Has Preston Kennedy, the 43-year-old son of Senator John Nealy Kennedy of Louisiana, been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer? No, that's not true: Sen. Kennedy's son is 29, not 43. He was born six years after his parents' 1990 marriage. There are no reports of a cancer diagnosis on Kennedy's social media timelines or in the news media. The claim only appears on Facebook pages administered from Vietnam on a network previously identified by fact checkers as a source of fake content. We call it Viet Spam.
The claim appeared on several Vietnam-related accounts, including a post (archived here) on the Animals World community chat group where it was published on November 23, 2025. The caption opened:
The news struck Louisiana like a freight train at midnight. Preston Kennedy, 43, the only child of Senator John Neely Kennedy and his wife Rebecca, has been diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer. The disease has already spread to his liver and lungs. Just 48 hours ago, doctors at MD Anderson in Houston delivered the devastating prognosis to the Kennedy family.
At dawn, the family released a voice-breaking statement: "Our sweet boy is the light of our lives. He's fighting with everything he has, and we are asking the entire state, the entire country, to fight with him through prayer. Please."
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of Facebook)
The post continued:
Preston, a respected attorney in Baton Rouge and father of three young children, collapsed during a routine jog last week. What began as a precautionary scan quickly revealed the merciless truth. The diagnosis sent shockwaves through the state and beyond.
Within minutes, the hashtag surged to the top of global trends, amassing over 4.2 billion impressions in under five hours. President Trump personally called Senator Kennedy. Governor Jeff Landry ordered flags lowered across Louisiana. The entire state delegation canceled public appearances in solidarity.
Senator Kennedy, known for his razor-sharp wit and ability to silence a Senate chamber with a whisper, has not left his son's side. Tonight, the man with the toughest voice in Washington has only one sentence left in him: "Lord, if You're listening, please don't take my boy."
Louisiana isn't sleeping. The state is on its knees. And as Preston fights for his life, millions are begging heaven to hold him close and not let go.
A Google search (archived here) for "Preston Kennedy" returned no results about a cancer diagnosis. The top results included a story (archived here) about then-20-year-old Preston Kennedy throwing a "damaging rager" at his parent's Louisiana home in August 2016 that resulted in a lawsuit filed by a neighbor. The only other result (archived here) that is about the senator's son is on Kennedy's senate campaign website. It says the son lives with his parents in Madisonville, Louisiana, which is 66 miles from Baton Rouge, where the post claims he is an attorney with three children.
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of Google.com)
Lead Stories has debunked scores of similar false claims created by a Hanoi-based network that uses fake Facebook fan pages and community groups to spread them. We published an article that explains their tactics and gives the reader a way of identifying them. It's titled Prebunk: Beware Of Fake Fan Pages Spreading False Stories About Your Favorite Celebrities -- How To Spot 'Viet Spam'.
While most Facebook pages offer a "transparency" section that discloses the countries from where they are managed, the community chat groups do not. However, it does show who the Animal Worlds page administrators (archived here) are.
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of Facebook)
While it appears the page is based in the United States, clicking on the administrators' profiles confirmed they are Vietnam based. The first circular image is a link to the profile page (archived here) of Nguyễn Thảo Nghi, whose friends are all Vietnamese.
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of Facebook)
The remainder of the admin list yields similar results, including for admin Ivy Brooke, who claims to be in Long Beach, California.
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of Facebook)
