What did Mother Jones' 2025 recordings reveal about the interactions between RFK Jr. and Mary Richardson Kennedy?
Executive summary
Mother Jones published a report revealing that it obtained more than 60 audio recordings of conversations between Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, made during their bitter divorce in 2011–2012 [1]. The tapes depict Richardson often distraught and angry and include moments in which Kennedy blames her for his long-running infidelities and says he “did it because I was being abused at home,” a line cited from a June 4, 2011 exchange [1] [2].
1. What Mother Jones says it obtained and why it withheld the raw audio
Mother Jones reports it has a cache of more than 60 recordings from 2011 and early 2012 that capture phone and in-person conversations between RFK Jr. and Mary Richardson Kennedy, and the publication declined to release the raw tapes because they contain unconfirmed allegations and private information about third parties [1] [3]. Multiple outlets citing Mother Jones repeat the figure “over 60” recordings and note the decision by the outlet not to publish the audio verbatim [4] [5] [3].
2. The most reported excerpt: monogamy, polygamy and the “abused at home” line
The segment most widely quoted has RFK Jr. telling Richardson he wants a monogamous relationship and saying monogamy is “right” while Richardson asks why he nonetheless had affairs for a decade; according to Mother Jones, he replies, “I did it because I was being abused at home,” a phrase reported by Newsweek, The Daily Beast and others from the June 4, 2011 recording [1] [2] [6]. Publications have repeatedly highlighted that the diary Richardson found—allegedly documenting dozens of affairs—was a flashpoint in the conflict and appears repeatedly in the coverage of the tapes [4] [7].
3. Allegations compiled from the tapes and Richardson’s rebuttal
Mother Jones writes that Kennedy used material from the period to assemble a sealed, roughly 60-page affidavit accusing Richardson of violent outbursts, excessive drinking, physical abuse and threatening suicide in front of their children, and that Richardson and her sisters drafted a point-by-point rebuttal to those claims that Mother Jones obtained and corroborated with a family member [1] [7]. Multiple outlets report that Richardson’s rebuttal denied many of the allegations and accused Kennedy of clandestinely recording conversations in the home [7] [5].
4. Legal and ethical questions flagged by reporting
Several outlets cited by Mother Jones point out potential legal issues: at least one recording may have been made in California, which generally requires two-party consent for recordings, raising questions about legality and ethics though Mother Jones did not publish the tapes and reports stopped short of legal conclusions [3] [8]. Coverage also emphasizes Mother Jones’s editorial decision not to release tape content that implicates third parties or contains unverified allegations, suggesting the magazine weighed public interest against privacy and verification concerns [1].
5. How other outlets framed the tapes and possible agendas
Reporting across The Daily Beast, The Independent, Newsweek and others echoes Mother Jones’s central claims—Kennedy blaming Richardson for his infidelities and the existence of a “sex diary” claiming dozens of encounters—but presentation varies from straight reporting to more sensational headlines; some outlets stress implications for Kennedy’s HHS nomination, while tabloids emphasize scandal, indicating differing editorial priorities and possible agendas in amplification [6] [3] [2] [9]. Mother Jones itself situates the material in the context of Kennedy’s later public profile, but the outlet’s choice to withhold audio also reflects an editorial judgment about verifying explosive personal allegations [1].
6. What the recordings do and do not prove, per the published reporting
The tapes, as summarized by Mother Jones and repeated by other outlets, show contentious, emotionally charged interactions in which Richardson is often distraught and Kennedy at times shifts blame for his affairs onto her; they do not, in the reporting reviewed, provide independent proof of the broader allegations each side leveled—such as the full truth of alleged abuse, the exact contents of the purported diary, or the legal status of specific recordings—because Mother Jones has not released the raw audio and many claims remain unverified in the public record [1] [4] [7]. The result is a dossier that adds texture and potentially damaging quotes to an already fraught divorce narrative, but that also leaves central claims contested and partially uncorroborated in the outlets that have summarized the material [1] [2].