Robert F. Kennedy Jr. he looked back into the extreme depths of his past drug use.
The current Health and Human Services secretary, 72, made the shocking revelation during the Wednesday, Feb. 12 episode of the “This Past Weekend With Theo Von” podcast that he used to “snort cocaine off toilet seats” while discussing his choice to attend in-person addiction support group meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We still had my meetings every day during COVID,” Kennedy said host Theo Vaughan in the podcast episode. “It was kind of a pirate group. For me, I said this when we went in: ‘I don’t care what happens. I’m going to a meeting every day.'”
He then joked, “I’m not afraid of a germ. I used to wipe cocaine off toilet seats. I know this disease (addiction) is going to kill me. If I don’t treat it, which for me means going to meetings every day, it’s bad for my life. For me, it was just survival.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. weighed in on President Donald Trump’s decision to rename the Kennedy Center to add his own name to the memorial building. In a new interview published Thursday, Jan. 8, CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Nancy Cordes asked RFK Jr., 71, if he understood why his family members were “very” (…)
Kennedy clarified that he had been in recovery for “43 years” and first met Von when they attended the same addiction support group.
His comments on “This Last Weekend” weren’t the first time Kennedy has made startling claims about his past drug use. He alleged on the “Shawn Ryan Show” podcast in June 2024 that heroin improved his academic performance in the 1970s.
“I was doing really, really bad in school, until I started doing drugs,” he said claimed. “Then I went to the front of my class because my mind was so restless and turbulent and I couldn’t sit still. . . . It worked for me. And if it still worked, I’d still be doing it.”
In that same interview, Kennedy described addiction as a “compulsion” that eventually “overwhelms your whole life.”
The Trump administration official elaborated on his history with addiction during a speech at the Rx and Illicit Drug Summit in May 2025. Per Kennedy, he battled addiction for 14 years before enrolling in a 12-step recovery program in 1983.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in February 2026.
Heather Diehl/Getty ImagesHe recalled an early experience with drugs at age 15 when he took LSD at a party and suffered “very, very intense hallucinations.” The next morning, Kennedy felt miserable for breaking a promise he had made at school never to drink or do drugs.
“In the morning, I felt remorse,” he said remembered. “I was kicking myself and saying, ‘You swore you’d never do this, you broke your commitment to yourself.’ I swore to myself (that) I wouldn’t do drugs again.”
However, Kennedy had many more experiences with drugs throughout his teenage years. The politician said he used to feel like there was a “hole” inside him that he filled with drugs.
“All addicts feel that way in one way or another: that they have to fix what’s wrong with them, and the only thing that works is drugs,” he said. “And so threats to die, that you will ruin your life are meaningless.”
Olivia Nuzzi had to stop an awkward interview after being heavily questioned about her alleged affair with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. During the Tuesday, Dec. 2, episode of “The Bulwark” podcast, host Tim Miller asked directly how Nuzzi’s memoir, American Canto, addressed her alleged tumultuous romance with the 71-year-old Kennedy.
Kennedy influences the administration’s addictions policy as part of his job as head of the Department of Health and Human Services, although he has faced criticism for his policies on public health, obesity and vaccine regulations. Nutrition experts recently took issue with Kennedy’s new “inverted food pyramid” that places high-quality protein, healthy fats and whole vegetables at the top and encourages greater consumption of meats, dairy and eggs.
One person who apparently doesn’t follow Kennedy’s nutritional advice is the President donald trump. Kennedy claimed on “The Katie Miller Podcast” in January that Trump has “The Most Confused Eating Habits” had ever seen
“You know, the interesting thing about the president is that he eats really bad food, which is McDonald’s. And then, you know, candy and Diet Coke. But he drinks Diet Coke all the time,” he admitted.
Kennedy then quipped: “(Trump) has the build of a deity. I don’t know how he’s alive, but he is.”