THE CURSE

STRIKES

AGAIN

America’s Kennedy

clan continue to be

dogged by tragedy as yet

another family member

dies COMPILEDBYJANEVORSTER Mysterysurrounds
therecentdeathof
SaoirseKennedy
Hill.Shewasfound
unconsciousatthe
Kennedys’Cape

BOVE:Asa childwithherfather,PaulHill.

FT:Withhermother,Courtney,and

randmother,Ethel,ona beachnearthe

mily’ssprawlingcompound.

ndlovedbrokeserioussexualbound-

rieswithme,”shewrote.“Thisall

became too much, and I attempted to

take my own life.”

Although she didn’t identify the per-

son, it was “an adult with ties to the fam-

ily”, according to Jerry Oppenheimer,

who has written several biographies

about the Kennedys.

And it clearly had a big impact on Sao-

irse. After going on to university, where

she also pursued politics by joining the

College Democrats, she continued to suf-

fer. It emerged that just months before

her tragic death her mom was trying to

find a clinic where she could get treat-

ment for her chronic depression.

Yet family members insist Saoirse ap-

peared carefree on holiday.

In a eulogy he delivered at her funeral,

RFK Jnr revealed that on the final night

A

S THE church bells

rang out they stood

around the coffin,

faces etched with a

haunting sadness.

How could one

family suffer so

much heartache?

Even decades after the death o

President John F Kennedy, mem

bers of his clan are still regarded a

America’s royal family, yet thei

fame, wealth, influence and glam

our couldn’t prevent them bein

dogged by tragedy.

Over the years there have been s

many funerals – each one markin

a terrible loss – that there’s been tal

of “a Kennedy curse” (see box fa

right).

And the recent death of Saoirs

Kennedy Hill, granddaughter of Ro

ert F Kennedy and family matriarch

Ethel, has added to their litany of loss.

Questions still swirl around the death

of the 22-year-old, the only child of Rob-

ert’s daughter, Courtney Kennedy Hill,

and her husband, Paul Hill.

Her body was found in Ethel’s home

in the Kennedy compound in Hyannis

Port, Massachusetts, and efforts to re-

viveherprovedfruitless.Nowthere’s

suspicionshemighthavediedofa drug

overdose.

ThesprawlingCapeCodestatehas

beenthesceneofmanydramasover

theyearsandthelatestonehasleft

thefamilyreeling.Especiallybecause

justdaysbeforeherdeath,Saoirse,a

communicationsstudentatMorrissey

CollegeofArtsandSciencesinBoston,

looked the picture of health as she en-

joyed a summer break.

In a photo posted to Instagram by her

uncle,RobertF KennedyJnr,anactivist

andenvironmentalattorneyknown

affectionately as RFK Jnr, she can be seen

preparing to dive into the ocean from

a boat near the compound.

But it seems beneath the surface hap-

pinesslaya seaofturmoil.Inanessayfor

theDeerfieldAcademy’sschoolnews-

paper in 2016 Saoirse spoke candidly

about her battle with depression. She

wrote that from her early teens she start-

ed suffering “bouts of deep sadness that

felt like a heavy boulder on my chest”.

She was hoping it would go away but

it didn’t.

“I totally lost it after someone I knew

86 | 29 AUGUST 2019 you.co.za