Former babysitter to RFK Jr.’s children. speaks about allegations of sexual abuse

The only person who told Eliza Cooney what happened was her mother.

Then Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is running for president.

Cooney knew then that she had to speak. So this summer she made her story public. About how Kennedy, a man actually closer to her father’s age, groped her when she worked as a live-in nanny for his family. She was 23 years old.

“I know there are hard-working people who don’t have skeletons in their closet,” Cooney said in an exclusive interview with USA TODAY. “And I wish we chose people with fewer skeletons in their closets.”

Kennedy abandoned his candidacy for president when his candidacy failed to gain any attention and turned his support to Republican Donald Trump, who was elected on November 5. Trump rewarded Kennedy by nominating him as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Kennedy’s nomination for a prominent position in Trump’s administration has brought Cooney’s sexual abuse allegations back into the spotlight. Three other men Trump has nominated for high-level positions in his administration — Elon Musk, Matt Gaetz and Pete Hegseth — have also faced allegations of sexual misconduct, raising questions about their pasts and complicating their paths into government service.

USA TODAY reached out to Trump’s transition team and an attorney from Kennedy’s nonprofit for comment on this story.

“It’s remarkable that it’s as widespread as it is,” Cooney said. “And I just wonder, have we made any progress? This is like a rewind.”

‘It happened so quickly’

Cooney was out of college in 1999 when she started working for Kennedy at his environmental law clinic as the family babysitter during the week and on weekends.

As part of the job, she moved into the Kennedy home in Mount Kisco, New York.

Kennedy had three children living with him, and two children from a previous marriage who visited on weekends. She knew that Kennedy men had a reputation for being rich, handsome and progressive with women, but she was still shocked.

“I was surprised it happened so quickly,” she says.

One evening there was a meeting in the family kitchen with Kennedy and another person who was there to talk about work related to the legal clinic. She said she felt Kennedy rubbing her leg under the table.

Another time, she said a shirtless Kennedy, then 46, appeared in her bedroom doorway and asked her to rub lotion on him. She said she committed herself to ending it in an unenthusiastic way.

She later said he approached her from behind in a kitchen cupboard and began groping her, sliding his hands from her hips to the sides of her breasts. As he did this, he blocked her exit from the small room.

Going public

Cooney said she never intended to tell her story. She told her mother during the height of #MeToo, a viral movement that started in 2017 and prompted millions of survivors of sexual harassment and assault to share their stories on social media.

But she didn’t consider going public. Kennedy announced his presidential campaign in April 2023. A few months later, she finally told some close friends.

One friend encouraged her to document the incidents to protect herself, and in case she ever had to defend the veracity of her story.

“I’ve always kind of shrugged this off,” she said. “Like, guys, this is just the price of doing business.”

As she continued to process what had happened, she understood that her experience was inappropriate. Then came a television commercial that recreated a famous commercial for the presidential campaign of his uncle, John F. Kennedy Jr.

The vintage ad featured people repeatedly singing “Kennedy” and the line “Kennedy for me.” The image of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared in sepia-toned photos and was photoshopped onto a button that resembled his uncle’s campaign button.

“I was literally watching the Super Bowl and saw the ad and thought, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’” Cooney said.

She opened Vanity Fair.

On a podcast this summer, Kennedy told the host, “I had a very, very turbulent childhood. I said in my announcement speech that I have so many skeletons in my closet that if they could all vote, I could run for king of the world.

Days after the Vanity Fair story was published, Cooney says Kennedy sent her a text message, since reviewed by USA TODAY.

The text reads: “I have no memory of this incident, but I sincerely apologize for anything I ever did that made you feel uncomfortable, or anything I did or said that offended you or hurt your feelings. It was never my intention to harm you. If I hurt you, it was unintentional. I feel bad for doing this.”

Cooney doesn’t consider it an apology.

“I don’t know if it’s an apology to say, ‘I don’t remember,’” she said. “In the context of all his public appearances, it seemed a bit – it wasn’t right. It was like a throwaway.”

Cooney says this is about women

Cooney said she feels a responsibility to share her story so people can make the decision they want to make about him. And she wants to give women the courage to share their own experiences with other men.

Kennedy’s nomination is likely to pass the confirmation process as he enjoys broad support among Republicans. Kennedy’s nomination was even applauded by Colorado’s Democratic governor, Jared Polis.

“I’m not doing this to stop his nomination or disrupt the confirmation process,” Cooney said. “I only do it for public order.”

She criticized the way society expects so many women to remain silent about their experiences of sexual assault and harassment, that women should be the ones to come forward, and how often non-disclosure agreements force women to remain silent in similar situations.

“When it comes to women, sex and bodies, are there non-disclosure agreements?” Cooney said. “Imagine if those women had not signed NDAs, what would we all know now.”

She said the #MeToo movement has shined a light on the issue of sexual assault against women, and in some cases, held offenders accountable. But she likened society’s broader confrontation to tackling the abuse of women to climbing a big mountain.

“We are not at the top of the mountain, and I can understand that people are tired and wary,” she said. “Because look what’s happening now. Is it worth it? Will anything change? Is it hopeless? I don’t think so.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ex-babysitter of RFK Jr.’s children discusses allegations of sexual abuse