Report: Kennedy fathered 'love child'

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Five years after it broke the news of Jesse's Jackson's fathering of a daughter out of wedlock, the National Enquirer is now reporting Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., has a "love child" of his own.

The report, which has also been picked up by the Boston Herald, claims Kennedy fathered a boy with a Cape Cod woman he is said to have dated more than two decades ago when he was single.

A source told the tabloid the boy named Christopher recently celebrated his 21st birthday and is "mature enough to make his own choices about his background and biological father."

"This is one of the biggest secrets in the Kennedy family and known to only a few people including Ted's ex-wife, Joan," a confidante of the Kennedy family told the Enquirer.

Melissa Wagoner, a spokeswoman for the senator, is calling the report "irresponsible fiction."

The Enquirer identifies the woman paramour of Kennedy as Caroline Bilodeau, described as an attractive brunette, who started seeing the senator, then 51, in 1983. The relationship is said to have started several months before Kennedy divorced Joan, the mother of his three children.

Bilodeau purportedly became so smitten with the Democrat, she "had dreams about being the next Mrs. Ted Kennedy."

"Caroline announced to the family that she was two months pregnant around May 1984," said a Bilodeau confidante. "Ted was not happy about the news. He already had three kids with Joan and knew a baby out of wedlock could hurt him politically."

According to the Enquirer, the Kennedy begged Bilodeau to have an abortion, but she refused.

"He told her he couldn't undergo another scandal – not after Chappaquiddick, not so close to his divorce from Joan" said the source. "He was very angry when she defied him and had the child."

The magazine also says friends of Bilodeau noticed the unemployed young woman who lived at home with her parents was able to purchase a Mustang convertible, an expensive Shar-pei puppy and moved into her own apartment.

"Later we learned she received about $15,000 from someone in the Kennedy camp," said the friend.

The report claims when Christopher was born in a Cape Cod hospital in December 1984, Kennedy was not near the delivery room, though he did take a paternity test to determine if the child was his.

Following the results, Bilodeau moved back in with her parents but "always seemed to have money," said the source.

Bilodeau later found love and married, and the couple legally adopted Christopher, sources said.

"She has always been very protective of Christopher and wanted him to have a normal life, not the life a Kennedy lives," said the friend.

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