Taylor Swift found inspiration in the romance of Ethel Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy for one of her most dreamy songs. Ethel, the matriarch of the Kennedy family, passed away at the age of 96 on Thursday. Widowed since 1969 when her husband, Bobby, was assassinated, she had recently suffered a stroke. Following Ethel’s death, Swift’s fans revisited interviews and clips where the singer, now 34, discussed how the civil rights activist’s love story with Bobby inspired a track from her album “Red,” titled “Starlight.”
In a 2012 interview with The Wall Street Journal, Swift explained, “I get a lot of style inspiration from the 1960s, so I’ll go and look at black and white pictures, and look at [photos from the] ’50s and ’60s, and I came across this picture of these two kids dancing at a dance.” Coincidentally, at the time, Swift was dating Ethel’s grandson, Conor Kennedy. “It immediately made me think of, like, how much fun they must have had that night. It was back in the late ’40s. I ended up reading underneath that it was Ethel Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy.” Swift continued, “So I just kind of wrote that song from that place, not really knowing how they met or anything like that.”
The song, narrated from Ethel’s perspective, mirrors many aspects of her and RFK’s romance. “I met Bobby on the boardwalk, summer of ’45,” Swift sings. “Picked me up, late one night at the window / We were 17 and crazy, running wild, wild.” Swift took some creative liberties with the lyrics—Ethel and Robert actually met in the winter of 1945, when Ethel was 17 and Bobby was 20. “Ooh, ooh, he’s talking crazy / Ooh, ooh, dancing with me / Ooh, ooh, we could get married / Have 10 kids and teach ’em how to dream.” Ethel and Bobby married in 1950 and had 11 children.
Swift also shared with WSJ that Ethel’s youngest daughter, Rory Kennedy, attended one of her concerts before “Starlight” was released. After learning the song’s inspiration, Rory expressed her desire to introduce Swift to her mother. “I told [Rory] about the song,” Swift said, “and she was like, ‘You have to meet my mom. She would love to meet you.’” Swift did meet Ethel and even performed “Starlight” for her. “I ended up meeting Ethel and going and playing it for her and she just loved it,” Swift said. “It was such a fun moment when she was just in love with the song and so happy about it and um, it’s just this adorable picture that to me, it just, like, brought forth all these potentials for how that night could’ve been.”
In January 2012, Rory invited the Grammy-winner to attend the premiere of her documentary about her mother, titled “Ethel,” at the Sundance Film Festival. While promoting the doc, Ethel praised Swift, saying, “She is amazing. She is such good company.” Rory added, “I just think she’s terrific and such a great role model for young girls as well as for all women really.” Rory explained how Swift reached out to meet her mother: “She really took the initiative to reach out to meet my mother because she had read about her and was a fan and admired her, and they’ve spent some time together. So I really just called her up and said, ‘Do you wanna come to Sundance?’” “And she didn’t really hesitate and was so excited to come,” Rory said.
Of Ethel’s relationship with Swift, Rory said, “I think there’s a mutual admiration society between my mother and Taylor Swift. And I just love it.” “I think it says so much about Taylor that she has that ability to connect across generations to somebody like my mother,” Rory continued. “It’s great.” Shortly after walking the red carpet at Sundance with Ethel, Swift spoke to Vogue about her admiration for Ethel. “The only time in my life I have ever been starstruck was meeting Caroline and Ethel Kennedy,” she said at the time. “I got to spend the afternoon with Ethel a couple of weeks ago. She is one of my favorites because you look back at the pictures of her and Bobby and they always look like they are having the most fun out of everybody. You know, eleven kids, all these exotic animals on their property. I’ve read a lot about them.”
Swift began dating Ethel’s grandson, Conor, in July of that year. When asked in August 2012 about the possibility of Swift marrying into the Kennedy clan, Ethel remarked, “We should be so lucky.” The singer and the Kennedy scion ended their relationship in October 2012, but the enchanting spell of “Starlight” will remain timeless.
