“I used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats,” U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. admitted during a recent podcast interview with comedian Theo Von.
During the latest episode of “This Past Weekend with Theo Von” the two kicked things off by talking about how they met each other at early morning 12-step recovery meetings in the Los Angeles, Calif., area. Kennedy told Von that he relied on the meetings so much that he even joined a “pirate group” that met in person during the COVID-19 pandemic.
That’s how the cocaine comment came up. Kennedy told Von that he wasn’t “scared of a germ,” after his wild days.
“I know this disease will kill me,” Kennedy said. “If I don’t treat it, which means for me, going to meetings every day.”
According to drug and alcohol rehabilitation center Avenues Recovery, Kennedy, now 72 years old, tried LSD for the first time when he was 15 after a friend gave it to him at a party. Kennedy was just 14 when his father, the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy Sr., was assassinated.
As he crashed from the hallucinogenic drug on his way home, he took crystal meth to help with the withdrawal symptoms, Kennedy told attendees at the Rx and Illicit Drugs Summit in Nashville, Tenn., last year. From there, things began to spiral.
At age 29 – just after he finished law school – Kennedy was found in possession of heroin after falling ill on a flight to South Dakota. He later pleaded guilty to a felony charge for possession, The New York Times reported. It said that Kennedy became addicted to the drug in his teens as he struggled with the assassination of his father.
“Two days after the airplane episode, he checked himself into a New Jersey drug treatment center. He says he has been sober ever since,” according to The Times.
Kennedy told Von that he’s now been sober for 43 years.
“For me, it was survival,” he said of going to in-person meetings. “And then, you know, the opportunity to help another alcoholic, that’s the secret sauce of the meetings and that’s what keeps us all sober.”
Since becoming sober, Kennedy established a career as an environmental lawyer. He has said that, through travels related to environmental activism work, he contracted a worm parasite that ate part of his brain.
Though known for controversial medical stances, he began his tenure as the head of the HHS last year. His appointment followed a 2024 election season in which he went from a Democratic candidate to an independent candidate to a supporter of now President Donald Trump.
Von said he also recently saw that Kennedy was with Kid Rock – headliner of the recent Turning Point USA halftime show and a friend of Trump’s – who has also admitted to using cocaine. Kennedy said he is “still saving a seat” for the musician in sobriety.