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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. allegedly admitted to smoking a powerful psychedelic that can make people feel like they’re having a near-death experience, a new tell-all book claims.

The claim is laid bare in former New York Magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi’s memoir, which dishes details of the pair’s scandalous sexting affair, the New York Times reported on Friday.

Nuzzi, 32, alleges in her “American Canto” memoir that the 71-year-old Kennedy scion, who has been sober for decades and is an anti-vaccine activist, told her during their fling that he still used psychedelics — including dimethyltryptamine, or DMT.


  Robert F. Kennedy Jr. allegedly admitted to smoking powerful psychedelics that can make people feel like they’re having near-death experiences. AFP via Getty Images Robert F. Kennedy Jr. allegedly admitted to smoking powerful psychedelics that can make people feel like they’re having near-death experiences. AFP via Getty Images

DMT is the psychoactive ingredient in the drug ayahuasca, which has been used ritually and medicinally by Amazonian tribes for centuries. It is known to produce intense visual and auditory hallucinations, according to the Alcohol and Drug Foundation.

Studies have shown that the drug’s powerful effects are often compared to having a near-death experience.

DMT could be described as “a drug model for the limbo state [between life and death],” Robin Carhart-Harris, who founded the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, explained to the BBC in 2018, when discussing a scientific study into the effects of the hallucinogen.

Kennedy has embraced psychedelics as a potential therapy to treat depression and trauma in his role as HHS secretary, telling Congress in July it could have “tremendous” advantages.

“These are people who badly need some kind of therapy, nothing else is working for them,” he told a House hearing.

“This line of therapeutics has tremendous advantage if given in a clinical setting. And we are working very hard to make sure that that happens within 12 months.”

FDA chief Marty Makary, who reports to Kennedy, has also declared the evaluation of MDMA and other psychedelics “a top priority” for the administration.


  The drug dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, is extremely hallucinogenic.
 The drug dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, is extremely hallucinogenic.

Nuzzi, meanwhile, confessed to President Trump’s health secretary that she preferred “uppers” like Adderall, she wrote in her book.

Elsewhere in the book, which is due out Dec. 2, Nuzzi claims RFK Jr. told her he loved her and that he wanted her to have his baby.

In addition to the two exchanging “I love yous” — with Kennedy saying it first — Nuzzi claimed that he would call her “Livvy” and write her poems.

The scandal-plagued scribe, whose career imploded when news of the sexting relationship with RFK Jr. broke last year, claims their tryst kicked off after she interviewed him in late 2023 when he was still a presidential candidate.

The saga spilled out into public view in October last year and ended with Nuzzi out of a job at New York Magazine — and dumped by her then-fiance, fellow political reporter Ryan Lizza.

At the time, Nuzzi — who has since landed a job at Vanity Fair magazine as its West Coast editor — stressed that the tryst was never physical.

“The relationship was never physical but should have been disclosed to prevent the appearance of a conflict,” she said back then. “I deeply regret not doing so immediately and apologize to those I’ve disappointed, especially my colleagues at New York.”

While Nuzzi’s relationship imploded, the MAHA leader’s wife, actress Cheryl Hines, 60, has stood by him.

The Post reached out to RFK Jr. via the Department of Health and Human Services about Nuzzi’s claims, but didn’t hear back immediately.

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