How did one phrase cost Caroline Kennedy a senate seat? From playing in the oval office to serving
as a US ambassador across the world, JFK’s daughter has lived her life in the spotlight.
Born in 1957, Caroline Kennedy was just three years-old when her father,
John F. Kennedy, was elected President. Her early years were spent in the White House,
and she told The Boston Globe that she recalls playing with her father in his office there.
Caroline would only live in the White House for a few years before
her father's assassination. Only 6 years old at the time of his death,
the loss naturally left a lifelong impact on her. While losing a father is already traumatic enough,
it wasn't the first tragedy the young Caroline faced in her childhood.
According to The New York Times, a few months before JFK was gunned down,
her brother, Patrick Kennedy, was born prematurely. Sadly, he only lived a few days.
Then in 1968, just a few years after she lost her father, Caroline's uncle, Robert F. Kennedy,
was assassinated during his presidential campaign. Robert had been close to Caroline and her brother,
John, and he spent quite a bit of time with them. The death of Uncle Bobby,
as Caroline called him, crushed both children.
According to Parade, after her father's death, Caroline Kennedy's mother moved the
family to New York City. Jackie Kennedy Onassis wanted her children to have as normal of a life
as possible, and believed that getting the family out of Washington would help.
The Kennedy clan is well renowned as a pet-loving family, and Caroline Kennedy is no exception. The
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum lists more than a dozen pets the family had
while in the White House, including several dogs, horses, birds, a cat, two hamsters, and a rabbit.
Caroline and her younger brother John had three ponies, including Macaroni,
a pony who became famous in 1962 when she appeared on the cover of LIFE magazine with the young
Caroline. Macaroni was actually a gift to Caroline from then-Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Even after the family moved to an apartment in New York, the household was filled with
pets. A 12-year-old Caroline excitedly talked about her various pets in an interview with
The New York Times. She told the outlet that her favorite thing to do in her free time was to go
horseback riding and fox hunting, something the family regularly did on the weekends.
As Caroline grew older, she became more aware of her status as a public figure.
The young Kennedy had entertained thoughts of becoming a photojournalist one day,
but eventually realized that a career in that field wouldn't be possible.
People noted that, on Kennedy's first day as a college intern at the New York Daily News,
it took two hours for anyone to even talk to her; people were too intimidated by the fact that she
was the former president's daughter. Guards were posted to keep the paparazzi away from Kennedy,
and she eventually decided that she couldn't continue in photojournalism.
While attending Radcliffe College, Biography noted that Caroline also
spent her summers working as a political intern for her uncle, Ted Kennedy. After
she earned her degree, she started a job at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.
Kennedy never sought out the spotlight, but she did possess a keen political mind, and wanted
to put it to use, graduating from Columbia Law School in 1988. While people may have thought
that Kennedy was interested in following in her father's political footsteps, she didn't have
any such aspirations at the time. In fact, when she was asked to be the chairwoman of the 1992
Democratic National Convention, she turned down the opportunity, shocking the political world.
The allure of politics eventually became too much for Caroline Kennedy to resist,
and in 2008, she campaigned for Hilary Clinton's
vacated Senate seat upon Clinton's appointment as Secretary of State.
However, Kennedy's campaign got off to a rocky start, with detractors criticizing her for her
excessive use of the phrase "you know." The phrase would become one of the most talked
about points of her campaign, with The Guardian noting that she used the phrase
138 times in an interview with The New York Times, and 168 in an interview with NY One.
"You know, 'why don't you be Senator', you know, 'you'd be great', you know,
'go for it, we're rooting for you,' you know."
Kennedy later withdrew her name from consideration,
although she didn't specify why. The media speculated, though, that one of
those reasons may have been the health of her uncle, then-Senator Edward M. Kennedy,
who had brain cancer and had recently been hospitalized following a seizure.
As the vice chair for New York City's Fund for Public Schools,
Caroline Kennedy was instrumental in raising money for education to the tune of $285
million. Kennedy explained to Parade that her motivation for doing so came from her parents.
Education was so important to Kennedy that she took on the job, despite the fact that
her children attended private school. When her appointment to the position was announced,
it was reported that Kennedy would accept a salary of $1 that year.
As noted in a press release from the Carnegie Foundation of New York,
when Kennedy joined the organization's board of trustees, she was also responsible for helping
create a privately funded arts curriculum for students in kindergarten through 12th
grade. Kennedy has also contributed to school reform in other ways,
such as sitting on the board of the Legal Defense and Educational Fund of the NAACP.
As Caroline Kennedy told Parade, both of her parents were avid readers,
and they passed their passion for literature down to their daughter. A 12-year-old Caroline
revealed to The New York Times that she spent a lot of her free time reading,
and that she was only allowed to watch television on the weekends.
Caroline Kennedy has used her legal expertise and love of literature
to write her own books. She has several under her belt, including “In Our Defense:
The Bill of Rights in Action," which she drew on her love of constitutional law to write.
Biography noted that Kennedy, who co-wrote the book with fellow law school grad Ellen Alderman,
refused to publish the book through one of Jackie Kennedy Onassis' publishing contacts,
and instead found her own way to get her work into circulation. Kennedy also wrote
another book with Alderman, "The Right to Privacy," which examines the idea that a
person's right to privacy has come under attack in the United States.
According to her bio at the Carnegie Corporation of New York, where she
sits on the board of trustees, Kennedy has authored or edited nearly a dozen New York
Times bestsellers on a range of topics, including law, history, and even poetry.
One of Caroline Kennedy's biggest accomplishments is the work that
she's done to ensure that her parents are remembered. Caroline serves as the honorary
president of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum,
and is also on the board of trustees at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
"He just had a, you know uh, incredible memory, incredible curiosity, you know,
really always wanted to know everything about whatever was going on."
Caroline is also committed to her mother's legacy. A 2011 book, Jacqueline Kennedy:
Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy, shared with the public for the first
time interviews that Onassis gave in 1964, shortly after JFK's death. Caroline wrote
the forward for the book, which provided new insights into the life of the Kennedy family
in the White House. Kennedy told Parade that they also offered a more intimate
portrait of her mother, whose public persona was different from her true self, saying,
"Her humor, intelligence, and observational powers came through
to me [in the recordings] in a way I don't think other people have ever experienced."
As noted by Biography, Caroline Kennedy was working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1980,
when she met interactive-media designer Edwin Schlossberg. Six years later,
the couple tied the knot in a lavish ceremony on Cape Cod.
The pair have been going strong ever since. While Schlossberg and Kennedy are a power couple,
they do their best to keep their relationship out of the spotlight.
As noted by The Washington Post, Schlossberg is notoriously private,
and refused to give any interviews at all for a while after the couple were married.
Kennedy and Schlossberg have three children together: Rose, Tatiana, and Jack Schlossberg.
In 2013, Caroline Kennedy met with then-President Barack Obama, and offered to utilize her talents
in his administration. Kennedy expected to be assigned to a position related to education.
Instead, Obama appointed her as the ambassador to Japan, a position she would serve in until 2017.
Kennedy's appointment to the position made history, as she was the first woman
to ever have that job. While Kennedy had a long-standing interest in Japan,
she wasn't sure if she was right for the role. In a lecture at Harvard, she explained,
"My strongest qualifications were that I was close to the president,
and that I had a well-known name."
In spite of her reservations, Kennedy was welcomed in Japan, where, as it was noted by The Christian
Science Monitor, Kennedy's father is remembered fondly. The fact that she was also a woman in
a male-dominated field meant that she was able to connect to people who felt underrepresented.
Another way that Caroline Kennedy is honoring her father's legacy is through her support of space
exploration. President John F. Kennedy was instrumental in expanding America's space program.
Caroline's goal is a little more specific, as she wants to land a woman on the moon. In 2019,
Caroline and Amazon mogul Jeff Bezos spoke to CBS News about the future of
space exploration. Bezos plans to return to the moon as soon as he can, and wants his
moon lander to be the one to bring the first woman up there — a vision Kennedy shares.
"If I keep hearing Jeff say it, then, um, I - I'm beginning to be able to imagine it."
Caroline Kennedy wrapped up her stint as the U.S. ambassador to Japan in 2017 after
four years in the position. Despite her initial doubts, she thrived in the role
and was offered another ambassadorship a few years later, this time serving
the U.S. in Australia after President Joe Biden nominated her for the position in December 2021.
Kennedy officially began her tenure as ambassador to Australia in July 2022.
Upon her arrival in the country, she swore she would make her family proud, telling the press,
"My family legacy is something I'm really proud of, and I try to live up to."
Regarding her goal of carrying on her father's spirit and message, Caroline
Kennedy has acknowledged that her children will play an important role in that mission.
"They, I think, are the best people to take that message forward into the 21st century,"
In April 2022, Caroline Kennedy welcomed a new member to the team - her first grandchild,
Edwin Garrett Moran. According to Today, Kennedy's daughter, Tatiana,
named her baby after her father, Edwin Schlossberg, and after her father-in-law.
Tatiana's brother Jack also revealed to Today that the new grandmother is enjoying her new role.
Sadly, Kennedy hasn't had much time to bask in her grandmotherhood. As noted by Deadline,
just a couple of months after the baby's birth,
she was sworn in as the U.S. ambassador to Australia, and moved to the country in July.
Among Caroline Kennedy's famous relatives is TV icon and former first lady of California Maria
Shriver. Shriver told O, The Oprah Magazine that the cousins have been close since childhood. When
Shriver married Arnold Schwarzenegger in April 1986, Kennedy was her maid of honor,
and Shriver returned the favor at her cousin's wedding to Edwin Schlossberg a few months later.
The two have been through thick and thin, and Kennedy reportedly
counseled Shriver through her split from Schwarzenegger after she learned that he
cheated on her. When rumors swirled that Shriver was considering taking him back,
a source told the National Enquirer that Kennedy told her cousin to stand her ground.
After COVID-19 lockdowns kept them apart for nearly two years, Shriver documented their
2021 reunion, along with another cousin, Sydney McKelvy on Instagram, writing,
"I never had a sister, but these two have made up for that."