Ethel Kennedy, who passed away at 96, lived a life marked by both heartbreak and devotion, enduring countless personal tragedies and the well-known infidelities of her late husband, Bobby Kennedy.

From the beginning of their marriage, Ethel was aware of the unspoken rules of the Kennedy family—there was “no tradition of monogamy,” a fact she accepted as part of her role as a Kennedy wife.

Bobby, who was once seen as the most principled of the Kennedy brothers, was far from faithful. Ethel, however, turned a blind eye to her husband’s affairs, including the rumored relationship with her sister-in-law, Jackie Kennedy.

It was whispered in hushed circles that Bobby and Jackie had grown closer after the assassination of JFK in 1963. Some even suggested that Jackie helped Bobby through his darkest days, possibly leading to an intimate relationship that spanned years. FBI files later surfaced claiming that Bobby and Jackie had been involved from 1964 until his own assassination in 1968, their connection fueled by shared grief and mutual affection.

Despite these rumors, Ethel maintained a stoic silence. In Larry Tye’s 2016 book Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon, Ethel admitted that she had long stopped paying attention to the gossip.

She knew infidelity was simply the cost of being married to a Kennedy and understood her husband’s needs in a way few others did. She was deeply in love with Bobby, and despite his affairs with famous names like Marilyn Monroe, Kim Novak, and Lee Remick, she found comfort in the fact that Bobby always returned to her and their children.

Even so, Ethel couldn’t ignore the rumors entirely. At one point, she confronted David Ormsby-Gore, the British ambassador, seeking answers about Bobby and Jackie’s alleged affair. It’s said she worried about their closeness, although she believed that Jackie might have been the key to pulling Bobby out of the deep depression following his brother’s assassination. Bobby’s inner circle, including his friend Richard Goodwin, candidly remarked that the Kennedy men were notorious for their affairs, though Bobby was “more selective” than his older brother, Jack.

Bobby’s wandering eye wasn’t unique among the Kennedys. His father, Joe Kennedy, had openly conducted an affair with silent film star Gloria Swanson and passed on his belief that men could “play” while women were left to “pray.” Bobby’s first sexual experience, arranged by his father, took place in a Harlem brothel with a black woman, an incident he described as neither terrible nor extraordinary.

Despite the affairs and the challenges, Ethel’s life was also defined by a string of devastating losses. After losing her parents in a plane crash in 1955, her brother George also died in a plane crash ten years later.

Tragedy continued to strike as her son David succumbed to a drug overdose in 1984, and another son, Michael, died in a skiing accident in 1997. Scandals also plagued her family: her son Joe was involved in a car accident that left a passenger paralyzed, and Bobby Jr. faced heroin charges. Michael had his own notorious scandal when it was revealed that he had been involved with the family babysitter, starting when she was only 14.

Through it all, Ethel remained the steadfast widow, a woman who loved deeply and suffered in silence, bound by the complex and often painful legacy of the Kennedy family.