusetts, for the first two years of kindergarten and was found to be deficient in basic cognitive skills. 

Rosemary didn't interact well with fellow students although at home, she adored her brothers, Jack and Joe, and they lavished attention on her.

With her issues, at seven years old she couldn't return to Edward Devotion School.

Joe Kennedy consulted the head of the Psychology Department at Harvard University, his alma mater, where they conducted mental faculty tests on Rosie and diagnosed her as 'mentally retarded' and suggested institutionalization. 

In 1941, her father gave his consent for a pre-frontal lobotomy on his 23-year-old daughter.

Unbeknownst to his family, Joe took Rosemary to be examined by Dr Walter Freeman, a neurologist and psychiatrist who was also a George Washington University professor.

Freeman diagnosed Rosemary's condition as 'agitated depression,' and suggested that a new neurosurgical procedure, a prefrontal lobotomy, would end the rages and 'render her happy and content.'

Freeman was not a surgeon but a professor who performed theatrics at his lectures and 'thrived on horror and fascination.'

Following the operation, Rosie's body was left partially paralyzed. Her head remained tilted and the fingers of her left hand became gnarled.

Rosie became lethargic, incontinent, she couldn't talk, relying on grunting, screaming and shrieking.

While she re-learned how to walk, brush her teeth and dress herself she remained in guarded psychiatric facilities and care homes until her death on January 7, 2005, at the age of 86.

During this time she never received any visitors because her father, Kennedy patriarch Joe didn't inform the family of the medical procedure and lied to his wife about her whereabouts. 

Tatiana Schlossberg dies of cancer age 35 

Tatiana Schlossberg, the granddaughter of JFK, died from blood cancer in December 2025 at the age of 35.

The New York-born environment journalist revealed her myeloid leukemia diagnosis in an article published in The New Yorker just six weeks before her death.  

In the piece, Tatiana said she had no symptoms and was 'one of the healthiest people I knew' when the shock diagnosis came in May 2024. She also reflected on how her illness added a 'new tragedy' to her mother Caroline Kennedy's life, saying: 'And there's nothing I can do to stop it.'

Doctors only found the disease through routine blood tests after she gave birth to her second child. 

The Kennedy scion's death was announced on December 30 via the social media accounts for the JFK Library Foundation on behalf of her heartbroken relatives.

'Our beautiful Tatiana passed away this morning. She will always be in our hearts,' the post reads, signed by 'George, Edwin and Josephine Moran, Ed, Caroline, Jack, Rose and Rory.'

Tatiana is survived by her husband, physician George Moran, and their two children, Edwin, four, and Josephine, two.