In November 2025, a rumor spread widely on social media (archived here, here and here) claiming that Preston Kennedy, the son of U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., had been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
The posts claimed that doctors discovered the cancer had already spread to Preston Kennedy’s liver and lungs after he collapsed during a routine jog. According to the posts, the Kennedy family allegedly released a statement calling for prayers following the diagnosis.
(The U.S. Report via Facebook)
One of the posts also included a link in the comments to an advertisement-filled article about Preston Kennedy’s alleged diagnosis.
Multiple Snopes readers searched our website and emailed us to verify whether the claim was true.
However, there was no evidence at the time of this writing that Preston Kennedy had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
As of publication, Sen. John Kennedy had not posted any statements about such a diagnosis on any of his social media accounts. Instead, he shared a statement (archived) on Sunday, Nov. 23, that appeared to address the false claim, calling it “AI-generated fake news” and confirming that everyone in the Kennedy family was healthy:
Friends, I guess in 2025 you have to do this sort of thing… but please ignore the AI generated fake news stories you may have seen about my family and me these past few days on social media claiming we experienced tragedy.
We are all healthy, happy, safe, and sound! We are…
— John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) November 23, 2025
Snopes reached out to John Kennedy’s office for further clarity and will update this story if we receive a response.
Likewise, searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo turned up no credible news reports supporting the claim. Since John Kennedy is a public figure, news about him or his family would likely receive coverage from reputable media outlets.
While it’s unclear who authored the posts, they are part of a trend of false stories about celebrities and politicians shared on social media. The story was seemingly written to generate advertising revenue for external websites or to boost engagement on social media.
AI likely helped create the text
Unlike posts that spread similar false rumors, the images did not appear to have been generated using artificial intelligence (AI). Using a reverse image search tool, we found that John Kennedy shared the family photo used in the posts on X (archived), formerly Twitter, in 2019. The other images are legitimate photos that Associated Press and Getty Images photographers captured of John Kennedy.
Happy Mother’s Day to my beautiful wife, Becky. Preston and I are lucky to have you! #MothersDay pic.twitter.com/3KvFvkdiOe
— John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) May 12, 2019
The text in both the Facebook posts and attached article showed signs of AI generation.
For example, the AI-detection tool GPTZero indicated it was “highly confident” that the text in one of the Facebook posts was AI-generated, though it’s worth noting these types of tools are not always accurate.
(GPTZero AI-detection tool)
We independently identified signs of AI generation in the text, too. For example, it contained over-the-top, emotionally charged language, such as “the news struck Louisiana like a freight train at midnight” and “begging heaven to hold him close and not let go.” This type of language is often found in AI-generated content that’s designed to elicit strong reactions and drive engagement.
The text also erroneously stated that Preston Kennedy was 43 years old. Previous news reports (archived here and here) indicated he was actually in his late 20s at the time of this writing.
More red flagsÂ
Other evidence raised red flags about the Facebook posts’ claims.
For example, a page transparency tab for a Facebook page that shared the false claim about Preston Kennedy revealed that multiple page owners were based in Vietnam — a country that has repeatedly appeared in research into fabricated, AI-generated stories tied to major news events and public figures.Â
The same tab for another Facebook page that shared the false claim listed its owners as residing in Nepal, South Korea and the United States.
For further reading, we investigated a rumor claiming John Kennedy embarrassed former U.S. Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton after she tried to “silence” him during a Senate hearing.
