The Kennedys have long fascinated the American public.
An Irish-American family whose political dynasty dates back to 1884, when Patrick Joseph “P.J.” Kennedy took office in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, the Kennedys continue to grow and influence the fabric of this nation.
In the 1960s, the Kennedy name rose to the nation's highest office: John Fitzgerald Kennedy, commonly referred to as “John Kennedy,” won the 1960 presidential election. But despite all the family's ups, they have also experienced huge downs.
Get to know the famous family better as we take a closer look at JFK and those closest to him.
John F. Kennedy
John Kennedy, son of Joseph Patrick Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, was born in Brookline, Massachusetts on May 29, 1917. He was the second of nine children the couple shared.
After graduating magna cum laude from Harvard University and being appointed commander of a Navy patrol boat during World War II (for which service he received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal and a Purple Heart), John Kennedy took up the same passion that his grandfather and father had shared: politics.
In his role as a public servant, John Kennedy rose higher than the Kennedy and Fitzgerald generations that preceded him: in 1961, he was sworn in as 35th President of the United States.
Unfortunately, his term was interrupted. On November 22, 1963, John Kennedy was assassinated as his presidential motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. He was 46 years old.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, wife of John Kennedy
Jacqueline “Jackie” Kennedy Onassis (née Bouvier) was born on July 28, 1929, in Southampton, New York, to Wall Street stockbroker John Vernoux “Black Jack” Bouvier III and socialite Janet Norton Lee.
A student of history, art and French literature, Jackie became a photojournalist for the Washington Times Herald shortly after graduating from George Washington University in 1951 with a BFA in French literature. The following year, she met John Kennedy, then a congressman and future senator.
They married in 1953, beginning a partnership that would propel them into the White House and usher in what would become known as the Era of Camelot.
In 1968, nearly five years after the death of her first husband and just months after the assassination of her son-in-law, Senator Robert Francis Kennedy, she married again, this time to Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.
Jackie O, as the stylish former first lady came to be known, died on May 19, 1994, at the age of 64.
Caroline Kennedy, daughter of John Kennedy
Caroline Kennedy calls RFK Jr. a 'predator' in letter to senators
Caroline Kennedy, born November 27, 1957, is the eldest child of John Kennedy and Jackie. She was only 3 years old when her family moved to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
A graduate of Radcliffe College, Harvard University and Columbia Law School, Caroline has achieved success in a number of professions – she has become an attorney, an author, an ambassador, and even inspiration for Neil Diamond's hit “Sweet Caroline”.
Caroline is the only surviving child of the former first family.
Edwin Schlossberg, husband of Caroline Kennedy
Artist, writer and designer Edwin Schlossberg, born July 19, 1945 in New York, met his future wife at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where they both worked at the time.
Wednesday in 1986, they have three children and are still together.
John F. Kennedy Jr., son of John Kennedy
John F. Kennedy Jr., often referred to as JFK Jr., was the first son of John F. Kennedy and Jackie. His birth on November 25, 1960 occurred just two weeks after his father was elected president.
Like his older sister, John Kennedy Jr. has built a varied resume over the years. After graduating from Brown University and New York University Law School, he worked as an attorney and journalist. In the 1990s, he co-founded George magazine, which focused on politics as a way of life.
A popular socialite, John Kennedy Jr. was considered one of America's most eligible bachelors until he married Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy in 1996.
John Kennedy Jr. was considered by many to be the heir apparent to his father's political legacy, but if he had any ambitions for public office, they were never realized. He died in 1999 at the age of 38 when the plane he was piloting crashed over the Atlantic Ocean.
Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, wife of John F. Kennedy Jr.
Caroline Bessette-Kennedy, born January 7, 1966 in White Plains, New York, was a publicist for Calvin Klein when she met John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1992.
The couple married four years later, and the fashionable bride soon became a favorite subject of the paparazzi, thrusting her into the spotlight she struggled with.
Carolyn died along with her husband and sister Lauren Bessette on July 16, 1999, when the plane that was supposed to drop Lauren off on Martha's Vineyard and then take Carolyn and John F. Kennedy Jr. to their wedding in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, crashed. Carolyn was 33 years old.
Arabella and Patrick Kennedy, daughter and son of John Kennedy
During their marriage, John Kennedy and Jackie had two more children. Unfortunately, their first and last children did not survive into infancy.
On August 23, 1956, Jackie gave birth to a stillborn daughter, who was later named Arabella. And on August 7, 1963, the couple had a son, Patrick, who died of a respiratory illness two days later – just three months before his father was killed.
Rose Schlossberg, daughter of Caroline Kennedy
Rose Schlossberg, the first child of Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg, was born on June 25, 1988 in New York.
She studied English Literature and Documentary Film at Harvard University and then received her MFA from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Today she works as an artist, documentary filmmaker and short video maker.
In 2022, Rose married restaurateur Rory McAuliffe.
Tatiana Schlossberg, daughter of Caroline Kennedy
On May 5, 1990, Caroline and Edwin's second daughter, Tatyana Schlossberg, was born.
The journalist and author of “Sneaky Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Never Knew” was a graduate of Yale University and Oxford University.
In 2017, she married George Moran, now a physician, at the family's Martha's Vineyard estate. The couple had two small children.
In November 2025, Tatyana shared an essay for New Yorker that she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, which doctors called incurable.
Tatiana died December 30 at the age of 35 years.
Jack Schlossberg, son of Caroline Kennedy
Jack Schlossberg, Caroline and Edwin's only son and John Kennedy's only grandsonborn January 19, 1993.
A graduate of Yale University, Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School, she works as a journalist and political correspondent.
In 2024, he became more involved in politics, speaking at the Democratic National Convention and supporting then-Vice President Kamala Harris' candidacy for president.
Children of Tatiana Schlossberg
In 2022, Caroline became a grandmother for the first time when Tatiana and her husband welcomed son Edwin Garrett Moran into the family.
The baby, who is also JFK's first great-grandchild, was named after both of his grandfathers: Edwin Schlossberg and Garrett Moran.
Shortly after the birth of her second child in May 2024, Tatyana learned that she had cancer. She wrote about being there for her children in an essay for The New Yorker.
“I mostly try to live and be with them now,” she said. “But being in the present is harder than it seems, so I let the memories come and go. Many of them are from my childhood, which feels like watching me and my kids grow up at the same time.”
