Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will not comment on allegations of sexual harassment by former babysitter

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he would “not comment” on allegations of sexual assault by a former babysitter who was hired as a nanny for his family in 1998. However, he acknowledged that he has “many skeletons in the closet.”

In a Vanity Fair In an article published on Tuesday, July 2, Eliza Cooney claims that the 70-year-old independent presidential candidate made inappropriate advances toward her 26 years ago when she was employed by him.

Kennedy was questioned about allegations in the YouTube political show Break points Tuesday afternoon.

“The article is a load of nonsense,” Kennedy said. “As for the other allegations, I’ve said this from the beginning: I’m not a church boy. I’m not running like that. I had a very, very wild youth. In my inaugural address, I said I have so many skeletons in the closet that if they could all vote, I could run for king of the world.”

“Vanity Fair is rehashing 30-year-old stories and I’m not going to comment on the details, but I am who I am,” he added.

“You are talking about the nanny situation,” confirmed moderator Saagar Enjenit. “I have to ask, sir, do you deny it or not?”

“I won’t comment on it,” Kennedy replied.

According to the article, Cooney, then 23, was hired as the Kennedys’ part-time babysitter in the fall of 1998.

At the time, Kennedy, the nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy and son of the late U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, was married to Mary Richardson Kennedy.

The former couple, who married in 1994 and divorced in 2012, had four children together – Conor, Kyra, Aidan and Finn.

Cooney was a recent college graduate who moved into Kennedy and Mary’s home in Mount Kisco, New York, to babysit Kennedy during the week and help him with his environmental law clinic at Pace University. Vanity Fair said.

Cooney allegedly kept a diary in which she documented instances of Kennedy’s unwanted sexual advances. One incident described in the article allegedly occurred in the Kennedy family kitchen on the evening of November 7, 1998.

“After everything everyone says about the Kennedys and their babysitters, I was worried. Like I had to be careful, cautious. And the other night in the kitchen with Murray, I could have sworn he touched my leg and my hand,” reads one excerpt.

“It seemed like he thought I was someone else or wasn’t paying attention. Like every now and then he would come around and snap out of his rut ​​or I would walk away. It was like he was on to something or really tired or missed Mary or was testing me.”

Cooney, now 48, also said Vanity Fair that on another occasion she found Kennedy shirtless in her bedroom and asked her to rub cream on his back. According to the former employee, the politician was in his mid-40s at the time.

“I thought, isn’t Mary home? Isn’t she doing this for you?” she recalled in Tuesday’s article, adding, “It was totally inappropriate.”

Cooney also spoke about an alleged incident that occurred months later when she grabbed a snack from the pantry after a yoga class. While she was still wearing a sports bra and leggings, Kennedy allegedly “blocked her in the room and began groping her by placing his hands on her hips and sliding them up her ribcage and breasts,” the article said.

“I had my back to the pantry door and he came up behind me,” Cooney claimed. “I was frozen. Shocked.”

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PEOPLE has reached out to Kennedy’s representative for comment but did not immediately hear back. PEOPLE could not independently verify Cooney’s statements.

At the height of the #MeToo movement, Cooney told her mother about Robert’s alleged sexual abuse, but decided not to go public until he recently announced his candidacy for president.