RFK Jr. addresses explosive allegations that he sexually harassed a babysitter and said: “I am who I am” after denying ever eating dog food

• The allegations were made in a Vanity Fair magazine article that examined his “reckless” behavior.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he was “not a church boy” and had “so many skeletons in the closet” when asked about allegations that he sexually abused a former family babysitter.

The claim was one of many in a Vanity Fair magazine article that delved into Kennedy’s long history of “reckless” behavior – including his drug use, allegations of sexual assault and even claims that he ate a dog – which he denies.

The magazine reported that Kennedy and his then-wife Mary Richardson hired 23-year-old Eliza Cooney as a part-time babysitter in 1998.

Ms Cooney reportedly told the magazine that Kennedy groped her in the family kitchen.

Kennedy has since said the article contained “a lot of garbage,” but when asked by a podcast interviewer whether he denied the sexual assault allegation, he said, “I’m not going to comment on that.”

Kennedy said on Tuesday on the podcast “Breaking Points”: “I’m not a church boy.”

“I had a very, very wild youth,” he told podcaster Saagar Enjeti. “In my inaugural speech, 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 also shared a photo of Kennedy and a friend holding up a grilled animal carcass and pretending to nibble on it.

Kennedy is said to have texted the photo in question to a friend last year, recommending that he try a restaurant in South Korea that serves dog meat.

The magazine reported that a veterinarian identified the animal as a dog because it had a “free-standing rib” typical of dogs.

The friend who received the picture considered it, according to Vanity Fair, a “disturbing example of Kennedy’s lack of judgment and thoughtlessness, simultaneously mocking Korean culture, reveling in animal cruelty and needlessly jeopardizing his reputation and that of his family.”

Metadata on the photo reportedly shows it was taken in 2010, the same year Kennedy contracted brain worm. His campaign said he has since made a full recovery.

Kennedy denied that the photo showed him posing with the grilled carcass of a dog. He claimed it was the carcass of a goat and that the photo was taken in Patagonia.

“Hey @VanityFair,” Kennedy wrote on social media platform X, “when your veterinary experts call a goat a dog and your forensic experts say a photo taken in Patagonia was taken in Korea, you know you’ve joined the ranks of the supermarket tabloids.”

He made the same statement during an appearance on Fox News on Tuesday afternoon.

“Keep telling America that up is down if you want. I’ll keep talking about how working families can’t afford homes or food because our last two presidents ran up $14 trillion in debt paid for by hard-working Americans,” the Independent said.

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“The DNC media’s trash can journalism may distract us from President Biden’s cognitive deficits, but it does little to elevate the national debate or lower food prices,” he added.

The Vanity Fair article suggests that Kennedy may have caught the brain parasite from the “dog” in 2010.

The candidate stated that he believed he got the tapeworm from food he had eaten, although it was unclear where exactly he had eaten this meal.

Kennedy once suggested that he had caught the parasite in India, while the election campaign made rather vague references to his extensive travels through “Africa, South America and Asia.”

In a divorce filing from his late ex-wife, Mary Richardson, Kennedy claimed the tapeworm had eaten part of his brain, causing “brain fog” and reducing his earning potential.

Family members interviewed by Vanity Fair were skeptical of this explanation.

They pointed to the 14 years that RFK Jr. used heroin – from age 15 until he quit at age 29.

“A certain Kennedy has circulated a National Institutes of Health report on the effects of long-term heroin abuse, which concludes that the damage can alter brain physiology. ‘Long-term imbalances in neural and hormonal systems can develop that are not easily reversed’ and ‘can impair decision-making ability, the ability to regulate behavior, and the ability to respond to stressful situations,'” wrote the magazine’s Joe Hagan.

Kennedy, who is running against Democratic incumbent Joe Biden and Republican challenger Donald Trump in the November 5 presidential election, is being described as a potential election spoiler because he wants to take votes away from the two major party candidates.

However, his state vote total was not enough to secure the 270 electoral votes needed to win, and as a result he was barred from participating in a CNN televised debate last week.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was contacted for comment. Cooney could not be reached for comment.