Three days shy of his third birthday, Kennedy’s father was fatally wounded by an assassin’s bullet in a Dallas, Texas, motorcade. Kennedy’s salute to his father’s casket at the funeral was broadcast around the world, and became an iconic image forever associated with the nation’s mourning of such a popular president.

Following his father’s death, Kennedy moved with his sister, Caroline and his mother to the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. When he was eight years old, Kennedy endured another tragedy after his uncle and father figure, Robert F Kennedy, was shot and killed by an assassin at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

In 1983, Kennedy graduated from Brown University with his bachelor's degree in history. Six years later, he earned his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from New York University School of Law. Kennedy failed the New York Bar exam twice, but exhibited both his good-humor and tenacity by vowing to keep taking the exam until he passed or "until I'm 95."

From 1989 to 1993, Kennedy worked as an assistant district attorney. In 1995, he switched from law to publishing by founding his own political magazine, George, which featured Cindy Crawford dressed as George Washington on its first cover.

After being romantically linked to Madonna and in a long-term relationship with Daryl Hannah, Kennedy settled down with Carolyn Bessette in 1996. Three years later, the couple was tragically killed in a plane crash along with Bessette’s sister, Lauren Bessette, while flying across the Atlantic Ocean with Kennedy in the pilot seat. Reports later revealed that although Kennedy had made the same route several times before, he had not previously flown that same route without an instructor aboard or at nighttime.

U.S. president at the time of Kennedy’s death, Bill Clinton, attended Kennedy’s funeral service, and ordered the lowering of the U.S. flag at the White House to half-mast in his honor. Clinton also enlisted the country’s Navy warships in searching for Kennedy’s plane. After the plane was located, Kennedy’s remains were cremated, and scattered off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.

Rumours abounded that the couple were experiening marital problems at the time and Caroline was having an affair with a Kelvin Lein model.

Kennedy’s tragic and untimely death gave some credence to the theory of the "Kennedy Curse," which includes the death of both his father and uncle by assassination; a severe plane crash survived by his uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy (who also survived a car that dove off a bridge); and cousin, Michael Kennedy, who died in a ski accident.

YUDDY