RFK Jr.'s mother Ethel, 95, was behind Kennedy clan's humiliating endorsement of Joe Biden - as her combative history with her presidential candidate son is exposed

Jerry Oppenheimer is an author whose biographies include 'The Other Mrs. Kennedy: An Intimate and Revealing Look at the Hidden Life of Ethel Skakel Kennedy' and 'RFK Jr.: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Dark Side of the Dream'. He is a frequent contributor to DailyMail.com. 

Bobby Kennedy Jr. was only 13 years old when his then-newly widowed mother, Ethel, distraught over the assassination of her presidential candidate husband Senator Robert F. Kennedy, suddenly began aiming her anger toward her son, his father's namesake.

At various times in the wake of the June 1968 assassination, Ethel, then 40, pushed young Bobby into the painful thorns of a rose bush, beat him with a hairbrush, ordered him out of the Kennedy home, constantly berated him and virtually disowned him by turning him over to a closeted homosexual.

Lem Billings would become Bobby's unofficial surrogate father, and a bad influence, during his tumultuous early years when the 2024 presidential hopeful turned to drugs.

And even now, Bobby's nonagenarian mother 'still has it in for him', as he vies to become the second Kennedy after his uncle, John F. Kennedy, to occupy the Oval Office, reveal close Kennedy insiders.

The sources say Ethel, who will celebrate her 96th birthday on April 11, is 'the force behind the family's decision' to support Joe Biden for a second term over her 70-year-old son's run as a lifelong-Democrat turned independent.

'After all these years, Ethel's negative feelings toward Bobby haven't changed one iota,' a longtime confidant of the presidential hopeful tells DailyMail.com.

'And knowing how she feels about Bobby, most of the rest of the family have refused to support his presidential run.'

The latest snub for the presidential candidate – 'based on Ethel's wishes', asserts another insider – came when the Irish-American clan gathered at the White House this month to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with President Joe Biden. 

They posed for an iconic family photograph – three generations of Kennedys, with a smiling Biden, 81, in the middle of the family scrum – in an event hailed as a snub for Bobby, and a win for Biden.

'The Kennedys who said cheese in the photo were there as much for Ethel and against Bobby as they were for Joe Biden,' according to a family insider.

Bobby's younger sister, Kerry Kennedy, 64, was among those in attendance and later shared a family group photo of the White House gathering on X, along with a message of support for the president.  

'It's not enough to wish the world were better, you must make the world better', she began.

'@POTUS President Biden, you make the world better. Happy St. Patrick's Day,' she added, attaching a shamrock emoji.

Bobby's youngest sister, Rory, 55, tweeted 'Thank you for having us, President Biden. You are the best.' 

The president reposted the group photo via his personal X account saying: 'From one proud Irish family to another – it was good to have you all back at the White House.'

Kerry has been very vocal about her family's unwavering support for the Bidens over the years, even sharing social media posts fawning over their close relationship. 

On Ethel's birthday last year, the human rights activist took to Instagram to gush about Joe's phone call to the matriarch to convey his well-wishes.

'@POTUS just called to wish Ethel Happy birthday. He was 35,000 feet above the earth with @JoeKennedyIII,' she wrote, noting her nephew Joe Kennedy III's position as U.S. Special Envoy to Northern Ireland. 

'@POTUS said he had two heroes sitting right by his desk, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King.'

She went on to write that Joe 'loved the Kennedy family' and said he 'went into politics' because of her late father. 

And according to Kerry, Ethel's response to the president's kind words were: 'We love you Joe and Joe!'

A well-placed Kennedy insider told DailyMail.com that the family's St. Patrick's Day photo-op at the White House was a thinly-veiled jab at their own relative.  

'There's no doubt that the whole Kennedy-centered St. Patty's Day scenario on the steps of the White House Rose Garden was a big middle finger to Bobby, courtesy of Biden and the clan, and a salute to Ethel's decades-long hostility toward her third born,' the source said. 

'Ethel might be bedridden, on medication because of her age, and awaiting God's calling,' the source continued, 'but she's still considered the power behind the throne – the de facto matriarch.

'The family knows her wishes, and obediently carries them out. If this was a mob family, Ethel, despite her age, would be considered the boss.'

Naturally, RFK Jr. – who is married to Curb Your Enthusiasm actress Cheryl Hines, 58 – has downplayed his family's very public rejection and its support for Biden, whose 'mental acuity' he has questioned. 

When asked about the photo-op after the event, Bobby referred to those relatives as 'a very small percentage of my family' and claimed 'many other family members are working for my campaign, many other family members support it.'

Kerry Kennedy, the ex-wife of former New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, is said to be Ethel's favorite of her original brood of 11 – she lost one son, David, 28, to a 1984 drug overdose and another, Michael, 39, in a skiing accident in 1997. 

A close source claims Kerry was 'speaking for her mother' when she publicly responded to her brother's decision to run for president last April. 

'I love my brother Bobby, but I do not share or endorse his opinions on many issues, including the Covid pandemic vaccinations, and the role of social media platforms in policing false information,' she said. 

And it was Kerry who was one of four of RFK Jr.'s siblings who announced last October the family's support of Biden over their own blood brother.

'The decision of our brother Bobby to run as a third-party candidate against Joe Biden is dangerous to our country. 

'Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgment…We denounce his candidacy and believe it to be perilous for our country,' she said.

All of it has ignited a 'drama and feud never before seen' in what's been termed America's royal family, sources assert.

Last Mother's Day, Kerry penned a loving piece about Ethel for Ms. Magazine, declaring: 'My mother has had more tragedy in her lifetime than anyone should. But her spirit has proven indomitable…I have watched her become a political force in her own right.'

But Bobby, who is said by sources to have little contact with his aged mother, has been the only sibling who has been publicly critical of her.

A source claims: 'It's karma for how miserably Ethel treated Bobby in the wake of his father's murder, and now today with her not supporting his presidential hopes.'

In his 2018 book, 'American Values', he verbally attacked his mother, blasting her for her use of what he called 'tough love' toward him beginning in his early teens.

'I seem to have been at odds with my mother since birth,' he candidly declared. 

'Her flurries of temper appeared to me haphazard and desultory, and, of all of us siblings, most often directed toward me. 

'My rebellious nature, and my inclination for pointing out her caprices may have sharpened her disfavor.

'From my angle,' he continued, 'her love didn't always feel conditional. Her approach was what today people would call "tough love", for which I proved a tough audience.

'Her exceptional qualities were mainly invisible to me as a child,' he added.

He also called her out for what he described as her tendency to divide people into two categories.

'My mother, Ethel Skakel Kennedy, divided the world into friend and foe. Generally, she judged the latter by harsher standards, and yet she sometimes discarded time-honored friendships for minor infractions. I faulted her for being mercurial and arbitrary.'

He wrote that when he was young he was 'hypervigilant to evidence of maternal hypocrisy,' and his mother's treatment of her servants and others, which he asserted was 'at odds with her advocacy work' as a human rights and environmental activist, and founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.

For those works, Ethel was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama, in 2014.