‘Bouts of deep sadness’: Saoirse Kennedy Hill wrote of depression prior to sudden death

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. (WHDH) — Saoirse Kennedy Hill, a granddaughter of assassinated presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, was passionate about human rights and women’s empowerment.

The 22-year-old communications student at Boston College was the daughter of Robert and Ethel Kennedy’s fifth child, Courtney, and Paul Michael Hill.

The news of Hill’s sudden death shocked the Chestnut Hill campus, including her social media professor, Marcus Breen.

A grief-stricken Breen tweeted, “Deeply saddened by the tragic news about the death of Boston College student, Saoirse Kennedy Hill, who was a wonderful student in my social media class, as well as an exemplary young student.”

Hill also worked with indigenous communities to build schools in Mexico.

Thomas Whalen, a Boston University professor, political historian, and author told 7’s Steve Cooper that Hill and this generation of Kennedy’s face overwhelming pressure.

“I think the burden of carrying on the Kennedy name is too smothering to many of them,” he said.

Hill graduated from Deerfield Academy in 2016. While there, she opened up about living with mental illness, authoring an article in the school’s newspaper.

“My depression took root at the beginning of my middle school years and will be with me for the rest of my life,” she wrote. “Although I was mostly a happy child, I suffered bouts of deep sadness that felt like a heavy boulder on my chest.”

The death of Hill marks the second tragedy for her mother, Courtney.

“Now she’s lost a daughter. She lost two brothers to tragedies. She lost her father to an assassination,” Whalen said.

Boston College is offering counseling services in the wake of Hill’s passing.

Plans are in the works for a memorial service in the coming weeks.

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