Investigative journalist Maureen Callahan has spent years chronicling the intersection of pop culture and politics, but her latest project required a deep dive into one of America’s most mythologized families. Her new book, *Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed*, examines the Kennedy dynasty through the lives of the women connected to it, from wives and mistresses to interns and accident victims.
Callahan’s work spans decades of reporting, with her columns currently appearing at the Daily Mail. In a recent interview, she discussed the book’s origins, the resistance she faced from the publishing industry, and the patterns of abuse and cover-up she says defined the family’s treatment of women.
The book covers the entire Kennedy saga, beginning with patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy’s time as ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1938 and extending through John F. Kennedy’s presidency and the current presidential run of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Callahan’s timing for the book’s release coincided with the 25th anniversary of the plane crash that killed JFK Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette, and her sister Lauren.
Callahan is sharply critical of how the media has framed that tragedy. She argues that the coverage of JFK Jr.’s death as part of a “Kennedy curse” obscures the details of the crash itself. According to her reporting, JFK Jr. made a series of reckless decisions that night, including failing to file a flight plan, turning off all communication systems, and not engaging the autopilot. She notes that he nearly collided with a packed commercial airliner and describes his behavior as a lifelong pattern of risk-taking that endangered the women around him.
The book’s central argument is that the Kennedy men, particularly Joseph P. Kennedy and his sons, engaged in a litany of abuse toward women that was enabled by the press and the family’s political power. Callahan details how Joseph Kennedy, a former Hollywood producer, carefully crafted the family’s image to meet the moment of mass media, presenting JFK as the epitome of youthful American vigor.
One of the most harrowing chapters focuses on Rosemary Kennedy, JFK’s sister. Callahan writes that Rosemary had learning disabilities and mood disorders, but her father had her secretly and forcibly lobotomized in her early twenties. The procedure left her with the mental and physical capacities of a two-year-old. She was eventually moved to a cottage at St. Coletta in Wisconsin, where she lived for decades. Callahan traveled there and spoke with Rosemary’s nurses, who told her the cottage was set to be demolished with no plaque commemorating Rosemary’s life.
Callahan reports that family friends suspected Joseph Kennedy had been molesting Rosemary, and that her increasing agitation was a direct result of that abuse. The lobotomy, Callahan suggests, was a way to silence her.
The book also revisits the story of Mary Jo Kopechne, the 29-year-old campaign aide who died in 1969 when Ted Kennedy drove his car off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island. Callahan describes how Kennedy left Kopechne to suffocate in the submerged car, swam to safety, and did not report the accident until the next morning. Despite this, Kennedy served as a senator for the rest of his life and was given a statesman’s funeral. Callahan says the media’s willingness to accept the “Kennedy tragedy” narrative during that coverage was a major inspiration for writing the book.
The book also examines the relationship between the Kennedy brothers and Marilyn Monroe. Callahan describes Monroe as a vulnerable figure, a former foster child who had suffered sexual abuse and was desperate to be taken seriously. According to the book, both JFK and RFK were involved with her simultaneously. Callahan reports that Monroe may have had an abortion believed to be RFK’s child and that she threatened to go public with what she knew. On the day of her death, RFK was caught on wiretaps yelling at her residence. Her diary and phone logs disappeared, though a British journalist later recovered logs showing frantic calls to RFK’s office.
Callahan’s reporting also covers the story of Pam, a teenage girl left paralyzed in a jeep crash caused by Joseph Kennedy’s reckless driving. After learning she would never walk again, she burned the word “die” into her stomach with a cigarette. When she died alone during COVID, her family told Callahan they never received a condolence card from the Kennedys, and that Joseph Kennedy had stopped sending financial support immediately after the accident.
The book also details the experiences of Mimi Alford, a 19-year-old White House intern who wrote a memoir about her encounters with JFK. Callahan describes how JFK got Alford drunk and took her virginity in the private residence, and later ordered her to perform oral sex on one of his aides. Alford has not called it rape, but Callahan describes it as an assault.
Callahan faced significant obstacles getting the book published. She had a previous book deal with Viking, which had made money off her earlier work. When she pitched the Kennedy book, the publisher initially agreed, then vanished. She later learned the publisher was trying to close a deal with Maria Shriver to give her her own imprint at Viking and did not want to upset her by signing the Kennedy book. Callahan says other outlets and publishers have refused to cover or touch the book for fear of upsetting famous Kennedys.
Callahan’s research took three years, followed by a year of writing. She conducted original interviews with Rosemary’s nurses, Martha Moxley’s mother, and the families of other women affected by the Kennedys. She also worked as a named scholar at the New York Public Library for the project.
Martha Moxley’s story is one Callahan says had the most impact on her personally. Moxley was 15 years old when she was sexually assaulted and killed in 1975. A Kennedy cousin, Michael Skakel, was convicted in the crime, though his conviction was later vacated, in part due to the work of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Callahan says Moxley’s father died of a heart attack not long after her death, which her mother attributed to stress.
Callahan also offers a more nuanced portrait of Jackie Kennedy. She describes her as the book’s heroine, noting that Jackie was the only one who kept her composure during the assassination and its aftermath. Callahan argues that Jackie’s decision to marry Aristotle Onassis was a deliberate move to escape the role of the living American saint and carve out her own identity, even at the cost of public scorn.
Callahan’s book is written in a novelistic style, placing the reader inside the experiences of each woman. She says she hopes readers come away with a new understanding of who these women were and respect for what they survived. For those who did not survive, she says she tried to speak for them.