RFK Jr.'s Candid Heroin Confession: 'I Go to Meetings Every Day — 12-step Recovery Saved My Life'
RFK Jr. confessed that despite his busy schedule, he still attends daily 12-step meetings.
Feb. 10 2026, Published 4:30 p.m. ET
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has confessed how, after 43 years of sobriety from a raging heroin addiction, he still goes to daily 12-step meetings, even though he doesn't "like" it, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The Health and Human Services secretary, 72, said he has to force himself to make the time, making the candid revelation saying he doesn't "want to live with the consequences of what happens" if he stops working the program.
'I Go No Matter What'
RFK Jr. said he makes sure he attends daily 12-step meetings even though 'I really don't have time to.'
"I was a heroin addict for 14 years, beginning in my early teens, and I've been 43 years in recovery, and these 12-step programs saved my life," RFK Jr. proudly declared.
He said it "provides" him with "all of the gravities around which my life is oriented: my family, my friendships, the work that I do."
RFK Jr. said he still makes time to attend daily meetings, even though he doesn't "have time to."
The Donald Trump cabinet member shared, "I've got 75,000 employees, and I've got a big job, and I've got a lot of people relying on me. I really don't have time to do it, but I go anyway, no matter what."
'I Still Don't Like Going to Meetings'
The politician said he doesn't like attending meeting but needs to for the rest of his 'life to work.'
"When I first came into the program in September of 1983, I asked a guy, 'How long do you have to keep coming to these meetings?' He said just keep coming until you like it," RFJ Jr. said, eliciting laughs from the audience.
"I've been coming for 43 years, and I still don't like going to meetings. There's always someplace I'd rather be," he candidly revealed.
While RFK Jr. made no bones about how it's a pain to take an hour out of his busy daily schedule to attend a 12-step meeting, "I go every day because when I go, the rest of my life works."
He made a very relatable comparison about his feelings toward the need to attend the program.
"For me, it's like brushing my teeth," he explained. "I don't look forward to brushing my teeth. I don't enjoy the sensation. I do it every day because I don't want to live with the consequences of what happens when I don't do it."
On Remaining 'Spiritually Fit'
RFK Jr. said being in the program helps him with his 'spiritual center.'
RFK Jr. said that the program helps him maintain his "spiritual center," claiming that "we're all hybrid beings. We're half spiritual and half biological, and a lot of times our biological being doesn't have the best judgment."
He described the challenges of walking with one foot in both of the worlds, and that "the answer to that is you have to be disciplined about keeping yourself spiritually fit. I make a big effort to do that in my own life."
Kennedy added that it gives him "greater understanding" about what it takes for an addict who's "irritated, hopeless, discontent, who's lost all of their touch with their own humanity."
"And how do you bring them back into society? And how do you give them a chance to fulfill their God-given potential and a sense of purpose in their lives?" the former environmental attorney asked. "It begins with these little steps of giving them the opportunity to be useful to other human beings."
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Road to Sobriety
RFK Jr. has been sober since kicking drugs in 1983.
RFK Jr. had previously revealed he began using heroin as a teenager to "numb the pain" growing up after his father, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated in 1968 while running for president.
RFK. Jr. was only 14 years old when his dad was gunned down, and he started "self-medicating" with drugs the following year.
He got clean after a bust in the early 1980s for heroin possession, which led him to enter rehab, and he has been sober ever since.
