Behind the iconic public image of Jackie Kennedy, with her unparalleled style and grace, was a mother whose personal life was marked by both profound joy and devastating loss. Her life as a parent was a central, if often private, part of her identity, a story that involved four births and the immense grief of burying two of her infants. The names of her children—Arabella, Caroline, John Jr., and Patrick—paint a portrait of a family whose brightest moments in the public eye were shadowed by personal tragedy. Her journey through motherhood profoundly shaped the woman the world admired, from the youthful first lady in the White House to the widow who fiercely protected her family.
The Kennedy children who grew up in the spotlight, Caroline and John Jr., became familiar faces to the American public, their childhoods a blend of extraordinary privilege and unique pressure. Yet, the memory of the two babies the family lost was a sorrow that Jackie Kennedy carried with her always. The stillborn daughter, named Arabella, and the infant son Patrick, who lived for just two days, represented a private world of grief that balanced the public adoration for the charismatic young first family. To truly understand Jackie Kennedy, one must look not only at her historic contributions and global fame but also at her deeply human story as a mother to her four children.
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The Kennedy Children the World Knew
Caroline Bouvier Kennedy, born on November 27, 1957, was the first child to survive infancy and would become the only one of Jackie’s children to live into adulthood. She was nearly six years old when her father was assassinated, and the image of her alongside her mother and brother at the funeral is etched into historical memory. After the family moved to New York, Caroline grew up away from the intense Washington spotlight, later graduating from Harvard University and Columbia Law School.
She has carried forward the family’s legacy of public service, serving as the U.S. Ambassador to Japan under President Obama and later as the Ambassador to Australia under President Biden. She married Edwin Schlossberg in 1986, and they have three children: Rose, Tatiana, and Jack. Caroline is now a grandmother, a role that connects her own family’s future to its storied past.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr., often known simply as “John-John,” was born on November 25, 1960, just two weeks after his father was elected president. He spent his first three years as the beloved toddler of the White House, and the photograph of him playing under his father’s desk in the Oval Office became a symbol of the Kennedy administration’s youth and vitality.
The world watched, heartbroken, as the three-year-old John Jr. bravely saluted his father’s casket during the state funeral. He grew up in Manhattan, attended Brown University and NYU Law School, and eventually co-founded the political magazine George. In 1996, he married Carolyn Bessette. His life was tragically cut short in 1999 at the age of 38 when the small plane he was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing him, his wife, and her sister.
The Infants Lost Too Soon
Ambassador Caroline Kennedy’s statement to the US Senate on RFKJr’s nomination for HHS Secretary
This is a reading of a letter she just sent to Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
I’m so proud of my courageous mother, who’s lived a life of dignity,… pic.twitter.com/feysNA0Wwp
— Jack Schlossberg (@JBKSchlossberg) January 28, 2025
Long before Caroline and John Jr. were born, Jackie Onassis and President John F. Kennedy suffered the loss of their first child. In 1956, Jackie gave birth to a stillborn daughter. The baby was never formally baptized or given a legal name, but Jackie privately referred to her with the sentimental name Arabella. Several of Jackie’s siblings later revealed that the child was buried without a birth certificate or the name Arabella on the gravestone, as Jackie did not want the informal nickname made permanent in that way. The loss was a deeply traumatic start to Jackie’s journey into motherhood.
Just a few months before President Kennedy’s assassination, the family faced another heartbreaking loss. On August 7, 1963, Jackie Kennedy gave birth to their second son, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, about five and a half weeks prematurely. The infant, named after his paternal great-grandfather and his mother’s maiden name, immediately struggled with hyaline membrane disease (now known as infant respiratory distress syndrome). Despite being transferred to Boston Children’s Hospital and placed in a state-of-the-art hyperbaric chamber, Patrick lived for only 39 hours, passing away on August 9, 1963.
His death devastated his parents and the nation, but it also had the profound effect of raising public awareness and spurring medical research into the condition that took his life. The bodies of both Arabella and Patrick were eventually reinterred at Arlington National Cemetery, where they now rest alongside their parents.
