Marijuana Moment: RFK Hid Psychedelic Trips From His Wife, Journalist Who Allegedly Had Affair With Him Says In New Book

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As he campaigned for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.–the current head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Trump administration—still used psychedelics like DMT “for fun” and hid his drug use from his wife, according to a book from a journalist who allegedly had a romantic relationship with him.

The tell-all book from Olivia Nuzzi, titled “American Canto,” has gained attention for a variety of revelations that she disclosed about the administration and her personal affair with the “Politician”—a term she used in lieu of naming the official widely believed to be Kennedy.

The health official has repeatedly denied the affair, but details included in the book leave little room for interpretation about who Nuzzi was describing. That includes a detail about the politician’s long-term sobriety, which Kennedy has spoken about at length, and his openness to psychedelics as an alternative therapy option.

“The Politician was hyper-interested in whether I did drugs or took pharmaceuticals or drank alcohol. He loved to discuss drugs, psychedelic trips, all manner of related mind-altered esoterica,” Nuzzi wrote. “He said he was sober now and told me stories about when he was still using, a period that had lasted for more than fifteen years.”

Conceding that she liked “uppers” such as Adderall, Nuzzi said Kennedy responded that his children take the prescription stimulant as well, but he “can’t.”

“He lived for a summer with John Phillips and Keith Richards above a pharmacy where they were all strung out on amphetamines, he said,” she wrote. “Phillips had purchased the pharmacy in a stroke of junkie entrepreneurial genius.”

“I credited psilocybin with saving my life after my mother died. I had not intended to utilize the psychedelic compound for therapeutic reasons; it just happened that way, that the grief I had been running from approached while I was on a moderate dose and I found that in such a state I could sit with it,” Nuzzi said. “He told me one of his sons processed grief with the assistance of ayahuasca.”

That anecdote about his son’s experience is consistent with Kennedy’s prior accounting of how he came to embrace psychedelics therapy while he was on the campaign trail in 2023. But Nuzzi’s book included a key detail that the health secretary has not publicly discussed regarding his own experience with the currently controlled substances that his agency plays a critical role in overseeing.

“The Politician still did some psychedelics for fun, he said,” the book says. “He described how he waited until his wife was not home to go outside and smoke DMT, just as he waited until she was not home to call, or else he would call while locked in the bathroom. ‘Is that the one with the toad?’ l asked.”

“He laughed. ‘No,’ he said. DMT, or N,N-dimethyltryptamine, considered among the most potent hallucinogenic drugs, sends users into the stratosphere of ego death and back to earth in fifteen minutes. Psychedelic toad venom was something else,” Nuzzi wrote. “The DMT was laced in cigarettes a friend had given him. ‘What’s it like?’ I asked. He thought for a moment and flashed a mischievous smile. With a shrug, he said, ‘It’s your classic psychedelic experience.'”

Also in the book, Nuzzi said the unnamed politician felt that “all addicts were pathological liars,” which stood out to her because he was “rarely as judgmental as he was about other addicts.”

“I did not think to apply his assessment to him or to our relationship. I did not think to apply it even when he referred to me as an intoxicant,” she said.

Nuzzi also spoke about the issue on The Bulwark podcast last week, saying that “it was in the public interest” to reveal the politician’s drug use.

“This person who says that he’s sober, right? He was telling me privately that, in fact, he was not sober, and he was hiding it not just from the public, but from his own wife, among other things,” she said.

The host asked Nuzzi if Kennedy was doing drugs other than DMT, such as ketamine.

“I had asked him about another drug I heard that he was doing and he had emphatically denied it,” she replied. “But I can’t say that I make much of his emphatic denial of anything.”

.@Olivianuzzi: "[RFK Jr.] was telling me privately that, in fact, he was not sober and he was hiding it not just from the public, but from his own wife."@Timodc: "You mentioned DMT…Is he doing ketamine?" https://t.co/CsHEdKMZ2w pic.twitter.com/1W6qbK6c0M

— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) December 3, 2025

Marijuana Moment reached out to HHS for comment, but a representative did not respond by the time of publication.

While it would likely create controversy if it was the case that Kennedy continues to use psychedelics either medically or recreationally while serving in Trump’s cabinet, given their status as Schedule I drugs under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the official hasn’t been shy about his interest in reforming federal laws and promoting their therapeutic use.

As recently as last month, Kennedy, Vice President JD Vance, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner and other Trump administration officials attended a “Make America Healthy Again” summit that featured a session dedicated to exploring psychedelic medicine.

In June, Kennedy said his agency is “absolutely committed” to expanding research on the benefits of psychedelic therapy and, alongside of the head of FDA, is aiming to provide legal access to such substances for military veterans “within 12 months.”

The secretary also said in April that he had a “wonderful experience” with LSD at 15 years old, which he took because he thought he’d be able to see dinosaurs, as portrayed in a comic book he was a fan of.

Last October, Kennedy specifically criticized FDA under the prior administration over the agency’s “suppression of psychedelics” and a laundry list of other issues that he said amounted to a “war on public health” that would end under the Trump administration.

The post RFK Hid Psychedelic Trips From His Wife, Journalist Who Allegedly Had Affair With Him Says In New Book appeared first on Marijuana Moment.

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