The next generation of Kennedys

After the death of Ted Kennedy, President Barack Obama said, “An important chapter in our history has come to an end.”

With only one of nine siblings surviving – former ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith – it may seem that the Kennedy legacy is a thing of the past. But a new generation aims to maintain it.

Global News takes a look at some of the 23 living members of the next Kennedy generation who still occupy important places in public life.

Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg

Author and lawyer Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg was born in 1957 to former president John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy.

Caroline was five days away from her sixth birthday when her father was assassinated. It was the first of a series of tragedies she would endure, including the assassination of her uncle and U.S. Senator, Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.

She completed her undergraduate degree at Radcliffe College, and began working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where she would meet her future husband, interactive designer Edwin Schlossberg. The two were married in 1986.

She co-authored several books and devoted much of her time to charitable causes. Her mother died in 1994 after battling lymphatic cancer, and her only sibling, John F. Kennedy Jr., died in a plane crash along with his wife and sister-in-law.

In 2008, she was cited as a possible replacement for Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat, but she later withdrew her candidacy after a brief and controversial period in the public eye, citing personal reasons.

She has three children and lives in New York City.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a political and environmental activist and the son of former U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

He was born in 1954, the third of eleven children. Robert studied law at the London School of Economics and the Pace University School of Law in White Plains, New York.

By 1983, he was working as a lawyer but was also heavily addicted to heroin, and was arrested in South Dakota taking heroin onto a plane. His brother David would die a year later from a drug overdose in Florida.

He was ordered to complete community service as part of his sentence, which he did with an environmental group working to clean up the Hudson River.

He is now a prominent environmental activist and runs a law clinic at Pace University, and is married with six children.

Joseph P. Kennedy II

Robert’s brother Joseph P. Kennedy II was born in 1952, the eldest child of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy.

Joseph is a former Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, and the founder of Citizens Energy, a non-profit Boston organization that provides fuel assistance to poor families.

He launched a bid to become governor of Massachusetts in 1997, but withdrew after a number of public scandals.

Joseph had divorced Sheila Rauch in 1991, but was secretly granted an annulment by the Vatican. Rauch did not learn of the annulment until 1996, three years after Joseph’s remarriage to aide Beth Kelly.

In 1997, Rauch published a book, Shattered Faith, lambasting her husband and the church. She appealed to the Vatican, and the controversy continued until her appeal was finally accepted in 2007.

Also contributing to Joseph’s withdrawal was a scandal involving his younger brother and campaign manager Michael Kennedy. During the campaign, Michael became embroiled in a sex scandal over an alleged affair some years before with his family’s 14-year-old babysitter.

Joseph is reportedly considering a bid to replace his uncle Ted’s Senate seat.

Patrick J. Kennedy

Patrick J. Kennedy is the son of Senator Edward Kennedy and his first wife, Joan Bennett Kennedy. Patrick was born in 1967 as the youngest of three children.

He attended Providence College and was elected to the state legislature at the age of 21, while still a college student. He was re-elected twice before moving on to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994.

Like his cousin Robert, Patrick struggled with substance abuse. In May 2006, he crashed his Mustang convertible into a security barrier on Capitol Hill in Washington, and he claimed he was suffering a reaction to prescription drugs Phenergan and Ambien.

He pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of drugs, and was checked into the Mayo Clinic for treatment, where he had earlier been treated for drug addiction in 2005.

He continues to represent Rhode Island in Congress.