RFK Jnr teams up with Aussie anti-vax TV chef to write healthy cookbook for children

EXCLUSIVE

Incoming US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr has enlisted axed Aussie TV chef and conspiracy theorist Pete Evans to help tackle America’s dire youth obesity epidemic. 

The divisive duo, who bonded over their anti-vaxxer views during the global pandemic, have teamed up to release a new culinary guide aimed at improving children’s unhealthy eating habits. 

The Evans-penned cookbook, Healthy Food for Healthy Kids, boasts it will include 120 ‘paleo- and keto-friendly meals that your kid will love’ when it is published by Kennedy’s activist group the Children’s Health Defense on January 28. 

The release will mark the ‘cancelled’ TV star’s first return to culinary writing since his former publisher, Pan MacMillan, scrapped Evan’s book deal after he posted a cartoon depicting a neo-Nazi symbol on social media. 

It also comes after his last similarly themed recipe book aimed at children, Bubba Yum Yum: The Paleo Way, was met with widespread controversy, and had its release date delayed, amid claims it promoted a restrictive and potentially deadly diet.

Evans credited his close friend RFK Jr with personally lining up the deal after announcing the upcoming launch to his 41,000 followers on the Telegraph messaging app. 

‘So please and thankful that Robert Kennedy Jr set this up for me, with his Children’s Health Defense team,’ the 51-year-old said. ‘Stay tuned for more.’

Since joining Donald Trump’s campaign in August, Kennedy has become one of the president-elect’s staunchest – and most trusted – advisors, even share McDonald’s with Trump, his eldest son, Don Jr, and Elon Musk.

Evans this week credited Kennedy with personally hooking him up with a publishing deal for his latest cookbook targetting children’s unhealthy eating habits

Kennedy, who has vowed to overhaul America’s health organisations if his nomination at Trump’s health secretary is confirmed by the Senate, was also spotted ringside with Republican leader and podcaster Joe Rogan.

Evans did not want to discuss the details of the publishing detail when contacted by Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday. 

The former Channel Seven star has attracted ongoing controversy – and unwanted headlines – since being axed from his $800,000-a-year gig hosting the network’s hit reality cook off, My Kitchen Rules, in May 2020. 

By this point Evans had already begun aligning himself Kennedy, having shared a selfie of them together online while praising the ‘important work’ being undertaken by the outspoken anti-vaxxer and his Children’s Health Defense. 

But now free from the contractual constraints of mainstream network television, he started making increasingly contentious posts about vaccines and the coronavirus epidemic.

In July 2020, he sparked outrage when he falsely claimed that Covid-19 was a ‘f**king hoax’ and that the pandemic ‘doesn’t compare to what is happening in the world on a large scale’.

After publishing a dozen of his cookbooks, Pan Macmillan ended its relationship with Evans that November after he posted the offending cartoon, along with a caption that read ‘an oldie but a Goldie’, to his more than 1.5million social media followers. 

The image depicted a caterpillar wearing a Make America Great Again hat, talking to a black butterfly with a ‘Black Sun’ symbol on its wing.

Evans was once one of Australia’s most bankable stars, raking in $800,000 a year fronting hit reality show My Kitchen Rules on Channel Seven alongside co-host Manu Feildel

Since being axed by Seven, Evans has become increasingly open about his political opinions

The symbol, also known as the sonnenrad, has been appropriated by neo-Nazis and adorned the Christchurch terrorist’s manifesto at the time of his evil killing spree in 2019. 

‘Pan Macmillan does not support the recent posts made by Pete Evans,’ the publisher said at the time. 

‘Those views are not our views as a company or the views of our staff.

‘If any retailer wishes to return Pete Evans’ book please contact Pan Macmillan.’ 

Big W, Coles, Dymocks, Kmart and Booktopia were among the retailers to declare they would not sell his products after the post.

Evans initially indicated he was aware of the symbol’s presence in the cartoon when someone pointed it out on social media, replying: ‘I was waiting for someone to see that.’

Evans was punted by his publisher after posting this cartoon on social media

However, he later added that ‘an image can represent so many things to so many’ and that he did not align with white supremacy or Nazism before eventually apologising to people who had ‘misinterpreted’ the cartoon. 

‘Sincere apologies to anyone who misinterpreted a previous post of a caterpillar and a butterfly having a chat over a drink and perceived that I was promoting hatred,’ he said. ‘I look forward to studying all of the symbols that have ever existed and research them thoroughly before posting.’

The controversy cost him dearly, with Channel Ten sacking him over scandal on the due he was due to start filming on the network’s reality survival show, I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!

The next month, Evans had his Facebook page, which had amassed more than a million followers, permanently deleted by the social media giant after it found he had repeatedly breached the site’s misinformation policies with his contentious posts. 

‘We removed Pete Evans’ account for repeatedly sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines,’ Facebook said in a statement at the time.  

Evans and his wife, Nicola, now live a largely reclusive life near Byron Bay

The company deleted his Instagram account the following February for the same reason – though he has since quietly returned to the picture-sharing platform.

Since being largely ‘cancelled’, Evans and his model wife, Nicola, live a largely reclusive life on their farm outside Byron Bay. 

Kennedys Children Health Defense, which describes itself as a ‘children health protection and advocacy group’, has previously been criticised for spreading vaccination misinformation during the global coronavirus pandemic. 

The group’s influence has stagnated since Kennedy formally stepped down as its chair and chief litigation council last April after announcing his tilt at the US presidency.

After pulling out of the race in August, Kennedy has become one of pTrump’s staunchest advocates, urging his supporters to vote for the millionaire businessman with the slogan ‘Make America Healthy Again’.

Evans’ upcoming back marks the former TV star’s returning to culinary writing

Trump last week nominated Kennedy as his health secretary overseeing the nation’s health agencies and their multi-trillion-dollar budgets despite concerns about his strong anti-vaxxer stance and pledge to remove fluoride from drinking water. 

Kennedy has said he believes autism is linked to vaccines and that fluoride causes arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer and IQ loss – despite scientific research suggesting the contrary.

His cousin, outgoing US ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy, has been among those to warn the US Senate against confirming his nomination. 

‘I think Kennedy’s views on vaccines are dangerous, and I don’t think most Americans share them,’ she in a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra on Monday.

‘You know, I grew up with him. So, I have known all this for a long time and others are just getting to know him.’ 

Donald Trump has nominated Kennedy as his health secretary despite concerns about his anti-vaxxer stance and vow to remove fluoride from drinking water

US ambassador Caroline Kennedy has denounced her cousin’s views as ‘dangerous’

She said the rest of her family was united in support of the US public health sector while Kennedy was an outlier in the political dynasty.  

‘My uncle Teddy [Kennedy] spent 50 years fighting for affordable health care in the Senate and it’s something that our whole family is so proud of, that President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act and built on the work that my uncle had done over many years,’ she said.

‘I would say that our family is united in terms of our support for the public health sector and infrastructure, and has the greatest admiration for the medical profession in our country.

‘Bobby Kennedy has got a different set of views.’