Editing Michael Skakel (section)

===Backgrond===
Skakel is the middle of seven children, born to Rushton Walter Skakel (1923–2003) and Anne Reynolds (1932–1973). Rushton's sister Ethel is the widow of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Skakel's grandfather George was the founder of Great Lakes Carbon Corporation, a coal company that was one of the largest and wealthiest privately held corporations in the United States.

The family lived in the affluent neighborhood of Belle Haven in Greenwich, Connecticut. After his mother's death from brain cancer in 1973, Skakel began abusing alcohol. He was a poor student and reportedly flunked out of a dozen schools. He also struggled for years with dyslexia, which went undiagnosed until he was 26. His cousin Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. later wrote that Skakel was a "small sensitive child — the runt of the litter with a harsh and occasionally violent alcoholic father who both ignored and abused him." According to neighbors and family friends, the Skakel children were given unlimited amounts of money and were largely unsupervised.

In 1978, Skakel was arrested for drunk driving in New York. To avoid criminal charges, Skakel's family sent him to the Élan School in Poland, Maine, where he received treatment for alcoholism. He ran away from the school twice before leaving after two years. Skakel later attended Curry College and earned a bachelor's degree. During the 1980s, he attended several rehab facilities before finally becoming sober in his twenties. He also pursued a career as a professional athlete; Skakel competed on the international speed skiing circuit and tried out for the speed skiing demonstration team that appeared at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville. In 1991, he married professional golfer Margot Sheridan, with whom he has one child. Sheridan filed for divorce shortly after Skakel was arrested for Moxley's murder in January 2000. Their divorce was finalized in 2001.