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US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has admitted that he flew on disgraced paedophile Jeffrey Epstein's infamous private jet twice, whilst adding that his then-wife had a relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell. 

In an interview with Jesse Watters on Fox News, Kennedy made the revelation about his Epstein connection, one that could potentially have a significant impact on his presidential campaign. 

“I was on Jeffrey Epstein’s jet two times. I was on it in 1993 and I was on it in — and I went to Florida with my wife and two children to visit my mom over Easter,” he said,

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“My wife had some kind of relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell, and they offered us a ride to Palm Beach,” said Kennedy, whose late ex-wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy died by suicide in 2012. 

Speaking about the second incident when he chauffeured Epstein's plane, Kennedy revealed: "I went then, and on another occasion I flew again with my family with, I think, four of my children and Mary, my wife, to Rapid City, South Dakota, to go fossil hunting for a weekend." 

He claimed that he had been "very open" about his relationship with Epstein and that he took the jet in 1993, almost 30 years before Epstein's crimes came out in the open. 

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Kennedy, who is running as an independent in the presidential race, having quit the Democratic primary bid party earlier this year, said he wanted real information regarding Epstein to come out in the public domain.

“I agree with you that all of this information should be released, and we should get real answers on what happened to Jeffrey Epstein and any of the high-level political people that he was involved with, all of that should be open to the public, ” Kennedy said. 

“It should absolutely be transparent, and I don’t see why any of those records would have any redactions in them,” he said. “Why would we be hiding that from the American public?”

Notably, this is not the first instance when Epstein has been linked to the Kennedy's. The criminal was once a guest at the high-profile wedding of former New York governor Andrew Cuomo and Kerry Kennedy.

WATCH | Private Islands owned by Jeffrey Epstein

What did Epstein do?

Epstein was accused of sexually exploiting dozens of underage girls, some as young as 14, at his homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida between 2002 and 2005.

However, the majority of his sexual exploits took place on the 72-acre Little St. James Island which he purchased in 1998 for $7.95 million. He later bought the 160-acre Great St. James Island for $20 million in 2016 and brought his victims there using the private jet. 

Also read | JPMorgan settles Epstein sex trafficking lawsuit with US Virgin Islands, to pay $75million

After Epstein's alleged suicide, Maxwell was arrested in the United States and charged with sex trafficking minors for him on July 2, 2020.  After a very public trial where Maxwell became the face of Epstein's sex-fuelled empire, she was handed a 20-year prison sentence by a court in New York in June, earlier this year. 

(With inputs from agencies)