Caroline Kennedy had not spoken publicly about the death of her daughter, Tatiana Schlossberg. But six months after her passing, she became emotional while remembering her during the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award ceremony on Sunday.
During her speech, Caroline teared up as she honored her daughter, who died in December 2025 at the age of 35. “Most of all, we remember Tatiana,” the 68-year-old said. “Who served on the board of this library and represented everything my parents stood for in her beautiful, amazing, and too short life.”
© GettyDuring the same speech, Kennedy honored her son, Jack Schlossberg, who has become one of the most visible faces of the next generation of Kennedys. His Instagram content is a little chaotic, hilarious, but always full of information and plenty of thirsty comments from fans.
“I want to thank my partner in the work of this award, my son Jack,” she said. “I’m so proud of him for empowering thousands of people to believe in politics again, and I know my father would be, too.”
© Karwai TangThe tribute comes just months after Jack shared one of the last conversations he had with his sister before her death.
“The last thing that she said to me was, ‘You better win,’” he recalled while discussing his congressional campaign earlier this year. “No one knew me better, and I knew no one better than her.”
© ImageCatcher News ServiceTatiana was an environmental journalist, author, and advocate. She wrote about climate change and sustainability and was the mother of two young children, Edwin, 3, and Josephine, with her husband, George Moran.
She publicly revealed her leukemia diagnosis in 2025, writing candidly about the shock of learning she had cancer shortly after becoming a mother for the second time.
© IPASocialIT/IPA/Sipa USA“I did not — could not — believe that they were talking about me,” she wrote at the time. “I wasn’t sick. I didn’t feel sick. I was actually one of the healthiest people I knew.
© Craig BarrittFollowing Tatiana’s death, Kennedy historian Steven M. Gillon told PEOPLE, history was repeating itself. “Tatiana’s son is the same age that John was when he lost his dad,” they said. A Kennedy family friend had previously told the outlet, “Caroline is going to have to do for Tatiana’s children what Jackie had to do for her children: Keep the memory alive of their parent that they might not remember.”
© Getty“When you think about the losses Caroline has suffered, it was only John that had suffered the same — and then she lost John,” Gillon continued. “For Caroline, it’s a series of horrible personal tragedies that lead up to what may be the hardest of them all.”
© MediaNews Group/Boston Herald viThe Kennedy story is filled with tragedy and chaos, and has been called the “Kennedy curse.” Caroline, in particular, has been surrounded by loss. Her dad and former president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated, and her brother, John F. Kennedy Jr., died in a plane crash in 1999.
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