RFK Hid Psychedelic Trips From His Wife...

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.