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Inside the life of actress and socialite Kick Kennedy: Is JFK's great niece the woman to make Ben Affleck smile again after his split with J-Lo?
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single Hollywood star in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
And so it is that – even though his second wife Jennifer Lopez filed for divorce only last month – Ben Affleck is reportedly being paired off with a new woman.
She is Kathleen Kennedy, universally known as Kick: a petite, sparky scion of the Kennedy dynasty who loves beer, boats, shooting pool, smoking and dogs.
We'll come to the hoo-ha over the exact nature of their relationship shortly – though, in deliciously Hollywood phrasing, well-placed sources tell me they are 'intimate but not romantic' and have been seeing each other since June. Ben's team, however, denies any suggestion they are dating.
But the fact is that Kick Kennedy, 36, would appear to be perfectly suited to the role of pulling Affleck, 52, from the wreckage following the end of his 'forever', second-time-around, fairytale romance with singer and actress J-Lo.
Kick Kennedy pictured with her father Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in April 2011
Ben Affleck's second wife Jennifer Lopez filed for divorce only last month
Affleck has reportedly been paired off with Kathleen Kennedy (pictured), universally known as Kick: a petite, sparky scion of the Kennedy dynasty who loves beer, boats, shooting pool, smoking and dogs
There's the lustre of the Kennedy name, impossibly attractive to someone raised in Boston, such as Affleck.
Her grandfather was Robert Kennedy, brother of President John F. Kennedy, both of whom were shot by assassins. Her father, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, is a controversial figure in US politics who recently appalled most of the Kennedy clan by endorsing Donald Trump in his bid for President.
There's also been some funny business with a sawn-off whale head, more of which later.
It's fair to say that the power, money and influence of the Kennedys is dazzling, even to a recipient of two Oscars.
Would Ben Affleck like to spend the summer hanging out at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, Massachusetts? You bet he would. He would also probably be the least interesting person around the table.
Then there's Kick's sad history of being surrounded by addicts. Her stepmother Mary took her own life in 2012 after a long struggle with drugs and drink. An interior designer and philanthropist, she was RFK Jr's second wife.
Kick also dated the banking millionaire Matthew Mellon, who died in 2018 of a heart attack, aged 54, after experimenting with the hallucinogenic plant ayahuasca.
He had been struggling for years with an addiction to opoids, latterly Oxycontin, and had been due to go to rehab. Kick described her time with him as 'magic' and was apparently broken-hearted by his sudden death.
Ben Affleck is 'happy' as he is slowly moving into his new home in a neighborhood he loves as his divorce from Jennifer Lopez proceeds according to a new report; the former couple are seen in May 2023
The 52-year-old actor - who recently received takeout at his new property (pictured) - has been doing well amid his legal separation from the 55-year-old fellow A-lister
On August 20, Lopez filed for divorce from Affleck in LA County Superior Court on what would've been the second anniversary of their wedding at his $8.9M, 87-acre property on the Hampton Island Preserve in Georgia
Affleck, of course, has his own notorious struggles with sobriety, having been to rehab three times for alcohol addiction, most recently in 2018.
Kick probably understands the addict's struggle to remain sober better than many – possibly better than J-Lo, who has never really enjoyed alcohol and whose lifestyle was always super-healthy.
And then there's Kick's interesting position both inside and outside the celebrity firmament. She's not – yet – been successful enough at acting to be famous, but she is a celebrity of sorts thanks to her name, and many of her friends are A-listers.
Indeed, her younger brother Conor went out with Taylor Swift (who has a house across the street from the Kennedy compound).
She has had a number of fairly minor acting roles, including in the comedian Larry David's smash hit TV show Curb Your Enthusiasm, drama series The Newsroom, and comic film Teacher Of The Year.
Socialite Kick also appeared as herself in a 2010 episode of Gossip Girl. She has expressed her ambitions to break into films.
As she said nearly ten years ago: 'I'm not famous. I'm still just trying to make it, to be an artist, and follow my dreams. Hopefully one day people will come to see me for something that doesn't have to do with my last name. For me, it's just two different things. This is a job. That is my life.'
She's nonplussed when people ask what it's like to be a Kennedy – saying that she doesn't know what it would be like not to be one.
'I was born with a sticker – a name – that has made me totally uninterested in the fame factor of success,' she once said.
'I see all my actor friends really going for it in that way because it's such a big part of the job, but it kind of turns me off. I'm frightened of it, or at least . . . unamused.'
It appears that her path crossed with Affleck's some time ago. According to the New York Post's Page Six gossip column, the two of them had a fling in early 2020.
Kick Kennedy attends a Remembrance and Celebration of the Life & Enduring Legacy of Robert F. Kennedy event at Arlington National Cemetery on June 6, 2018
Kick's younger brother Conor went out with Taylor Swift (who has a house across the street from the Kennedy compound)
Kick Kennedy during the Lifeline NY Annual Benefit Luncheon 2017 at Le Cirque on October 25, 2017 in New York City
Reportedly, Kick and Ben were hanging out until he fell for Ana de Armas, his movie co-star in the thriller Deep Water.
'Their friendship has been going on for a while, even before Ana,' one Hollywood insider told Page Six. 'When Ben started seeing Ana in 2020 and chose to quarantine with her during Covid, Kick was less than thrilled.'
In the end, Ben and Ana broke up in January 2021. 'Ben is no longer dating Ana,' a source told People magazine at the time. 'She broke it off.
'Their relationship was complicated. Ana doesn't want to be Los Angeles-based and Ben obviously has to since his kids [with ex-wife Jennifer Garner] live in Los Angeles.'
Another source said they were at different points in their lives and Affleck wanted time to 'work on himself'.
Then, at some point this year when his two-year marriage to J-Lo, 55, failed, the friendship with Kick was apparently rekindled.
In court papers, J-Lo dated their separation to April 26 and reports suggest that Kick and Ben started hanging out, discreetly, in late spring following the split.
In mid-May, reports emerged suggesting Affleck had moved out of the £60 million marital home in Beverly Hills and was renting a property in Brentwood, close to where his former wife Garner lives with their three children.
On May 31, Lopez announced she was cancelling her summer tour and within a couple of weeks Ben and Kick were spotted together at the Polo Lounge, Beverly Hills, looking 'very couply'. It's said they have been seen together at other times, with an anonymous article on the celebrity gossip site DeuxMoi claiming he was seen coming and going with an overnight bag with Kick from an apartment complex 'owned by an A-list friend' 'since at least June'.
Since then Affleck has bought a home in Pacific Palisades, LA.
Multiple outlets in America have claimed that Affleck has been spending time with Kick. However, Jen Allen, a spokesperson for the actor and filmmaker, said: 'There is no truth to any of it. I don't know if they even know each other.'
Kick's representatives have said nothing, and surely will not. As someone who has grown up in the Kennedy family, she is very wary of the media.
As she told Town & Country magazine in 2012, reading stories about the Kennedys was 'kind of like reading a cartoon strip and there's a character, but it's not me. It's a story that's loosely related to mine.'
Kick Kennedy attends Maison de Mode's Sustainable Style Awards at The West Hollywood EDITION on June 26, 2021
Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas are seen on April 12, 2020 in Los Angeles, California
But in the few interviews she has given, Kick paints herself as a free spirit who smokes and is not averse to using the odd expletive.
Born to RFK Jr and his first wife Emily Black in 1988, she has a keen interest in conservation and nature which she attributes to her controversial father.
She shared that when she was six, her father – once a prominent figure of America's environmental movement – heard that a dead whale had washed up in Hyannisport.
RFK Jr, who was interested in studying anatomy, cut the dead whale's head off with a chainsaw and strapped it to the roof of the family car. They then drove five hours to New York.
'Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would pour into the windows of the car, and it was the rankest thing on the planet,' she said.
'We all had plastic bags over our heads with mouth holes cut out.
'People on the highway were giving us the finger, but that was normal day-to-day stuff for us.'
As well as attending Stanford University, she made her society debut at the Crillon Ball for debutantes in Paris.
Novelist Christopher Buckley, whose daughter has been friends with Kick since kindergarten, told a magazine: 'Our Kick very much takes after her predecessor [great-aunt Kathleen]: lively, funny, pretty, bright, and full of mischief. If she can manage the mischief, then the world will be her stage, and it will be a grand entertainment.'
That, at least, seems assured.