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For the past few years, Caroline Kennedy has been a key figure in the political relationship between Australia and the US. As US Ambassador for Australia, she’s been part of conversations around AUKUS, cancer research and climate change, among other things.
But with the US presidential election over and president-elect Donald Trump is awaiting his return to the oval office, her time in Australia has come to an end.
In her farewell address at the National Press Club, the outgoing US ambassador attempted to quell a feeling of uncertainty over what the incoming Donald Trump presidency could look like for Australia.
She addressed various concerns, including the threat to ongoing climate agreements, where she noted that despite the president-elect’s intentions: “The green energy transition is underway. The private sector supports it. There’s no turning back.”
“There are plenty of areas at which we can continue to cooperate to address this challenge. Maybe not as fast or in different ways, but … I think the work is going to continue even if it changes some emphasis,” she continued.
Kennedy also admitted that a Trump presidency carries with it an air of unpredictability, but she believes Australia has a strong case to argue for an exemption to Trump’s tariff reforms.
Referencing Malcom Turnbull’s successful bid to exempt Australia from the 2018 steel tariffs under the last Trump administration, she said: “There’s a lot of things that get said in the campaign but I think that if you look at the positive side of it … you’ll see that I think Australia has a very privileged position, and that’s because we work so closely together across the board.”
And while Caroline Kennedy might be parting ways with the US administration, another Kennedy is set to enter, with her cousin – Robert F Kennedy Jr, tapped to lead the US health agency.
Kennedy didn’t hold back about the proposed appointment, labelling her cousin’s views on vaccines as “dangerous” and out of step with the rest of America.
She also spoke with pride about her uncle, Teddy Kennedy’s legacy when it came to healthcare and America, speaking about its importance to their family as a whole.
“My uncle Teddy [Kennedy] spent 50 years fighting for affordable health care in the Senate and it’s something that our whole family is so proud of, that President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act and built on the work that my uncle had done over many years.
“I would say that our family is united in terms of our support for the public health sector and infrastructure, and has the greatest admiration for the medical profession in our country,” she continued, before distancing herself from her cousin’s opinion.
“Bobby Kennedy has got a different set of views.”
In parting, Kennedy also responded to concerns and questions about Trump’s additional cabinet picks, reminding the press that it’s still early days and while the nominees might cause a stir, there’s also a chance some of them might be blocked from progressing.
“Let’s just calm down and wait and see what happens,” she said.
But with Donald Trump set to take office in 2025 and a new ambassador yet to be named, we take a look at Caroline Kennedy’s legacy and why her ambassadorship in Australia was a noteworthy one.
The History Of The Kennedys
The assassination of US President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 was a moment that changed the course of the country’s history. It rocked the whole world, but it also changed the lives of three specific people in a very different way.
JFK was survived by his wife, Jackie Kennedy and their two children—their son John F. Kennedy Jr. and daughter Caroline Kennedy. In the aftermath of President Kennedy’s death, the world mourned not only the man, but the lives of his nearest and dearest.
The tragedy didn’t end there, either. As the years progressed, the family endured more loss—in 1968, Kennedy’s brother Robert F. Kennedy was also assassinated aged 42. In 1994, Jackie Kennedy passed away aged 64, after she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma (a cancer in the lymph-nodes).
Then in 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr. was killed in a plane crash aged just 38—his wife Carolyn also died at the scene.
Among those tragic losses (some have gone so far as to call them “The Kennedy Curse”), Caroline Bouvier Kennedy, the youngest child of the former US president, lived on. And in 2024, Caroline Kennedy turns 67 years old, with an impressive career of her own.
What happened to Caroline Kennedy after JFK’s assassination?
Caroline was only five years old when her father died. So she’d barely come to terms with being in the public eye before she was thrust further into it by the trajedy.
Despite this, her mother Jackie tried to keep her and her brother’s lives as private as possible. When Jackie remarried several years after JFK’s death, she moved her children to her spouses home country of Greece.
But Caroline was clearly drawn to the US—she returned there and studied a Bachelor of Arts at Harvard University. She also attended Columbia Law School which gave her the option of becoming a full time lawyer.
She tossed up career options for a while, even considering becoming a photojournalist. She instead settled on a job at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (yes, she’s attended the Met Gala before—so her time there was clearly sentimental to her).
Who is Caroline Kennedy’s family?
While working at the Met, Caroline met her husband, an exhibit designer named Edwin Schlossberg.
They married in 1986 and had three children together, Rose, Tatiana and John (known as Jack).
After both her mother Jackie and brother John died in the 1990s, Caroline was the last of her immediate relatives. She inherited her mother’s 375-acre estate known as Red Gate Farm in Aquinnah.
In 2015 (or thereabouts), it was revealed that Caroline and her husband Edwin had split up and were living separately.
What has Caroline Kennedy done since then?
Caroline has published several books covering privacy law and human rights. She also edited several New York Times bestsellers, including a collation of her mother’s favourite poems titled, The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
Caroline has also served on the boards of several non-profit organisations, and she famously worked for $1 a week when she worked as director of the Office of Strategic Partnerships for the New York City Department of Education. In this role, her aim was to raise money for New York City’s public schools.
More recently, she’s also been involved in campaigns for cancer research – known as Cancer Moonshot – as part of her role as US Ambassador to Australia.
“Like every family, my family and Embassy families have lost too many people we love to cancer,” Kennedy said.
In April, she was even part of a rally that saw her drive a beat-up car from Adelaide to Perth, helping raise $2.8 million towards cancer council research.
What is Caroline Kennedy’s involvement in politics?
In 2008, Caroline publicly endorsed Barrack Obama’s bid for presidency by penning a poignant New York Times essay titled, A President Like My Father. Obama subsequently asked her to co-chair his Vice Presidential Search Committee. As we all know, he went on to win the election.
In 2012, she was once again named a co-chair for Obama’s reelection campaign, which he successfully won again.
In 2013, Caroline became the US ambassador to Japan under the Obama administration—a position she held until 2017.
US Ambassador to Australia
In December 2021, Caroline was officially named as the US Ambassador to Australia by then-President Joe Biden.
There are a couple of reasons why this was a significant move—first, Caroline is a well known public figure already. Her legacy is well respected and her social work and advocacy—particularly for female rights—is highly regarded. With this in mind, Biden’s decision appears to be a sign of respect to Australia by choosing someone of this calibre for the role.
In her statement from July 2024, she recognised this and her relationship with Biden.
“On a personal level, I want to thank President Biden for his friendship to generations of Kennedys – and for the confidence he placed in me by appointing me as Ambassador,” she said.
And, since her position officially began on June 10, 2022, Caroline has maintained a line of communication between Biden and the government in Canberra. And per the ABC, it was hoped this influence could also nudge Australia in the right direction when it comes to climate policy, something also mentioned in her statement.
“We are committed to fighting climate change and helping Pacific Island nations at existential risk.”
How much influence she’s had on that front is unclear. But what is clear, is that Caroline Kennedy’s time as US ambassador to Australia has come to an end.
When asked what was next, she said she didn’t know, but that Ambassador roles “couldn’t get better than this. So I’m so lucky.”
