Taylor Swift’s connection to Robert Kennedy, Jr. explained

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While you wouldn’t call it an “invisible connection,” Taylor Swift has had a connection to controversial presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for more than a decade.

Swift, who has long had an affinity with the Kennedy family, notably dated RFK Jr.’s son Conor Kennedy from July to October 2012, when she was 22 and he was 18.

Their high-profile relationship had all the perks of a New England summer: they spent time on boats, in patriotic bathing suits and at the Kennedy family estate in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Swift even bought her own house next to the Kennedys’ famous Cape Cod estate during their romance. (“I’m happy that we’re going to be neighbors. I’m thrilled,” said Ethel Kennedy – RFK Jr.’s mother and Conor’s grandmother – People the same year.)

Swift’s romance with Conor wasn’t all about looks, Camelot and luxury, however. The couple began dating just two months after Conor’s mother, Mary Kennedy, committed suicide in May 2012. (She had split from RFK Jr. two years earlier.) To Conor, a source revealed We weekly Back then, the singer-songwriter was a “real shoulder to cry on.” Swift, for her part, had a “real crush” on Conor. The two even spent time in Mt. Kisco, New York, a neighboring town to Conor’s hometown of Bedford, where he grew up with his parents and three siblings.

Although the couple went their separate ways in the fall – “It was just a matter of distance,” an insider said We weekly at the time — Swift immortalized their romance on her 2012 album Red with the final song of the record, “Begin Again”.

The hit record also included “Starlight” – Swift’s ode to RFK Jr.’s mother Ethel and his father Robert F. Kennedy Sr.

“I met Bobby on the boardwalk in the summer of 1945,” she sings in the song, describing the beginning of the legendary Kennedy couple’s romance.

Rory Kennedy – one of RFK Jr.’s sisters – said People At the time, Swift said, “just really loves my mom, which is so sweet,” and noted that Swift was “inspired” by her family “and wrote a song.”

In February 2012, Swift said Fashion that Ethel, now 96, was one of the few people she ever felt “crazy about.” (Swift, for her part, is 34.)

“I was able to spend the afternoon with Ethel a few weeks ago,” said the 14-time Grammy winner Fashion At the time, he gushed about RFK Jr.’s mother and father. “She’s one of my favorites because you look at the pictures of her and Bobby (Kennedy Sr.) and they always look like they’re having more fun than anyone else. You know, 11 kids, all these exotic animals on their property.”

Since Swift’s split from Conor in late October 2012, her path with the Kennedy family doesn’t seem to have crossed that often – she’s become her own version of American royalty, not only on her own but also with boyfriend Travis Kelce.

Swift and RFK Jr. also seem to have different political views — at least when it comes to COVID-19 precautions. While John F. Kennedy’s nephew has been spreading vaccine conspiracy theories since 2020, Swift has spoken out against anyone trying to violate COVID-19 safety precautions during the pandemic.

“God, you hope people would respect that and understand that an evening outing is not worth the ripple effects it causes,” she said Weekly entertainment in 2020. “But obviously we see that a lot of people don’t seem to have their eyes open to it – or if they do, a lot of people don’t care, which is worrying.”