Feb. 12, 2026Updated Feb. 13, 2026, 1:48 p.m. ET
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reflected on his decades in recovery from alcohol and substance abuse during a podcast appearance, admitting that he used to snort cocaine off toilet seats.
Kennedy made the admission and spoke about his recovery on Theo Von’s podcast “This Past Weekend” that aired Feb. 12. Kennedy said he and the comedian podcaster met during morning recovery meetings before the COVID-19 outbreak and later formed a “pirate” group that continued meeting during the pandemic.
“I’m not scared of a germ. I used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats,” Kennedy disclosed. “Like, if I don’t, if I don’t treat it, which means for me going to meetings every day. It’s just bad for my life.”
Kennedy previously shared his addiction to heroin
Though the admission might come as a surprise to some, Kennedy has spoken about his previous experiences with drugs in the past.
During a speech in front of thousands of health care, law enforcement and business officials at the Rx and Illicit Drug Summit in Nashville in April 2025, Kennedy said that his policy perspectives were influenced by the 14-year heroin addiction he overcame.
“I know that the only way I stay sober is through taking responsibility for my daily actions,” Kennedy said at the time. “I accept the things I can’t control and try to practice gratitude for them. I can have control over my behavior, my daily conduct, but not the world around me.”
By his own account, Kennedy’s first experience with drugs happened in the summer following his father’s assassination in 1968. He took the hallucinogen LSD at a party, and while walking home later, he was introduced to opioids by his neighbors.
“They said, ‘Try this,’ and it was a line of crystal meth,” he said during his speech in Nashville. “I took it, and all my problems went away. My addiction came on full force. By the end of the summer, I was shooting heroin, which was my drug of choice the next 14 years.”
Kennedy said in his speech that his recovery began after he was arrested in 1983 and sought treatment.
“I knew I needed a spiritual awakening,” he continued. “I did not want to be that person.”
Kennedy said that he made an intellectual choice to lean on faith in God. But he struggled with the concept of religion until discovering psychoanalyst Carl Jung’s perspective on spirituality.
“I make the bed every day, which is insane,” he said. “I do it because what I’m trying to do is build character. The wealth you build is illusory. Long-term sobriety requires staying in a posture of surrender. Surrender even when things are going well in our lives.”
Sandy Mazza of the Nashville Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network, contributed to this report.
Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@usatodayco.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.
