Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER #1 SUNDAY TIMES (UK) BESTSELLER

"The must-read book of the summer" (Megyn Kelly) from New York Times bestseller Maureen Callahan: a "harrowing, incendiary" exposé of the real Kennedy Curse--the family's generations-long legacy of misogyny, murder, and mayhem (Karen Abbott).

The Kennedy name has long been synonymous with wealth, power, glamor, and--above all else--integrity. But this carefully constructed veneer hides a dark truth: the pattern of Kennedy men physically and psychologically abusing women and girls, leaving a trail of ruin and death in each generation's wake. Through decades of scandal after scandal--from sexual assaults to reputational slander, suicides to manslaughter--the family and their defenders have kept the Kennedy brand intact. Now, in Ask Not, bestselling author and journalist Maureen Callahan reveals the Kennedys' hidden history of violence and exploitation, laying bare their unrepentant sexism and rampant depravity while also restoring these women and girls to their rightful place at the center of the dynasty's story: from Jacqueline Onassis and Marilyn Monroe to Carolyn Bessette, Martha Moxley, Mary Jo Kopechne, Rosemary Kennedy, and many others whose names aren't nearly as well known but should be.

Drawing on years of explosive reportage and written in electric prose, Ask Not is a long-overdue reckoning with this fabled family and a consequential part of American history that is still very much with us. At long last, Callahan redirects the spotlight to the women in the Kennedys' orbit, paying homage to those who freed themselves and giving voice to those who, through no fault of their own, could not.

One of Town & Country's Must-Read Books of Summer 2024

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Published Jul 2, 2024

400 pages

Average rating: 7.24

67 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

thosehipereads
Jun 25, 2025
4/10 stars
It's listed as a nonfiction book, but in the beginning, we see Callahan say that she took "creative liberties" with some of the stories she talks about. Some of them read like fiction and very slow ones at that.

I wanted so badly to like this more than I did. Callahan jumped back and forth in time, and I started to lose track as to who was married to who and which kids belonged to which couple. While I think these stories are important to tell, with the creative liberties taken, it's hard to tell what is fact and what is fiction.
AngelaM
Jun 20, 2025
7/10 stars
Written more as a gossip piece than factual information. Would have preferred a family tree or better layout of relatives - perhaps chronologically written?
Kirsty cowie
Jun 18, 2025
Gold
SherylStandifer
Jun 01, 2025
6/10 stars
This was a tabloid-style expose, with most of the parties dead and unable to defend themselves. Having said this, I have no doubt that there was a lot of bad-behavior by the Kennedy men. But the women likely knew what they were signing up for. Not that they were asking for it, by any means. But that they certainly didn’t use their heads and walk away. I feel most sorry for Rosemary. Her mother, Rose, took such a hands-off approach to letting her husband call the shots. May they both burn in you know where, along with Jack, Bobby, Teddy, Bobby Jr., Michael Skakel, and William Smith.i
Dfaiello
Mar 26, 2025
8/10 stars
I do remember when a lot of the incidents in the book did actually happen. What I didn’t know (or remember) is what the Kennedy men, past & present, are really like—arrogant elitist misogynists. I did like reading this book.

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