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Michael LeMoyne Kennedy

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For the figure skater, see Michael Kennedy (skater)
For the U.S. Representative from New York (1939-1943), see Michael J. Kennedy.

Michael LeMoyne Kennedy (February 27, 1958December 31, 1997), was the sixth of eleven children of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy. He was a nephew of former U.S president John F. Kennedy and senator of Massachusetts Edward M. Kennedy. He had six brothers and four sisters. His siblings, from oldest to youngest, are Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (b.1951), Joseph Patrick Kennedy II (b.1952), Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (b.1954), David Anthony Kennedy (b.1955-d.1984), Courtney Kennedy Hill (b.1956), Kerry Kennedy (b.1959), Christopher George Kennedy (b.1963), Matthew Maxwell Taylor Kennedy (b.1965), Douglas Harriman Kennedy (b.1967), and Rory Kennedy (b.1968).

Michael Kennedy was married to Victoria Gifford, daughter of Frank Gifford. They had three children: Michael LeMoyne Kennedy Jr., born Jan. 9, 1983, in Charlottesville, Va., Kyle Francis Kennedy, born July 6, 1984, in Washington, D.C., and Rory Gifford Kennedy, born Nov. 14, 1987, in Dorchester, Mass..

Michael Kennedy was the head of his brother Joseph's non-profit organization, Citizen's Energy Corporation. He also helped organize Edward M. Kennedy's re-election campaign in 1994.

In 1997, the news broke that Michael Kennedy was having an affair with the family's former babysitter. Allegedly, the affair had begun three years before when the babysitter was a fourteen year old teenager, and Kennedy was thus placed under investigation for statutory rape. However, the babysitter did not cooperate with prosecutors. Shortly after the scandal began, Michael Kennedy and his wife separated. After the affair, Michael Kennedy checked himself into a rehab center for alcoholics.

Michael Kennedy died later that year in a skiing accident in Aspen, Colorado. Michael Kennedy was skiing with several other members of the Kennedy family when he hit a tree while they were playing football on skis. Kennedy was not wearing a helmet or other safety equipment. (The accident came just days before Sonny Bono died in a similar skiing accident on January 5, 1998, in California.)

See also