Meet Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s daughter-in-law, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy: she is an ex-CIA officer and Trump passed her over for CIA deputy director, but has named her on his intelligence advisory board
Amaryllis Fox Kennedy was recruited by the CIA at 22 and spent 10 years as an operative; she is married to Robert F. Kennedy III and Apple TV+ is purportedly producing a series based on her memoir
Last year, Kennedy’s father-in-law lobbied for her to be appointed deputy director of the CIA – supposedly so she could investigate the assassination of president John F. Kennedy. RFK Jr reportedly believes the CIA to have been involved in his uncle’s death. However, the appointment never materialised, with numerous forces opposing it.
So who is Amaryllis Fox Kennedy?
Amaryllis Fox Kennedy was a CIA operative
Kennedy was born in New York and named Amaryllis Damerell Thornber. Her English mother, Lalage Damerell, is a retired actress; her American father, Hodson Thornber, is a retired economist. From an early age Kennedy travelled, thanks to her father’s job, spending time in Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe and the Soviet Union.
She studied international law at Oxford University and earned a master’s degree in international security – with a focus on conflict and terrorism, as reported by The New York Times – from Georgetown University, Washington.
While studying, she developed an algorithm that used historical data to predict terrorist activity. It caught the eye of Georgetown’s CIA Officer in Residence, who asked her to share it with Langley.
Kennedy was eventually recruited by the CIA at 22 and served as an undercover field operative for a decade, added The New York Times. After leaving the agency in 2010 she detailed her experiences in a memoir, Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA. She also hosted 2020 Netflix documentary The Business of Drugs, which delves into the economics of six illegal substances.