A Who’s Who Information to the Well-known Political Household

The Kennedy household is synonymous with American politics.

For the reason that late 1800s, members of the well-known household have pursued each political and philanthropic careers, holding workplaces that span from metropolis council to Commander-in-Chief together with spearheading among the largest nonprofits and charitable initiatives on the globe.

John F. Kennedy’s presidency, particularly, is heralded as a golden period in U.S. historical past, sometimes called Camelot (in reference to the time of King Arthur and the Knights of the Spherical Desk), that the nation nonetheless remembers with a heightened sense of nostalgia.

Nonetheless, the Kennedy clan is just not with out its tragedies and lots of scandals, which have spanned generations. The assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, and his youthful brother, Robert F. Kennedy, in 1968 marked a interval of nice turmoil within the U.S., and the tragic dying of JFK’s son, John F. Kennedy Jr., in a airplane crash in 1999 was one more premature dying.  

Now, the Kennedys are embroiled in a public battle as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (son of Robert F. Kennedy Sr.) undergoes his affirmation listening to for Secretary of Well being and Human Providers. President Donald Trump‘s nomination of RFK Jr. was instantly met with criticism from each political events and his circle of relatives members as a result of environmentalist’s vacillating and harmful theories about public well being and promotion of conspiracy theories.

On Jan. 28, RFK Jr.’s cousin and JFK’s daughter Caroline despatched a scathing letter to U.S. senators, calling the Cupboard nominee a “predator,” asserting that he’s “hooked on consideration and energy” and in the end “unqualified” to form the nation’s well being coverage. RFK Jr. has additionally been publicly denounced by his personal siblings over time, with 4 of them slamming him as “harmful to our nation” throughout his failed 2024 presidential marketing campaign.

Beneath is a information to the Kennedy household tree, beginning with patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy and matriarch Rose Fitzgerald and their 9 youngsters and probably the most notable faces of every technology since.

The Kennedy Household Tree

The trendy Kennedy household may be traced to Joseph P. Kennedy and his spouse, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. The 2 wed on Oct. 7, 2014, and had 9 youngsters collectively: Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr. (1915), John F. Kennedy (1917), Rosemary Kennedy (1918), Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy (1920), Eunice Kennedy (1921), Patricia Kennedy (1924), Robert F. Kennedy Sr. (1925) Jean Kennedy (1928) and Edward “Ted” Moore Kennedy (1932).

And whereas the household’s political pursuits peaked when JFK was elected president in 1960, the Kennedys’ historical past in politics started lengthy earlier than that. JFK’s father, Joseph, is alleged to have turn into acquainted with Franklin D. Roosevelt whereas working at a metal shipyard, who would later appoint him as the primary chairman of the Securities and Change Fee. Joseph additionally served as the US Ambassador to the U.Ok. from 1938 to 1940.

Joseph’s father, P.J. Kennedy additionally held political workplaces. P.J. Kennedy, an area bar proprietor, started his political profession in his mid-20s, profitable a marketing campaign for the Massachusetts Home of Representatives on the age of 27. In keeping with the 2022 guide The First Kennedys, he spent 5 years in laws earlier than deciding to step again to concentrate on his enterprise. Nonetheless, he in the end ended up taking a better political place as an alternative, being elected to the Senate in 1892. With no want to relocate to Washington, D.C., nevertheless, P.J. in the end left politics for extra financially targeted endeavors.

John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy’s Household Tree

John F. Kennedy met his spouse, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, by way of a mutual buddy in 1952. One yr later, they married in Newport, R.I., on Sept. 12. with 600 visitors in attendance. They went on to have 4 youngsters throughout their 10-year marriage: a stillborn child named Arabella (Aug. 23, 1956); son Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, who died on  Aug. 9, 1963; daughter Caroline Kennedy, who was born on Nov. 27, 1957; and son John F. Kennedy Jr., who was born on Nov. 25, 1960, and died in a airplane crash on July 16, 1999.

This is a take a look at John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy’s lives and their most notable descendants.

John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy was the second-born youngster of Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. Born in Brookline, Mass., in 1917, he turned the thirty fifth President of the US.

Previous to his presidential time period, JFK earned a level from Harvard College, served within the Navy, and was a legislator within the Home of Representatives from 1947 to 1953 earlier than changing into the junior senator of Massachusetts.

He was assassinated whereas using in a motorcade subsequent to Jackie in Dallas, Texas, on Nov. 22, 1963.

Jackie Kennedy Onassis

Jackie Kennedy Onassis (née Jacqueline Lee Bouvier), was the oldest of 4 youngsters born to Wall Road stockbroker John Vernou Bouvier III and Janet Lee Bouvier. Born in Southampton, N.Y., in 1929, Jackie was a nationwide champion in horse using by age 11. She attended Vassar Faculty, the place she studied historical past, literature, artwork and French. Her first job was as a photojournalist and author for the Washington-Instances Herald.

She constantly appeared on the marketing campaign path in help of her husband’s 1960 bid for the presidency and have become the nation’s First Girl on Jan. 20, 1961. Throughout her time within the White Home, Jackie undertook an enormous $2 million restoration of the property, which she filmed for a CBS particular.

Following JFK’s dying, she married Greek delivery tycoon Aristotle Onassis in 1968, marking the beginning of her affectionate public nickname “Jackie O.” Jackie died of Hodgkin’s lymphoma on the age of 64 on Might 19, 1994.

Caroline Kennedy

Caroline Kennedy is the third and solely surviving youngster of John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy.

Born on Nov. 27, 1957, Caroline grew up within the White Home and attended the Brearley College in New York, however summers of her youth in Greece together with her mom and stepfather, Aristotle. She attended Radcliffe Faculty (now a part of Harvard) and Columbia College College of Legislation. She spent two years working for the New York Metropolis Division of Training and in addition penned a number of books, together with two on civil liberties, and edited a number of others, together with 2001’s The Greatest-Cherished Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. In 2013, she was appointed by President Barack Obama because the United States Ambassador to Japan, a job she served for 4 years. In 2022, she was appointed the US Ambassador to Australia by President Joe Biden.

Caroline has been married to Edwin Schlossberg since 1986. They share three grownup youngsters: daughters Rose Kennedy Schlossberg (born in 1988) and Tatiana Kennedy Schlossberg (born in 1990) and son John “Jack” Bouvier Kennedy Schlossberg (born in 1993).

John F. Kennedy Jr.

John F. Kennedy Jr. was the first-born son of John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy. He was born on Nov. 25, 1960 — simply two weeks after his father was elected president of the US. He spent the primary three years of his life within the White Home till his father was killed in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. JFK Jr. studied first at Brown College, then the New York College College of Legislation. In 1995, he co-founded the political journal George.

He met his spouse, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy in 1992. The pair started courting just a few years later and wed in an excellent personal ceremony on Sept. 21, 1996, on Cumberland Island with roughly 40 visitors in attendance.

JFK Jr. and his spouse, Carolyn, tragically died on July 16, 1999, when the airplane he was piloting to cousin Rory Kennedy’s marriage ceremony crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. JFK Jr.’s sister-in-law Lauren Bessette was additionally killed within the accident.

Jack Schlossberg

Jack is the one son and youngest youngster of Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg.

In keeping with Jack, born on Jan. 19, 1993, he’s a “scholar of his grandfather’s life, legacy and administration.” He attended Yale College and graduated in 2015 with a level in historical past earlier than getting into Harvard Legislation College in 2017 and Harvard Enterprise College in 2018, from which he graduated in 2022. Jack has additionally dipped his toe into politics, talking on the DNC conventions in 2020 and 2024 and beforehand working as a senate web page and intern for John Kerry.

Robert F. Kennedy Sr. and Ethel Kennedy’s Household Tree

The seventh youngster born to Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy Sr. had 11 youngsters along with his spouse Ethel Kennedy, whom he married in 1950: Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (1951), Joseph Patrick Kennedy II (1952), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (1954), David Anthony Kennedy (1955), Mary Courtney Kennedy Hill (1956), Michael LeMoyne Kennedy (1958), Mary Kerry Kennedy (1959), Christopher George Kennedy (1963), Matthew Maxwell Taylor Kennedy (1965), Douglas Harriman Kennedy (1967) and Rory Elizabeth Kennedy (1968).

A lot of RFK Sr. and Ethel Kennedy’s youngsters — 9 of whom are nonetheless alive — have pursued political or philanthropic careers, most notably their third youngster and second son Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who’s President Trump’s controversial nominee for Secretary of Well being and Human Providers.

This is a take a look at Robert F. Kennedy Sr. and Ethel Kennedy’s lives and their most notable descendants.

Robert F. Kennedy Sr.

Robert “Bobby” F. Kennedy Sr. was the seventh youngster born to Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. Throughout his life, he was a 1968 presidential candidate, a New York Senator and the sixty fourth Lawyer Basic of the US. He was assassinated on June 5, 1968, shortly after profitable the presidential California Major and pronounced lifeless in the future later.

Six of his youngsters spoke out in a joint assertion after his killer, Sirhan Bushara Sirhan, was granted parole in August 2021, and referred to as for a direct reversal, writing, “Our father’s dying impacted our household in methods that may by no means adequately be articulated and right now’s choice by a two-member parole board has inflicted monumental further ache.”

Ethel Kennedy

Born in 1928, Ethel Kennedy (née Skakel) was the sixth youngster of George and Ann Skakel’s seven youngsters. Her father was the Nice Lakes Carbon Company and she or he grew up in Greenwich, Conn.

She and RFK Sr. raised their 11 youngsters (two of whom she outlived) of their 13-bedroom dwelling in McLean, Va., often known as Hickory Hill. After her husband’s dying, she based the Robert F. Kennedy Middle for Justice and Human Rights, which is now run by her daughter Kerry Kennedy. She was additionally the grandmother to over 30 grandchildren.

Ethel died at age 96 on Oct. 10, 2024, “from issues associated to a stroke suffered final week,” in response to an announcement from her daughter, Kerry, posted on X.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the third youngster of Robert F. Kennedy Sr. and Ethel Kennedy. Born on Jan. 17, 1954, he was 14 when his father was killed.

The politician is a father of six: He shares Robert “Bobby” Kennedy Jr. III (1984) and Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy (1988) with first spouse Emily Ruth Black and Conor Kennedy (1994), Kyra Kennedy (1995), William Kennedy (1997) and Aidan Kennedy (2001) with late second spouse Mary Richardson, who died by suicide in 2012. RFK. Jr. has been married to his third spouse, actress Cheryl Hines, since 2014.

He obtained a Bachelor of Arts in American historical past and literature from Harvard, a Juris Physician from the College of Virginia and a Grasp of Legal guidelines from Tempo College. He pled responsible to a felony cost of heroin possession aboard an plane in 1984, for which he was sentenced to a two-year probation with group service. He additionally sought out remedy. He later wrote of his struggles in a guide referred to as American Values: Classes I Discovered From My Household. He has maintained an extended profession as an environmental legislation specialist and is an outspoken anti-vaxxer.

A former Democrat, RFK Jr. deserted his impartial bid for president in 2024 and endorsed Republican candidate Donald Trump. President Trump has since nominated RFK Jr. as Secretary of Well being and Human Providers, although the nomination has been met with bipartisan skepticism.

The Kennedy-Shriver Household Tree

JFK’s youthful sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, married her husband, Robert Sargant Shriver Jr. — one other political heavyweight — in 1957. They welcomed 4 sons, Robert “Bobby” Sargant Shriver III (1954), Timothy Perry Shriver (1959), Mark Kennedy Shriver (1964) and Anthony Paul Shriver (1965), and one daughter Maria Owings Shriver (1955).

This is a take a look at Eunice Shriver’s life and her most notable descendants.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver

Eunice Kennedy Shriver was the fifth youngster born to Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Born in 1921, she is greatest remembered because the founding father of the Particular Olympics. She began the group together with her husband, Robert, in 1968 as a solution to flip her anger over the remedy of her sister Rosemary, who had developmental disabilities after which underwent a lobotomy, at their father’s directive, into constructive motion. Although Eunice initially discovered herself in politics, working for the Particular Struggle Issues Division of the U.S. State Division and as a secretary for the U.S. Government Division, she discovered her calling in charity work.

She was additionally a robust supporter of her brother JFK, supporting him on the marketing campaign path of his 1960 presidential marketing campaign. She died on Aug. 11, 2009, after struggling a stroke 4 years earlier. She posthumously obtained the Arthur Ashe Braveness Award on the 2017 ESPY Awards.

Maria Shriver

Maria Shriver is the second youngster and solely daughter of Particular Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Former U.S. Ambassador to France Robert Sargant Shriver Jr.

Although Maria was born at Rush College Medical Middle in Chicago, In poor health., on Nov. 6, 1955, she spent a number of of her adolescence in Paris, the place her father was stationed because the U.S. Ambassador to the nation. She later moved to New York, the place she attended Manhattanville Faculty earlier than transferring to Georgetown College. She turned a journalist, co-anchoring The CBS Morning Information for a yr in 1985 earlier than shifting over to Sunday As we speak. She additionally labored at NBC Nightly Information and contributed to Dateline NBC from 1992 to 1994. She returned to media as a particular anchor in 2013 and has govt produced at the least six movie tasks and revealed a number of self-help and youngsters’s books over time.

Maria shares 4 youngsters together with her ex-husband and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, whom she wed in 1986: Katherine Schwarzenegger (1989); Christina Schwarzenegger (1991); Patrick Schwarzenegger (1993); and Christopher Schwarzenegger (1997). Maria and Arnold break up in 2011 and their divorce was finalized in 2021.