1957–present
Caroline Kennedy Today: Former U.S. Ambassador Denounces Cousin RFK Jr. for Cabinet Position
Caroline Kennedy has urged senators to reject her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination for Health and Human Services secretary. In a letter to lawmakers, the former U.S. ambassador and daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy called her cousin a “predator,” criticizing him for his “disqualifying” anti-vaccine activism.
“Bobby preys on the desperation of parents of sick children, vaccinating his own kids while building a following hypocritically discouraging other parents from vaccinating theirs,” Caroline wrote. Her son, Jack Schlossberg, shared a video of Caroline reading her letter to social media on January 28, the day before RFK Jr.’s Senate confirmation hearing.
Caroline, 67, also raised concerns about 71-year-old Robert’s personality and ethics. Offering up details from her childhood, Caroline said Robert “encouraged” his younger siblings and cousins “down the path of substance abuse.” He struggled with drug abuse as a young college student but has been sober since 1983. She described his basement, garage, and dorm room prior to that time as a “center” for illegal drugs and alleged that the Cabinet nominee “enjoyed showing off” feeding his hawk by putting mice and chickens in a blender. While she commended her cousin for getting sober, she said that he is now “addicted to attention and power.”
Who Is Caroline Kennedy?
Caroline Kennedy is a lawyer, author, and former U.S. ambassador to Japan and Australia. She is also the only surviving child of late President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Caroline spent her early years living in the White House during her father’s term as president and is known for being the most private member of the famous Kennedy family. Still, she has represented the clan in various ways, including as honorary president of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. Caroline served as U.S. ambassador to Japan under President Barack Obama and ambassador to Australia under President Joe Biden.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Caroline Bouvier Kennedy
BORN: November 27, 1957
BIRTHPLACE: New York, New York
SPOUSE: Edwin Schlossberg (1986–present)
CHILDREN: Rose, Tatiana, and Jack
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Sagittarius
Early Life
Caroline Bouvier Kennedy was born on November 27, 1957, in New York City, to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and then–U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy. The couple had three children, of which Caroline is the oldest.
When Caroline was 3 years old, her father was elected the nation’s president. JFK’s time in office is often referred to as the “Camelot Presidency” for the hope and optimism the young politician brought to America. As a result, the Kennedys were thrust into the spotlight as the ideal American family. Caroline was a frequent media darling; people couldn’t get enough of the little girl who walked her father to the Oval Office each morning and rode her pony on the White House lawn.
Not everything in the Kennedy household was idyllic, however, and the family suffered numerous tragedies. Among them were Jackie’s miscarriages, one occurring 15 months before Caroline was born, and the death of the couple’s fourth child in infancy. The baby boy named Patrick died two days after his premature birth in early August 1963.
Chief among the losses that affected Caroline directly came on November 22, 1963, when her father was assassinated by sniper fire. Caroline was just shy of her 6th birthday at the time. The iconic image of her holding her mother’s hand and her brother, John Jr., saluting John F. Kennedy’s flag-draped coffin during the nationally televised funeral procession remains one of the most tragic moments in American presidential history.
Two weeks after the assassination, Jackie, Caroline, and her brother moved out of the White House and into a home in Washington D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood. However, life grew difficult for the Kennedy clan with an ongoing circus-like atmosphere of media and curious onlookers descending on their home. By the summer of 1964, the family moved to New York City. There, they enjoyed some degree of anonymity and less aggressive paparazzi. That September, like generations of Kennedy women before her, Caroline was enrolled in the Sacred Heart School.
By the late 1960s, the family had established a quiet New York City life. But in 1968, Caroline and John Jr.’s lives were shattered again with the assassination of their beloved uncle and U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Jackie became frightened for her children’s safety. Four months after Bobby’s death, Jackie married Greek Shipping magnate, Aristotle Onassis. Onassis showered Caroline and her brother with gifts, but Caroline couldn’t quite accept him. There were also tensions between his children and Jackie. Caroline often turned to her uncle Edward “Ted” Kennedy for comfort, and the two became very close.
Onassis provided security for the family when they were in New York. During vacations and breaks, the family spent time in Greece or sailing their yacht around the Caribbean. In 1969, Caroline enrolled at The Brearley School, an exclusive all-girls school on the tony Upper East Side of Manhattan, where she excelled as a student and as a budding photographer. She next attended Concord Academy in Massachusetts; it was the first time she lived away from her mother.
During this time, Jackie’s marriage to Onassis began to unravel. Caroline’s stepfather was devastated by the loss of his 24-year old son Alexander, who had died after a plane crash in 1973. Aristotle died not long after in March 1975. After his death, Jackie moved back to New York City permanently and went to work as an editor at Viking Press. She continued to try and shield her children from the public eye, often keeping them away from their rebellious, scandal-making cousins.
Education and Early Career
As a result of their mother’s guidance, Caroline and her brother stayed away from drugs and alcohol and instead became conscientious students. Caroline performed well in New York private school and went on to attend Radcliffe College (now part of Harvard University) for her undergraduate studies. In addition to her course load, the young Kennedy interned for the New York Daily News and worked in the summers as a political intern for her uncle and U.S. Ted Kennedy.
After earning her bachelor’s degree in 1980, Caroline worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where she met her future husband, an interactive-media designer named Edwin Schlossberg. She also began serving as president of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing financial support, staffing, and creative resources to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
Interested in politics but not the limelight, Caroline quietly entered Columbia Law School. She graduated with little fanfare in 1988 during a private pre-commencement ceremony along with 380 other students. The following year, the young lawyer stayed busy by establishing the Profile in Courage Awards, which honors elected officials who have shown political courage. She also began research on her first book.
Fascinated with constitutional law, Caroline co-wrote In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights in Action with fellow law graduate Ellen Alderman. She refused to use her mother’s publishing industry contacts, instead publishing the book through William Morrow & Co. in February 1991. She also surprised Washington officials and stumped the media the next year, when she turned down an offer to be chairwoman of the 1992 Democratic National Convention. Instead, the private Kennedy invested time in her family and personal projects.
More Family Tragedy
In 1994, Jackie Kennedy passed away after a long battle with lymphatic cancer. As a tribute to her mother’s work in the arts, Caroline took on Jackie’s role as the honorary chairperson at the American Ballet Theatre. In addition to her charitable work, Caroline co-wrote another book entitled The Right to Privacy (1995). She also took up her role as the guardian of the Kennedy name, spending several difficult months trying to settle her mother’s $200 million estate while under heavy public scrutiny.
In 1998, Caroline and her brother went public in an auction dispute against Evelyn Lincoln, President John F. Kennedy’s former secretary, who attempted to sell “intensely personal” pieces of memorabilia that belonged to their father.
On July 16, 1999, Caroline endured more hardship when her brother and only surviving sibling, John F. Kennedy Jr., was killed along with his wife and sister-in-law in a plane crash near Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. The tragedy’s effect on Caroline was kept private.
Work: Books and U.S. Ambassador
As the only remaining heir of her father’s, Kennedy took up the family mantle by finally agreeing to become a speaker at the 2000 Democratic National Convention. She also kept writing. To honor her late mother, Kennedy helped create The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, published in 2001. She has also served as editor for two other anthologies: Profiles in Courage for Our Time (2002) and A Patriot’s Handbook: Songs, Poems and Speeches Every American Should Know (2003). She published A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children in 2005, and her latest work, A Family Christmas, in 2007.
Kennedy previously served as a member of the national board of directors for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, vice chair for the Fund for Public Schools in New York City, and chief executive for the New York City Department of Education Office of Strategic Partnerships.
In 2008, the famously private Kennedy made headlines when she was rumored as a possible candidate for Hillary Clinton’s vacant U.S. Senate seat in New York. Caroline later withdrew her bid for the post, citing personal reasons.
In late July 2013, Kennedy was nominated U.S. ambassador to Japan by President Barack Obama, putting to rest much speculation in the media regarding her likelihood to win the title. She was officially approved by the U.S. Senate in October. Kennedy succeeded John Roos, who had served as Japan’s U.S. ambassador since August 2009. Among those to formerly hold the role are Walter Mondale, Howard Baker, and Tom Foley. She resigned from the position in early 2017.
Four years later, in December 2021, President Joe Biden nominated her to serve as U.S. ambassador to Australia. Kennedy was confirmed by the Senate in April 2022 and officially started her new role that July before stepping down in December 2024.
Husband and Children
Kennedy is married to artist and poet Edwin Schlossberg. The couple met while she was working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Their wedding on July 19, 1986, was an elaborate affair in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Despite the family’s efforts to avoid publicity, the wedding became a topic of wide interest in the media. A crowd of more than 2,000 spectators surrounded the church and a nearby hillside. She was 28 years at the time, and Schlossberg was 41 years old.
The couple have three children: Rose, Tatiana, and Jack.
Quotes
- As much as we need a prosperous economy, we also need a prosperity of kindness and decency.
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