- Ethel Kennedy was hospitalized after suffering a stroke in her sleep that her family shared
Ethel Kennedy, the matriarch of the Kennedy political family, wife of the late Senator Robert Kennedy and sister-in-law of former President John F Kennedy, suffered a stroke last week, her family revealed.
Kennedy’s daughter Kerry Kennedy released a statement with an update on her mother’s health, asking people to keep the 96-year-old in their prayers.
“I wanted to tell you about my amazing mother, Ethel Kennedy,” she wrote in a statement on X.
“Unfortunately, she suffered a stroke in her sleep on Thursday morning,” her daughter wrote. ‘She was taken to an area hospital where she is now being treated. She feels comfortable, receives the best possible care and is surrounded by family.”
Kennedy wrote that her mother is a “strong woman” who has lived a “remarkably fulfilling life.”
Kennedy urged people to keep her mother in their thoughts and prayers and asked them to respect the family’s privacy at this time.
96-year-old Ethel Kennedy suffered a stroke in her sleep on Thursday and was hospitalized, her daughter shared in a statement. Kerry Kennedy asked people to keep her in their “thoughts and prayers.”
Her daughter also said Kennedy was doing well until Thursday.
“She’s had a great summer and transition into fall,” the 59-year-old said.
“Every day she enjoyed time with her children, nieces, nephews, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was able to get out on the water, visit the pier and enjoy many lunches and dinners with family. It has been a gift to all of us, and to her too.”
The matriarch of the Kennedy family is the mother of eleven children with the late Senator Kennedy, whom she was married to from 1950 until his assassination in 1968.
She was pregnant at the time with their youngest child, a daughter the senator never met.
After Kennedy was assassinated, she founded the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights and worked tirelessly for world peace.
Ethel Kennedy with Robert F. Kennedy on their wedding day in Greenwich, CT in 1950
Ethel Kennedy with her husband, then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy in 1962
Kennedy receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama on November 24, 2014
Ethel Kennedy poses backstage with members of her family in 2012 at Carnegie Hall
In 2012, she appeared in a documentary about her life, directed by her youngest child, Rory.
In 2014, then-President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States for “advancing the causes of social justice, human rights, environmental protection and poverty alleviation.”
At the ceremony, he said she “touched the lives of countless people around the world with her generosity and grace.”
In April, Kennedy celebrated her 96th birthday surrounded by her family, including children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
An image of Ethel Kennedy surrounded by family celebrating her 96th birthday in April, shared by her grandson
A photo from the occasion, posted by her grandson, former Congressman Joe Kennedy III, showed the 96-year-old smiling with dozens of family members.
He captioned it with “Happy 96th to the world’s most amazing Gramma!!”