Joseph Patrick Kennedy II (born September 4 1952) named after his late uncle Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., is the eldest son of former U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel.

Kennedy established the Citizens Energy Corporation , a non-profit organization. In 1987 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts, from the district formerly represented by Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill. He served until 1999 to return to his non-profit organization.

He divorced Sheila Rauch to later marry Anne Kelly : his efforts to have the marriage to Rauch annulled led to a great deal of negative publicity and may have factored into his decision to abandon his plan to campaign for governor of Massachusetts. There was also a scandal involving his brother Michael, who was also Joe's campaign manager, allegedly having had an affair with a teenaged babysitter. This negative publicity damaged the once-promising gubernatorial campaign and effectively killed his lead in the polls. He again considered running for the governorship in 2002, but opted out, fuelling speculations that he might be holding out for his uncle Ted Kennedy's Senate seat, should his uncle retire when his term ends in 2006. However, Ted is rumoured to have decided to run for another term, which has started speculations that Joe might try for the governorship in 2006, against incumbent Mitt Romney