All About JFK and Jackie Kennedy's Children, Caroline and JFK Jr.

Mar. 15, 2025

John F. Kennedy Jr., Jackie Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy and John F. Kennedy.Photo:Boston Herald/Shutterstock

Boston Herald/Shutterstock

JFK and Jackie welcomed four children during their marriage, although only Caroline and JFK Jr. ever left the hospital. In 1956 — one year before Caroline’s arrival — Jackie gave birth to astillborn daughter, Arabella. The couple’s fourth child, sonPatrick, was born during JFK’s presidential tenure, though he died 39 hours after his premature birth in August 1963.

Of all the modern presidential children, Caroline and JFK Jr. had perhaps themost unique introductionto the White House. Caroline, who was nearly 3 at the time of her father’s election, and her younger brother John, born days after JFK won the presidency, spent their earliest years at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Though the Kennedyssuffered several other losses, they also experienced success. Before he died, JFK Jr. started a magazine and was on the verge of launching his own political career. Caroline married her husband, Edwin Schlossberg, in 1986, and the pair have three children together.

President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie Kennedy with their children John F. Kennedy Jr. and Caroline Kennedy in August 1963.Niday Picture Library / Alamy

Niday Picture Library / Alamy

In the years since her mother and brother died, Caroline has built a long career in the political and legal spheres. Her son,Jack, has also shown an interest incarrying on the family legacy— andbears a striking resemblance to his late uncle.

Here is everything to know about John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy’s two children, Caroline Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr.

Caroline Bouvier Kennedy, 67

Caroline Kennedy in August 2021.Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty

Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty

Caroline Bouvier Kennedy was born to JFK and Jackie on Nov. 27, 1957. She was almost 3 years old when her father was elected president of the United States and was just 5 when he died.

The Kennedy family nanny,Maud Shaw, was the person who told Caroline about her father’s death. Shaw wrote in her 1965 memoir: “I sat on the edge of [Caroline’s] bed [that night] and felt tears well up in my eyes. Caroline looked up at me. ‘What’s the matter, Miss Shaw? Why are you crying?’ I took her in my arms. ‘I can’t help crying, Caroline, because I have some very sad news.’ ”

Shaw continued, “Then I told her. It was a dreadful time for us both. Eventually she fell asleep while I sat on the bed, still patting her. At last I tiptoed from the room, leaving the door open just a crack, as always.”

Caroline grew up in New York City, and after her uncle RFK was assassinated, Jackie moved her and JFK Jr. to Greece, where they briefly lived with Jackie’s second husband,Aristotle Onassis. As a child,Caroline partially inspiredtheNeil Diamondsong “Sweet Caroline.”

After college, she worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she met her husband, Edwin Schlossberg. The couple married on July 19, 1986, and Caroline graduated from Columbia Law School two years later. Since then, she has worked in law and with her family’s various causes, including the Kennedy Library Foundation and the Profile in Courage Award.

President John F. Kennedy holds his daughter Caroline alongside Jackie Kennedy.Bettmann/Getty

Bettmann/Getty

That same year, she gave birth to her older daughter,Rose Kennedy Schlossberg. Caroline and Edwin had two more children,Tatiana Celia Kennedy Schlossberg, born in 1990, andJohn Bouvier Kennedy “Jack” Schlossberg, born in 1993.

From 2013 to 2017, Caroline served as the U.S. ambassador to Japan. During that time, Caroline’s son Jack briefly lived with her in the country.

Caroline and Jack have also stepped onto the political stage together in recent years. The mother-son duo appeared virtually at the Democratic National Convention to support presidential candidateJoe Bidenin 2020.

From 2022 to 2024, she served as the U.S.ambassador to Australia.

In January 2025, Caroline spoke out against her cousinRobert F. Kennedy Jr.ahead of his confirmation hearing to head the Department of Health and Human Services. She called him a “predator" who is “unqualified” to shape the nation’s health policy.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr.

John F. Kennedy Jr.Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection/Getty

Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection/Getty

JFK Jr. and Caroline were raised with the help of nannies, including Shaw, who worked with the family for more than seven years. In her 1965 memoir, she wrote, “I nursed the children from the cradle and came to love them just as if they had been my own. Happily they repaid me with their own love and affection.”

After President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, a photo of 3-year-old JFK Jr.saluting his father’s coffincame to symbolize the shattering loss. Historian Steven M. Gillon later wrote that Jackie had just one regret in raising her son.

“Jackie told peopleshe regretted naming John after his father,” Gillon told PEOPLE in 2019. “She realized it only added to the burden. The irony is that in the effort to honor her husband, she inadvertently made her son’s life more challenging.”

The loss of his father marked John his entire life. Though he rarely spoke about his father’s assassination, he referred to it as “the one fundamental fact of my life.” An active child and teen, he once told a friend, “If I had to stop and think about it all, I would just sit down and fall apart.”

However, he found a way to channel some of that energy when he established thepolitical magazineGeorgein 1995. As friends and former staffers toldThe Hollywood Reporter, running the publication gave him a purpose he had lacked in earlier years.

John F. Kennedy with his son John F. Kennedy Jr. in the Oval Office.Bettmann

Bettmann

JFK Jr. was one of the world’s most eligible bachelors before getting married — he was namedPEOPLE’s Sexiest Man Alivein 1988 — and his mother and sisterhad strong opinionsabout the women he dated. Jackie never met Carolyn Bessette, whom he married in September 1996.

Photographer Dennis Reggie spoke toVanity Fairin 2021 about the famous photograph of JFK Jr. kissing his wife’s hand. “It was an incredibly magical moment,” he said. “John reached for the hand of Carolyn; she was caught off guard."

Nearly three years after their wedding, JFK Jr., Carolyn and her sister Lauren tragically died in a plane crash on July 16, 1999. The trio were en route to the wedding ofRory Kennedy, JFK Jr.’s cousin, on Martha’s Vineyard in a plane that he piloted.

Many have speculated that JFK Jr. would have entered politics himself — in the early ‘90s, he began his foray into law, working as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan for four years, according toThe New York Times.

As author Gillon told PEOPLE in 2020, “John would have been president of the United Statesand I think the tone of our politics would have been completely different. John would be a force for healing and bringing people together."

source: people.com