RFK Jr Net Worth: Eco-Warrior, Anti-Vax, and Kennedy Legacy Makes $25 Million

Robert Francis Kennedy Jr., also known as RFK Jr., is an American politician, just like many of his ancestors. For decades, the Kennedy family has been one of the richest and most powerful families in the US. In 2024, RFK Jr’s net worth is estimated at over $25 million.

RFK Jr. is one of Joe Kennedy’s 29 grandchildren. He is also the fourth descendant in the family to run for president. What’s more impressive about his political career is that he is the first of the Kennedys to run without the backing of his family.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr was the beneficiary of generational wealth, but this isn’t the only thing contributing to his impressive net worth. His net worth has increased greatly from his law career, business ventures, as well as the assets he shares with his wife Cheryl Hines, among other endeavors.

If you’re interested to learn more about Robert F. Kennedy Jr and how he achieved his position in society, keep reading.

RFK Jr’s Net Worth Breakdown:

RFK Jr’s estimated net worth online is mostly based on the financial disclosure forms he’s submitted as part of his political career. Based on this data, as well as some information we found about his previous earnings and assets, we’ve set his net worth at over $25 million. Here is a detailed breakdown of what contributes to his net worth:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Net Worth: Early Life and Education

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was born at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. on January 17, 1954. His parents are former Senator and US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel. This makes him part of the wealthy Kennedy family tree and a nephew of the assasinated President John F. Kennedy and Senator Ted Kennedy, as well as a descendant of Joe Kennedy.

RFK Jr. is one of eleven children in his family. He was raised at the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port in Massachusetts, as well as in the family estate Hickory Hill in McLean, Virginia.

Kennedy Jr. started training hawks at the age of 11 and is a licensed master falconer, breeding both hawks and falcons. He is also a licensed raptor propagator and wildlife rehabilitator, holding several permits as a Scientific Collector, Federal Game Keeper, and Bird Bander.

Between 1988 and 1991, he was president of the New York State Falconry Association and even wrote the New York State Apprentice Falconer’s Manual in 1987.

When President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, RFK Jr. was only nine years old. Five years later, his father was also assassinated during his own presidential campaign. He learned of his father’s death while studying at Georgetown Preparatory School, a North Bethesda boarding school that he attended at the time. Soon after the shooting, the children were transported by Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s plane to be with their father on his deathbed.

When Robert F. Kennedy, his father, passed away, RFK Jr. read excerpts from his speeches at a mass commemorating his death and was a pallbearer at the funeral. He also played a prank at the memorial for his father – Philip Kirby, a boy from the family’s neighborhood, was tasked with ringing during liturgy and the priest told Philip he’d tap him on the shoulder when it was time to ring. RFK Jr tapped Philip multiple times during the service at times when it was supposed to be silent.

The deaths of JFK and RFK Sr made RFK Jr’s childhood extremely difficult. Following his father’s death, young Robert struggled with drug abuse and was even arrested in Barnstable, Massachusetts for cannabis possession. He was only 16 years old at the time, and his troubled childhood led him to an expulsion from two boarding schools: Pomfret and Millbrook, a school for troubled, wealthy children.

However, young Robert got back on his feet and, in June 1972, he graduated from a day school called Palfrey Street School. At the time, he lived with a surrogate family in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

At this point, his troublesome past was behind him, so Kennedy continued his education at Harvard University, where he graduated with a BA in American History and Literature in 1976. He then enrolled at the London School of Economics, followed by his Juris Doctor studies at the University of Virginia School of Law, and his Master’s Program at Pace University.

In 1987, he had completed all of these programs and obtained all of these degrees, whilst also suffering from heroin addiction which began soon after his father’s death.

Kennedy’s Personal Life

In April 1982, Kennedy married Emily Ruth Black. The two met at the University of Virginia School of Law, and had two children together: Robert Francis “Bobby” Kennedy III and Kathleen Alexandra Kennedy. Kennedy and Black divorced in 1994, two years after their separation.

The same year as his divorce, Kennedy Jr. married Mary Kathleen Richardson, with whom he has four children. In 2010, he filed for his second divorce. However, in May 2012, Richardson was found dead in a building in Bedford, New York, in what was ruled a suicide due to asphyxiation from hanging.

Before her death, during the divorce proceedings RFK Jr presented evidence that a worm had entered his skull and consumed some of his brain, and so “his earning power had been diminished by his cognitive struggles”. The testimony was in an attempt to reduce the alimony that he was expecting to pay.

In 2014, Kennedy married the actress Cheryl Hines at the Kennedy Compound in Cape Cod. The couple is still married today and reside in both Los Angeles and Cape Cod.

RFK Jr. Net Worth: The Forever Flailing Career of the Kennedy Descendant

Throughout his career, Kennedy Jr. has tackled many different industries and fields. He’s an environmental lawyer, a whitewater kayaker, a politician, an author, and an investor. Let’s see how his career has progressed.

Whitewater Kayaking

Kennedy’s father introduced him and his siblings to whitewater kayaking when the family took trips down the Yampa and Green Rivers in Colorado and Utah, the Columbia River, and the Upper Hudson Gorge. This created a passion in young RFK Jr., so between 1976 and 1981, he was a guide and partner at Utopian, a whitewater company based in West Forks, Maine.

Through Utopian, RFK Jr. organized and managed several whitewater expeditions to Latin America, including the Apurimac in Peru in 1975, the Caroni in Venezuela in 1982, and others.

Drug Addiction

In 1982, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as an assistant district attorney for Manhattan. However, since he failed the New York bar exam, he had to resign in July the following year.

Failing the exam wasn’t the only problem Kennedy faced at the time. He was suffering from drug addiction and, in September 1983, he was charged with heroin possession in South Dakota. A year later, he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of possession and was sentenced to two years probation.

Following a very public arrest, he entered a drug treatment center. He also volunteered for the Natural Resources Defense Council as part of his probation conditions.

Reportedly, Kennedy started using heroin at the age of 15, so when he got treatment, this ended his 14 years as a drug user.

Beginnings as an Environmental Lawyer

In 1984, Kennedy started volunteering at Riverkeeper (previously The Hudson River Fisherman’s Association), located near the Natural Resources Defense Council, where he had completed his community service.

In 1985, Kennedy was re-admitted to the New York Bar, so Riverkeeper hired him as their senior attorney.

While at Riverkeeper, and as a board member of this company and the Long Island Soundkeeper, Kennedy supervised numerous environmental enforcement lawsuits on the east coast estuaries. On the Hudson, for instance, he filed a lawsuit against industrial conglomerate General Electric to prevent it from discharging pollution.

Founding the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic

As an environmental lawyer, Kennedy founded the Environmental Litigation Clinic at Pace University School of Law. He was the clinic’s co-director, supervising attorney, and Clinical Professor of Law for around three decades.

Through his clinic, Kennedy got a special order from the New York State Court of Appeals, which allowed ten of his clinic students to practice law against Hudson River polluters under his supervision and that of Professor Karl Coplan.

The clinic’s full-time clients are Long Island Soundkeeper and Riverkeeper.

The Pace Clinic soon became the model for similar law clinics throughout the country such as Widener, Golden Gate, UCLA, and Boalt Hall. Not only that, but it won many awards for successful legal work, including the Heroes Award from Men’s Journal in 2001.

Success at Riverkeeper

Starting in 1991, Kennedy represented New York City watershed consumers and environmentalists in a series of lawsuits against the city and upstate polluters. Five years later, he was one of the lawyers who orchestrated the $1.2 billion New York City Watershed Agreement, gaining the title The Kennedy Who Matters in New York magazine.

In 1997, the now-established environmental lawyer collaborated with John Cronin and wrote The Riverkeepers, which shares the history of the early Riverkeepers and the story of the Waterkeeper movement.

Troubles and Leaving Riverkeeper

Even though Kennedy’s work at the company was highly praised for years, things started to go sour in 2000. That year, Kennedy and a majority of the company’s board insisted on rehiring William Wegner, who was earlier convicted of tax fraud and perjury, as well as conspiracy to violate wildlife protection laws.

When the so-called rare-egg smuggler was re-hired by Kennedy after his release from prison, eight of the 22 board members and Riverkeeper’s treasurer resigned from the company.

In 2017, Kennedy resigned from Riverkeeper. His resignation letter stated that he co-founded this organization, though this hasn’t been confirmed.

The Waterkeeper Alliance

In 1999, after the great success of Riverkeeper on the Hudson, several Waterkeepers were created across North America. At this point, Kennedy had gathered a few dozen Riverkeepers in Southampton and founded the Waterkeeper Alliance. Now, the alliance is an umbrella group for 344 licensed Waterkeeper programs spread across 44 countries. Kennedy Jr. acted as the alliance’s president until he resigned his presidency in November 2020.

Founding His Law Firm

In 2000, Kennedy partnered with Kevin Madonna, another environmental lawyer, and founded a law firm called Kennedy & Madonna LLP. The firm represents private plaintiffs against polluters and litigates environmental contamination cases on behalf of school districts, individuals, non-profits, Native American tribes, and states.

The law firm has been very successful over the years and, in 2010, it was even profiled in the HBO series Mann v. Ford. In 2004, for instance, Kennedy & Madonna secured a $70 million settlement for Florida property owners whose properties were contaminated by chemicals from a Superfund site.

In 2017, his firm was part of the team that secured a $670 million settlement for 3,000 Ohio and West Virginia residents whose drinking water was contaminated.

In 2016, Kennedy started working as counsel to Morgan & Morgan, the famous law firm. During his time with the firm, Kennedy sued Monsanto in federal court to recover damages for his clients’ non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He also filed a lawsuit against Columbia Gas of Massachusetts alleging negligence in three towns following gas explosions.

Earnings from Law Firm Kennedy & Madonna

While we don’t know Kennedy’s exact earnings from his law firm to date, he reportedly made over $5 million from the start of 2022 to the middle of 2023. His ownership stake is somewhere between $1 million and $5 million.

If we take the $5 million for a year-and-a-half as a basis of our estimate, Kennedy has earned at least $65 million through this firm alone. However, it is important to note that law firms don’t offer consistent profits each year. This would mean that he might have earned significantly more money – or less.

Other Earnings from Law Firms

Kennedy also works for other law firms. Between 2022 and 2023, he earned over $1.5 million in income from Wisner Baum, where he worked as a consultant, according to his financial disclosure forms. He also earned $315,000 from JW Howard Attorneys, which is a litigation firm, and over half a million in salary and bonuses from the non-profit, anti-vaccine group he founded, Children’s Health Defense.

Other Investments, Work, and Assets of RFK Jr.

In addition to his work as a lawyer, RFK Jr. has served on different boards, founded different companies, written or put his name to many books, and been very active in politics. He also has a lot invested in assets like real estate, which we’ll discuss below.

Kennedy Jr. in Politics

In 2000, Kennedy considered running for political office when New York Senator Moynihan didn’t seek re-election for his Senate seat.

Five years later, he wanted to run for New York attorney general in the election, but he ultimately chose not to, to everyone’s surprise. He would go up against his brother-in-law Andrew Cuomo, and was considered the front-runner for the position.

In December 2008, Kennedy shared that he didn’t want to be nominated to the US Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton, even though several outlets indicated he was a possible candidate. When asked about this decision, Kennedy shared that it would leave him little time for his family.

Throughout the years, when Kennedy was already a highly established climate lawyer, he was a candidate for many environmental jobs in Democratic administrations, including the 2000, 2004, and 2008 presidential elections. However, he never got a top-tier environmental role, most likely because of his criminal past and well-documented drug addiction and subsequent recovery.

Despite this, Kennedy Jr. started aiming at a much higher position – that of a president. In a speech in New Hampshire in March 2023, he shared that he was considering running for president the following year.

“I am thinking about it. I’ve passed the biggest hurdle, which is that my wife has greenlighted it,” he said.

In April of the same year, Kennedy filled his candidacy for the Democratic party presidential nomination. In October, he became an independent candidate in the presidential election. He is the first to run independently, but the fifth member of the Kennedy family to seek the presidency.

After his announcement that he was running independently, Kennedy’s campaign started receiving support from allies of former President Donald Trump and Republican donors. His largest single donor was Timothy Mellon, who donated $5 million to his Super PAC.

Kennedy selected Nicole Shanahan as his running mate for the presidential run, who donated $8 million to their campaign in April.

Fast forward to May 2024, and Kennedy was considered for nomination for the Libertarian Party’s candidate for US president. However, he lost to Chase Oliver, who will appear on the ballot, while Kennedy will be listed as an independent candidate.

Controversies and Conspiracy Theories

Long before Kennedy entered the presidential race, he was associated with plenty of conspiracy theories and the wider family was familiar with his personality, which they reportedly considered to be problematic. After he initially announced his candidacy last summer, most of the relatives, including his eight surviving siblings, had hoped that his campaign wouldn’t endure his many bizarre claims, as well as the alliances with anti-vaccine cranks.

Even so, to support him as a family member, the members rarely went public with their concerns, except in cases where his statements went out of bounds. For instance, they went public when he suggested COVID was “ethnically targeted” to spare Chinese people. He also claimed that anti-vaxxers suffered worse oppression than Anne Frank. At one point, he claimed there was a mysterious shooter in the death of his father, and interviewed his father’s assassin Sirhan B. Sirhan in prison in an attempt to proclaim him innocent.

RFK Jr. has also been implicated in an outbreak of measles on the Pacific island of American Samoa that saw 83 people, mainly children die. Two children had died from what turned out to be poorly prepared and administered MMR vaccines in 2018, attracting the attention of those in the anti-vaccine movement, including RFK Jr. He visited the island with his wife, Hines, paid for by an anti-vaccine organization in June 2019.

A couple of months later, the epidemic hit that took so many babies’ lives, and during that time RFK Jr. wrote a letter to the prime minister of Samoa, blaming the outbreak on a “mutant strain” rather than record low vaccine rates, which the government was urgently trying to correct.

When Kennedy was married to Mary Richardson, he was reportedly texting images of nude women to his friends.

The controversies don’t seem to wane even now. In 2023, Kennedy texted a photograph to his friend in which he was posing with a woman and the barbecued remains of what he suggested was a dog. After the story was published, Kennedy claimed that the picture was of a goat in Patagonia.

After a decade of mystery, RFK recently admitted to dumping a dead bear in Central Park as a strange joke. He released a video recounting an incident from 2014 when he dumped a dead bear cub to make it look like it was in a bike crash.

Other Businesses and Roles

In 1999, Kennedy partnered with John Hoving and Chris Bartle to create a bottled water company called Keeper Springs. The company donated all of the profits to the Waterkeeper Alliance.

He was also a senior advisor and venture partner at one of the world’s largest cleantech venture capital firms, VantagePoint Capital Partners. He is currently a board member and counselor to more than one of Vantage Point’s portfolio companies including Ostara, as well as a senior advisor to Starwood Energy Group.

In addition to these roles, Kennedy has worked as:

• Former co-owner and director of Utility Integration Solutions, a smart-grid company that was bought by Alstom.
• Partner in ColorZen, a company that offers pre-treatment solutions to reduce toxic discharges and water usage in the cotton-dyeing processes.
• Co-owner and director of GridBright, a grid management specialist.
• Co-founder of EcoWatch, an environmental news site.

Authorship

Over the years, Kennedy has published many books on environmental subjects. He has also written a biography, written about or put is name to books on his anti-vaccination stance, and covered American heroes.

Some of his best works to date include:

• The Riverkeepers: Two Activists Fight to Reclaim Our Environment as a Basic Human Right (1997) – co-written with John Cronin
• Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Highjacking Our Democracy (2005)
• Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak: The Evidence Supporting the Immediate Removal of Mercury – a Known Neurotoxin – from Vaccines (2014) – a book containing debunked and provably false claims about vaccines and their ingredients
• Framed: Why Michael Skakel Spent Over a Decade in Prison For a Murder He Didn’t Commit (2016)
• American Values: Lessons I Learned from My Family (2018)
• Climate in Crisis: Who’s Causing It, Who’s Fighting It, and How We Can Reverse It Before It’s Too Late (2020)
• A Letter to Liberals: Censorship and COVID: an Attack on Science and American Ideals (2022)
• Vax-Unvax: Let the Science Speak (2023) – a book published by RFK Jr.’s own organization, known to push untrue and harmful anti-vaccine rhetoric which it falsely claims to be based on science

Other Investments

In the last couple of years, it has been reported that RFK Jr. has invested between $100,000 and $250,000 in Bitcoin. Other Kennedy assets include as much as half a million dollars worth of investments held in private equity, stock, and hedge funds, which are all managed by the family’s Park Financial Holdings.

Real Estate and Other Assets

The Kennedy family has invested a lot in real estate over the decades. RFK Jr. owns a property on the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port, which is reportedly worth around $3 million. He and his wife Hines also own a Los Angeles property, worth around $7 million.

Kennedy’s wife Cheryl Hines has her own money, too, and contributes quite a lot to the family’s net worth. She earned over a million dollars in 2022 and 2023 after starring in About Fate and the HBO series The Flight Attendant. Hines has two retirement accounts in which she holds between $600,000 and $1.7 million in bond index funds, stock, and more.

Family Fortune

As we mentioned, the Kennedys are among the wealthiest family in the United States. Uncovering the details of a family’s fortune is pretty much impossible, but estimates show that they were worth at least $1.2 billion combined in 2015.

How much of this does RFK Jr. have?

As part of the Kennedy family trusts, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. holds a stake in Arctic Royalty, an oil and gas leases business in Texas, Oklahoma, and other states. Between January 2022 and June 2023, he earned between $17,759 and $29,257 from these holdings alone, according to his financial disclosures.

When the financial disclosure came out in December 2023, the famous politician told Politico that he had sold the bulk of his stake in Arctic Royalty by then, but the details of the sale remain undisclosed to the public. Estimates put his stake in the company as worth between $31,000 and $115,000 today.

In addition to stock in this company, RFK Jr. is reported to own at least $4 million worth of assets inherited from his forefathers, including a stake in Wolf Point. Wolf Point is a massive development in downtown Chicago where the family has developed two luxury rental apartment towers, a 60-story skyscraper, and more. The location is phenomenal, and RFK Jr. reportedly owns between $1.75 million and $6.5 million of equity in this project.

What Can We Learn from RFK Jr’s Story?

Robert Kennedy Jr.’s life story offers several key lessons. Despite facing significant personal challenges, including drug addiction and the loss of his father and uncle to political assassinations, Kennedy managed to recover and rebuild his life, as well as pursue a very successful career. This is a lesson of recovery and resilience, teaching us that it is never too late to turn your life around.

His career spans various fields including law, politics, business, and environmental activism. This demonstrates the importance of diversifying one’s skills and interests to create multiple streams of income, as well as influence.

While Kennedy benefited from his family’s connections and wealth, it is impressive that he also forged his own path in life. He has focused on environmental law and activism and ran for president independently without the financial support of his family. This shows the importance of leveraging family legacy and establishing a personal identity.

Finally, RFK Jr.’s life is marked by many controversies and yet, he continues to remain a prominent public figure. However, he has allowed nefarious influences into his life, such as his connections with the anti-vaccine movement which has caused sickness and death in children across the globe. Trading on the respected Kennedy name has allowed him to gain influence outside of his knowledge and skillset which has had sometimes disastrous consequences, showing that a good name and expensive education can’t always protect us from going down dangerous rabbit holes.