Caroline Kennedy is exposing more about the current status of her famous family.
The daughter of former President John F. Kennedy told New York magazine that her family’s long history in American politics has evolved.
Caroline’s comments came nearly seven months after she made uncharacteristically harsh remarks about her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (commonly known as Bobby), before his confirmation hearing for health secretary.
“Just to state the obvious, though, it seems often underweighted these days—there are now more than 100 adults in our family, so it’s pretty different than in the past,” she shared with the newspaper.
Caroline’s response echoed the “warning” that New York writer Reeves Wiedeman received against “trying to analyze the family as a cohesive unit” in today’s world, according to the piece, which was published in the August 25 edition.
The former president’s legacy, as well as those of RFK Sr., Ted, Jackie, and Ethel, suffered a public breach when Bobby decided to pursue a political career in recent years.
Members of the current Kennedy family, most of whom support the Democratic Party, have distanced themselves from Bobby (now a player in President Donald Trump’s cabinet) and declared him unsuitable for public service.
Caroline released a shocking video statement on Jan. 28 regarding her cousin’s character and why she thought he was unprepared to run US health policy, less than 24 hours before Bobby’s first confirmation hearing to become Trump’s health secretary.
Caroline made a rare statement in which she mentioned Bobby’s drug addiction, outlined an alleged pattern of heinous animal mistreatment, and accused him of abusing the “desperation of parents of sick children” by lobbying against science-backed immunizations.
Furthermore, Caroline stated that Bobby “continues to grandstand” on the sad Kennedy assassinations of the 1960s, taking advantage of his family’s well-known name.
“It’s incomprehensible to me that someone who is willing to exploit his own painful family tragedies for publicity would be put in charge of America’s life and death situations,” she told reporters.
“Unlike Bobby, I try not to speak for my father, but I am certain that he and my uncle Bobby, who gave their lives in public service to this country, and my uncle Teddy, who devoted his long Senate career to the cause of improving health care, would be disgusted.”
Following Caroline’s remark, a Kennedy family insider told PEOPLE that there has always been a strained relationship between JFK’s daughter and RFK’s numerous offspring, and that Caroline’s assault just heightened the animosity.
“I think Caroline and [John F. Kennedy Jr.] were always first among unequals,” a source told me, “and the RFK kids were always tagging at their heels.”
According to the source, with the current Kennedy family “in tatters,” Caroline, 67, and Bobby, 71, have emerged as the generation’s two remaining figureheads.
“Bobby Jr. basically wanted to be Caroline, but he never had the discipline, the gravitas, or the intelligence or the discretion to do any of that,” a source told me.
While Caroline, a US diplomat who has served as ambassador to both Japan and Australia, has largely remained reserved in public, Bobby has been known to frequently weigh in on contentious issues and walk himself into a corner at times (such as during his first confirmation hearing, when he was questioned about his shifting stances on some issues).
Caroline broke her long-standing quiet in an unsuccessful bid to keep her cousin out of government, according to a PEOPLE source, and the Kennedy family is no longer what many Americans remember.
“I tend to think the pages turn,” the insider explained. “Caroline had never spoken publicly in her 60 years, and now she does this. Jackie only spoke out once, on the preservation of Grand Central. That is how infrequently these individuals speak up.