Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. revealed that his niece, Saoirse Kennedy Hill, died in 2019 from an accidental fentanyl overdose, in a social media post that was later deleted. Kennedy shared a tribute to his niece on Friday, the anniversary of her passing, providing details about her death that had not been previously reported.
He wrote in the now-deleted Instagram post, "Remembering my beloved niece Saorsie Kennedy Hill, a luminous soul who died 7 years ago this week of an accidental fentanyl overdose." He misspelled his niece's name in the post.
Saoirse Kennedy Hill, the granddaughter of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, was found unresponsive at the Kennedy family compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, on August 2, 2019. She was 22 years old at the time and was pronounced dead at Cape Cod Hospital shortly after.
At the time of her death, toxicology reports indicated the presence of methadone, fluoxetine, norfluoxetine, diazepam, nordiazepam, and alcohol in her system. Fluoxetine is an antidepressant, and diazepam is prescribed for alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
Saoirse Kennedy Hill had publicly shared her struggles with mental illness, including depression and anxiety, in an op-ed for her student newspaper in 2016. She wrote about the challenges of her family name contributing to her struggles.
