The Kennedy family was rocked by extraordinary tragedy when Caroline Kennedy’s daughter Tatiana Celia Kennedy Schlossberg died of a rare form of cancerat the age of 35 on Dec. 30, 2025.
Tatiana, who shared two children with her husband, George Moran, was honored by her family at a funeral service in New York City on Jan. 5, when many of her relatives paid tribute to her exceptional life as a writer, advocate, mother, daughter, and wife.
In the wake of her death, new light has been shone on the Kennedy family—and the bonds that have tied the members of the dynasty together over the years, including Caroline and her brother, John F. Kennedy Jr., who died in a plane crash at the age of 38.
His incredible connection with his sister has now been highlighted by insiders, who revealed how the siblings leaned on each other again and again over the years, as the American dynasty was hit with one tragedy after the next in what has become known as the “Kennedy curse.”
“Whenever a Kennedy dies, and certainly when they die in a tragic way, it just brings to mind all the others,” presidential historian Steven M. Gillon told People. “You can’t look at it in isolation. It just reminds you of this horrible burden that this family has had to bear.”
Gillon noted that Caroline has always been a very private person, who weathered the family’s losses and heartaches behind closed doors. For years, she was able to fight through the tragedies with her brother by her side, until he, too, was lost.
“It’s this contrast between this incredibly private person and this very public tragedy that is striking,” Gillon added. “Caroline suffered the same losses that John suffered, except that she also suffered the loss of her brother.”
Caroline and JFK Jr. had far more in common than their family’s heartbreaks, having been raised in extraordinary circumstances as the heirs to a political dynasty unlike any other in the world.
JFK Jr. was just a few days old, while his sister was only 3, when their father, John F. Kennedy, became president. They spent their earliest years in the White House, where they had a rare childhood surrounded by Secret Service and visiting world leaders.
Caroline has since spoken about how her parents, JFK and his wife, Jackie Kennedy, endeavored to give their children as normal an upbringing as possible, creating magical moments even in the strangest of times.
Photographs taken at the time would show Caroline eating breakfast with her father as he prepared to head to the Oval Office for the day, her playing on the lawn with her younger brother, and her looking to the outside world like any other child in the country.
However, the family’s rare moments of privacy away from the White House were perhaps the most poignant—whether that be at the Washington, DC, townhouse where JFK and Jackie lived before his presidency, or the family’s iconic compound at Hyannis Port, ME.
Hyannis Port compound
The Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port holds almost as much lore as the storied political dynasty itself.
This home was purchased in 1928 by family patriarch, diplomat, and businessman Joseph P. Kennedy for his wife, Rose, and their nine children, including JFK and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. Over the years, the residence has become closely intertwined with the family’s history.
It was at the Cape Cod retreat that JFK planned his presidential campaign in summer 1960, and it was there that Jackie fled after he was assassinated in 1963 at the age of 46.
Hyannis Port would be where Jackie crafted the image of Kennedy’s presidency as “Camelot” in the wake of his death, taking inspiration from the late politician’s favorite Broadway musical and telling the media in her first official interview after his passing: “Don’t let it be forgot, that for one brief, shining moment there was Camelot.”
The home had been the site of many happy vacations for JFK and Jackie—and it went on to serve as a much-needed retreat for other family members over the years, becoming the site of an annual Fourth of July reunion for many of their descendants.
The Kennedys might never have come to Hyannis Port if it hadn’t been for one pastime Joseph and Rose loved: golf. In 1926, and already a millionaire, Joseph went in search of a home near a golf club.
He explored a membership at the Cohasset Country Club, on the South Shore and close to Boston. However, he was iced out, reportedly as a result of his Irish Catholic faith.
Instead, the couple found Hyannisport Club on Cape Cod—then run by an Irish Catholic—and the Kennedys were welcomed. They proceeded to rent Malcolm Cottage, as it was then known, and in 1928, purchased the property for $25,000, according to the website for the JFK Museum in Hyannis.
The 3-acre property on a dead-end street directly faces Nantucket Sound.
While the Kennedy family spent time at other homes in New York, Maryland, and Florida, Hyannis Port is where they would create a multigenerational compound. Joe Kennedy expanded the main house, dubbed the Big House, to reportedly include 21 rooms, 12 bedrooms, a steam room, and a 50-person theater in the basement.
The grounds offer a tennis court and pool, and other recreation options, including playing golf at the local club and sailing on the sound. Touch football, played on the grassy lawn, was also a favorite.
JFK bought a home behind his father’s Big House in 1956. It became known as the President’s House. Robert F. Kennedy and his wife, Ethel, bought another adjacent home—and those three properties made up the compound, which now spans 6 acres of waterfront property.
It was in the main house that JFK decided to run for president, and the home subsequently served as his campaign headquarters.
The morning after the election, it was his young daughter, Caroline, who woke him up in their Hyannis Port home to announce, “Good morning, Mr. President.”
During JFK’s presidency, the compound became the “seaside White House.” He once said of his Cape Cod home, “I always come back to the Cape and walk on the beach when I have a tough decision to make.”
The place became iconic when images emerged of Jack and Jackie spending time there with their children during the White House years.
It’s also a place where family members have retreated to grieve tremendous loss over the years, from the deaths of Joe Kennedy Jr., the eldest son, in World War II, to JFK’s assassination in 1963, to RFK’s assassination in 1968, after he won the California presidential primary.
Another tragedy, decades later, took JFK’s son, John Jr., who died in a plane crash with wife Carolyn in 1999.
In 2019, another tragedy struck: A granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy, Saoirse Kennedy Hill, died of a suspected overdose at the Kennedy family compound. Her death occurred in the home of her grandmother, Ethel Kennedy, who was 91 at the time.
The compound was designated a U.S. National Landmark in 1972—not surprising for a property that embodies so much American history.
Riggs-Riley House
Following JFK’s assassination, the former first lady moved out of the White House and into a 9,339-square-foot mansion in Washington, DC.
Jackie and her two children, Caroline and John Jr., moved into the property dubbed the Riggs-Riley House. She mourned the loss of her husband for a year before moving to the Georgetown area.
The Riggs-Riley House boasted eight bedrooms and six bathrooms and was previously owned by a former governor of New York, W. Averell Harriman, and his wife, Pamela Churchill Harriman.
The home was put up for sale in 2021 for $10 million.
Palm Beach residence
Like President Donald Trump, the Kennedy family also once called Florida—specifically Palm Beach—home.
JFK returned to Palm Beach over and over again and considered it one of his favorite locations. The weekend before his assassination, he had retreated to his Florida estate.
Joe Kennedy purchased the stunning six-bedroom property in 1933 for $120,000.
The estate was built in 1923 by architect Addison Mizner for Rodman Wanamaker, who was the heir to a department store fortune.
After the purchase was complete, the Kennedys renovated the property and added tennis courts and a pool.
Because they were there so often, the property became known as the “Winter White House” during JFK’s presidency.
The property is situated at the epicenter of South Florida’s Gold Coast at 1095 North Ocean Drive.
The estate stayed in the Kennedy family until 1995 and has since had five owners. In 2020, the property was sold for a whopping $70 million.
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