Who is Amaryllis Fox? Former CIA spy marrying Bobby Kennedy III
@IrishCentral
July 06, 2018 10:50 PM
Amaryllis Fox
Amaryllis Fox, the former covert CIA operative marrying Robert F. Kennedy III, has had a fascinating life and she's only 37. Here are the fast facts you need to know about Amaryllis Fox.
Amaryllis Fox is a former CIA Clandestine Service Officer, coder, writer, television host, peace activist, and entrepreneur. The
whole Kennedy clan will gather in Hyannis Port for their wedding.
Her parents are an English actress and an American economist
Fox, born Amaryllis Damerell Thornber, was born in New York but traveled the world from an early age with her parents. Per her
biography from WME Speakers, "her father's work focused on the developing world, moving their family every year of her childhood, and giving her an early sense of being at home in the farthest corners of Africa, SE Asia, Europe, and the former Soviet Union."
Her mother, Lalage Damerell, has since remarried to billionaire Steven Rales, who is known for his science and tech company Danaher and for producing Wes Anderson's films since 2007 with his production company Indian Paintbrush.
Fox set out on an unconventional path, achieving great things from an early age - like interviewing Aung San Suu Kyi for the BBC at 18
While many of her contemporaries were worrying about prom and spring break, Fox was volunteering in a Mai Laa refugee camp on the border of Thailand and Burma. As she
recalled in a Paper Mag interview, though she was only 17, she knew one thing for certain when she arrived at the airport to go home: she didn't want to.
Instead, she spent two more years there working in health clinics and helping to raise funds for them. She also entered the journalism arena, recording a rare interview with Aung San Suu Kyi for the BBC, which would land her in a Burmese prison for a short time.
When it was time to pursue her studies, she attended Oxford in her mother's home country of England, graduating in 2002, and then returned to the US to pursue her Master's in International security at Georgetown University.
Fox caught the attention of the CIA after developing an algorithm designed to predict terrorist activity
While at Georgetown she developed a remarkable algorithm for predicting terrorist activity and was asked by the university's CIA Officer in Residence Dallas Jones to share it with Langley.
Per
Fox's bio for Big Think, she "began work as a political and terrorism analyst for SE Asia, commuting between Langley and Georgetown to finish her degree with honors."
She served as a spy for the CIA until 2010
This is the part of Fox's bio where we can say the least, and with very good reason. She was a covert operative for the CIA, after all! According to Big Think, "she moved into CIA's Directorate of Operations and deployed as a Clandestine Service officer, focused on counterterrorism and counterproliferation. She served in 16 countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, before leaving government service in 2010."
She is the mother of an eight-year-old daughter
Fox gave birth to her daughter, now age 8, shortly after leaving her CIA post.
At this same time, she utilized her passion for social justice and her coding ability to found the startup Mulu, which allowed celebrities, influencers, and activists to make e-commerce recommendations, a percentage of which would go towards charitable causes of their choosing.
Fox went viral in 2016 when she spoke publically about working undercover in a video for AJ+
Amaryllis Fox became widely known in 2016 for a brave and truthful video interview with Al Jezeera (AJ+) about the biggest lesson she learned as a CIA agent: listen to your enemy.
The video went viral overnight and has since been viewed over 100 million times.
She and Bobby Kennedy III met four years ago
According to one of Page Six's anonymous sources, Fox and RFK III "met in the desert through mutual friends four years ago" and "share a commitment to social justice.” Kennedy and Fox have reportedly been dating for less than a year.
This will be the first marriage for Bobby, 33, and the second marriage for Fox, who has retained her former husband's surname. The Daily Mail reported his name as Dean Fox.
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