Jackie O's daughter is our new US Ambassador
Camelot is coming!
Camelot is coming!
Australia has a new US Ambassador.
The appointment of diplomats doesn't usually call for screaming headlines but this posting is big. Especially for those of us who love a bit of drama, mystery, intrigue and style with our geo-politics.
The new American representative who'll take up residence in Canberra is Caroline Kennedy.
She was officially sworn in June and touched down in Sydney early this morning.
“On Friday, I was sworn in as the U.S. Ambassador to Australia. I am grateful to President Biden for his leadership and for giving me the chance to represent America to our vital ally Australia" -Ambassador Kennedy (1/2) pic.twitter.com/dvRZmpLxVb
— U.S. Embassy Australia (@USEmbAustralia) June 12, 2022
Her surname may sound familiar, like something synonymous with Karl and Susan from Ramsay Street.
Alas, this new Kennedy who is coming to town is not fictitious, but her backstory reads like something the writers of Neighbours would dream up.
Who is she?
Caroline Bouvier Kennedy is the daughter of former US President John F. Kennedy, the politician formerly known as JFK, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
She was just five when her dad - the 35th president of the United States - was assassinated three years into his first term.
She then grew up out of the spotlight in Greece when her mum moved to Europe and remarried one of the richest men in the world, Greek shipping magnate, Aristotle Socrates 'Ari' Onassis.
Caroline returned to the US and studied at Harvard and then went to Columbia Law School to round off her arts degree with an American version of the LLB .
Her first job was at the Met - New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art (yes, the place where the Met Gala is).
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.
Caroline is an author, lawyer and seasoned diplomat, her most recent gig was in Japan as the US ambassador there during the Obama administration.
She has published a heap of books covering privacy law and human rights. She's also edited several bestsellers, including a collation of her mum's favourite poems titled, The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
Philanthropy and public service are her schtick. She has served on the boards of several non-profit organisations in the US. She famously worked for $1 a week when she was the director at the Office of Strategic Partnerships for the New York City Department of Education. Her aim was to help raise cash for NYC's public schools.
In 2008, Caroline publicly endorsed Barrack Obama's bid for presidency. She did so by writing an essay published in the New York Times under the headline: A President Like My Father.
Obama subsequently asked her to co-chair his Vice Presidential Search Committee.
She is now 64, the same age her mum was when she died.
"The Kennedy Curse"
Back in the 1960s, the arrival of the Kennedys at the White House back was a significant turning point for a country that was grappling with growing social unrest, domestically and abroad.
The Kennedy administration was lauded and is still romanticised, as the American version of Camelot - a symbol of courage and wisdom in politics.
During JFK's short tenure in the Oval Office, the US Supreme Court ruled segregation between white and black Americans in transportation facilities was unconstitutional, the Bay of Pigs disaster off the coast of Cuba happened which saw the country virtually cut off economically from the US from that point on, nuclear war between the former Soviet Union and the west was on the cards, the space race kicked off and the Vietnam War continued.
The murder of JFK symbolised an "end of innocence" in the US .
People were glued to their new TVs for days. He was killed on a Friday afternoon and farewelled at a state funeral on the following Monday, an event that was watched by 93% of households in the US.
"The snipper's bullet left one wound that is not healed, a wound to our consciousness of ourselves as Americans," esteemed cultural critic Dwight Macdonald wrote at the time.
The murder was the latest in a series of tragic events for the family.
In the 1940s, during World War II, JFK's older brother Joe was killed during combat.
His sister Kathleen, who also volunteered for the world effort, married a blue-bloodied British soldier - William Cavendish, the Marquess of Hartington - and three months after their wedding he was killed. Four years later she planned to marry again but died in a plane crash in France.
Her tombstone reads: "Joy she gave, joy she has found".
Just months before he was killed, JFK and Jackie had a son called Patrick. He was born prematurely in the August of 1963 but died after two days due to complications.
The president was shot in November 1963, while riding in a motorcade in Texas sitting alongside Jackie. It was Jackie's first public appearance since the birth - and subsequent death - of baby Patrick.
As the years progressed, the family endured more loss, and a series of events which was called "The Kennedy Curse".
In 1968, JFK's brother Robert F. Kennedy - or 'Bobby' - who served as Attorney General and an MP in New York was also assassinated. He was 42.
In 1994, Jackie O passed away at just 64 after she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma (a type of cancer found in the lymph nodes).
Then in 1999, Caroline's little brother John F. Kennedy Jr. was killed in a plane crash aged just 38. His wife, Carolyn, died at the scene.
The pair were the darlings of New York's social scene in the 1990s for their low-key lifestyle and were often seen out and about commuting to work on foot or bike like the rest of us plebs.
Their courtship, relationship and marriage were shrouded in secrecy. The tabloid's at the time dubbed them "the hunk and his honey".
They met when he was preparing to launch his career as editor-chief of George, a lifestyle magazine that inextricably linked celebrities and politicians and she was the public relations manager for Calvin Klein. Back then known as Carolyn Bessette, she was credited for casting Kate Moss alongside Mark Wahlberg (and launching her international career) in the famous "nothing gets between me and my Calvins" campaign.
Twenty years later the granddaughter of Bobby died from a suspected overdose. Saoirse Kennedy Hill was 22 and was living with her grandmother, Ethel, in 2019 at the time at the Kennedy compound, also referred to as Cape Cod.
Meanwhile her uncle, Robert F Kennedy Jr. - who is now married to Curb Your Enthusiasm's Cheryl Hines - has recently been slammed by health and social justice groups for his controversial stance on vaccines during the pandemic. He has been a long time environmentalist but in recent years has used his legendary family name to back conspiracy theories and oppose vaccines.
At rallies last year he invoked the Nazis, rehashed conspiracy theories about the Microsoft founder and vaccine advocate Bill Gates and 5G, technology he said was designed to "control our behaviour".
His son, Conor was previously linked to Taylor Swift.
Back in 2012, when she was 22 and Conor was just 18 and dealing with his mother's suicide (I know, as I said, it's a lot). Ethel loved her and she even bought a $5m house near the Kennedy place on the secluded coast. They broke up, Swift flipped the seven-bedroom place and pocketed a $1m profit, she also wrote the song 'Starlight' about Ethel and Bobby's relationship.
“Starlight” is a song that Taylor wrote about Ethel and Bobby Kennedy, while imagining the night they had by a picture she saw.
Which brings us to 2022
Caroline was nominated to be the new ambassador to Australia by President Joe Biden late last year and was confirmed last week.
She will replace Arthur Culvahouse Jr, who left the position in early 2021, when former Republican President Donald Trump left office.
She heads to Canberra as our relationship with Washington is set to strengthen in response to China's growing power and increasingly assertive behaviour in Asia and the wider South Pacific (where her dad also served in the US Navy before taking office).
While these roles are generally considered to be mostly ceremonial and require diplomats to stay above the fray of politics. Kennedy's appointment is a pointed one by the US.
Given her experience as previous envoy to Japan, Australia is also a member of the Quad grouping, along with the United States and India, which has been expanding cooperation in the face of China's rise.
If you, or someone you know, is struggling, please call Lifeline on 13 1 1 14.
Meghan Markle’s favourite face gym is opening in Australia, Greta Thunberg publishes Andrew Tate’s contact details
All the news that's fit to mint.
Emily Ratajkowski joins the competitive world of online dating, Nick Kyrgios quits at the last minute
All the news that's fit to mint.