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Ethel Kennedy: The Extraordinary Life and Bold Legacy
Read by award-winning actress Kate Mulgrew
"What an incredible life of triumph and tragedy, faith, and love." --Anderson Cooper, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Vanderbilt
A vivid, intimate biography of American icon Ethel Kennedy by her daughter Kerry Kennedy, told through her firsthand memories and exclusive access to Ethel's personal papers
When her husband Robert F. Kennedy was killed in 1968, Ethel Skakel Kennedy--then pregnant with their eleventh child -- drew national attention for her grace, dignity, and resolute commitment to furthering his work in human rights, even in her grief. But as her daughter Kerry witnessed, Ethel was so much more than a dutiful wife and keeper of Robert's legacy of service. She was courageous, curious, compassionate, boisterous, and witty, always guided by faith and an instinct for speaking truth to power.
Kerry delves into her own memories, her family's recollections, and her mother's private papers,
Ethel's family's journey from a working-class Chicago background to life in tony Greenwich, Connecticut
Ethel's fairytale romance with Kerry's father RFK -- a courtship that inspired a Taylor Swift song half a century later
How the bold, athletic Ethel quickly became "more Kennedy than the Kennedys"
The years on the famed family properties in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, and the Hickory Hill estate in Virginia, where Kerry and her ten siblings grew up amidst presidents and politicians, Olympians and Hollywood stars, and a rambunctious menagerie of pet animals
Moments of pain and loss -- RFK's death just five years after that of his brother; and the tragic deaths of two of Kerry's siblings
Ethel's unflagging commitment to global human rights causes that carried on through the decades
Ethel Kennedy inspires us to reject cynicism and to live bigger and bolder.
"What an incredible life of triumph and tragedy, faith, and love." --Anderson Cooper, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Vanderbilt
A vivid, intimate biography of American icon Ethel Kennedy by her daughter Kerry Kennedy, told through her firsthand memories and exclusive access to Ethel's personal papers
When her husband Robert F. Kennedy was killed in 1968, Ethel Skakel Kennedy--then pregnant with their eleventh child -- drew national attention for her grace, dignity, and resolute commitment to furthering his work in human rights, even in her grief. But as her daughter Kerry witnessed, Ethel was so much more than a dutiful wife and keeper of Robert's legacy of service. She was courageous, curious, compassionate, boisterous, and witty, always guided by faith and an instinct for speaking truth to power.
Kerry delves into her own memories, her family's recollections, and her mother's private papers,
Ethel's family's journey from a working-class Chicago background to life in tony Greenwich, Connecticut
Ethel's fairytale romance with Kerry's father RFK -- a courtship that inspired a Taylor Swift song half a century later
How the bold, athletic Ethel quickly became "more Kennedy than the Kennedys"
The years on the famed family properties in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, and the Hickory Hill estate in Virginia, where Kerry and her ten siblings grew up amidst presidents and politicians, Olympians and Hollywood stars, and a rambunctious menagerie of pet animals
Moments of pain and loss -- RFK's death just five years after that of his brother; and the tragic deaths of two of Kerry's siblings
Ethel's unflagging commitment to global human rights causes that carried on through the decades
Ethel Kennedy inspires us to reject cynicism and to live bigger and bolder.
1 pages, Audio CD
Published October 13, 2026
About the author
Kerry Kennedy
20 books29 followersMary Kerry Kennedy is an American human rights activist and writer. She is the seventh child and third daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel. She is the president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, a nonprofit charitable human rights advocacy organization.
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