RFK Jr. Finally Offers an Explanation for Why He’s Like This

As if Robert F. Kennedy Jr. couldn’t get any weirder, the presidential candidate has admitted that a doctor once suspected a worm ate part of his brain and then died inside his head.

The New York Times reports that in 2010, Kennedy was experiencing severe mental fog and memory loss, so he went to see specialist doctors, including some of the same neurologists who had treated his uncle Senator Ted Kennedy’s brain cancer. After brain scans, doctors thought that he had a tumor and quickly scheduled a surgery to have it removed.

But, while he was preparing, another doctor called him with a different opinion: Kennedy had a dead parasite in his head, “a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died,” Kennedy said in a 2012 deposition from his divorce proceedings reviewed by the Times.

In the deposition, Kennedy said, “I have cognitive problems, clearly. I have short-term memory loss, and I have longer-term memory loss that affects me.”

The 70-year-old independent presidential candidate claims to be in better shape, mentally and physically, than his opponents Joe Biden and Donald Trump, who are 81 and 77, respectively. He’s posted videos skiing and lifting weights shirtless at an outdoor gym in Venice Beach, California. In an interview with The New York Times, Kennedy said he had recovered from symptoms including memory loss and fogginess.

But he’s also had his own health issues over the years, such as atrial fibrillation, a heart issue linked to an increased risk of stroke or heart failure; mercury poisoning, which can cause neurological issues; and spasmodic dysphonia, which results in a shaky, tight or strained-sounding voice.

Kennedy’s campaign has had mixed news as of late, gaining ballot access in California and Delaware and worrying the Trump campaign. But he’s also faced calls to drop out from his allies in the environmental movement, and one of his campaign consultants was arrested for allegedly choking and punching a woman.