He has qualifications galore, good looks, truly amazing hair and, as the only grandson of the late President John F. Kennedy, is one of the best-connected men in the world.
But things really took off for Jack Bouvier Kennedy Schlossberg when he posted a video of himself opening a coconut in Hawaii with his bare hands.
It is alarmingly simple. He picks up a coconut and smashes it, again and again, on a stone wall. Until, finally, grunting and gurning, and dropping his sunglasses, he prises it apart to show the white flesh inside and declares in triumph: ‘And that’s how you open a coconut — no tools required.’
It went viral, and prompted all sorts of enthusiastic responses from Jack’s followers. ‘Ooh I’d give anything to be that coconut,’ posted one. ‘This is the type of Kennedy we’ve been waiting for,’ says another. ‘JSK for president!’
A few expressed their disappointment that, unusually, he had his shirt on for this clip. But not to worry, he’s been bare-chested in endless posts before and since — swimming with turtles, posing in a pick-up truck, falling off his surfboard, doing a ‘He-Man’ pose.
Jack Bouvier Kennedy Schlossberg has qualifications galore, good looks, truly amazing hair and is one of the best-connected men in the worldÂ
Some commentators have pointed out that, well, he’s a 31-year-old graduate from Yale, Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School and, whisper it, could be doing something a bit more useful with his time than bouncing about like a big hairy manbabyÂ
Jack is now pivoting more into politics, a departure from lighter topics on TikTok
The 31-year-old viral sensation had been encouraging fans to vote Biden
Rather disconcertingly, he also looks the spit of his uncle — John F. Kennedy Jr (pictured in 1997), who died, aged 38, along with his wife
Good to see someone who doesn’t take himself too seriously, seems to have been the general response from his fans. Particularly a member of one of America’s most famous political families.
That said, some commentators have pointed out that, well, he’s a 31-year-old graduate from Yale, Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School and, whisper it, could be doing something a bit more useful with his time than bouncing about like a big hairy manbaby.
Not least because there have also been a series of rather more bizarre posts.
In one, in which he’s chatting to his mother in the rain, he rants about how much he hates going out to restaurants because they ruin your life.
In others, he queries whether AI is ‘sexual’ and says he doesn’t like electric vehicles because ‘they’re dumb’.
Lately, though, he’s focusing more on politics, distilling the presidential debates into a few snappy bullet points, brilliantly crunching entire Supreme Court rulings into bouncy TikTok takeaways.
Good to see someone who doesn’t take himself too seriously, seems to have been the general response from his fans…
But his new job is to cover what must be the most exciting and bizarre US election ever, producing up to four monthly Instagram videos of his reactions to ‘key news’ in the campaign
He’s also released a series of TikTok videos in which he imitates, with accents, working-class white males — a risk, perhaps, for a man with access to a multimillion-dollar trust fund — giving their views on the forthcoming election and why Donald Trump is a disaster and Joe Biden a hero.Â
Oh, yes, and why he will never support his first cousin once removed, Robert (Bobby) F. Kennedy Jr, who is running as an independent candidate in the election.
‘I’m just trying to use the tools at my disposal to get out a message that I think is super-serious and important, and that is that a vote for Bobby Kennedy Jr is a vote for Donald Trump,’ he explained in a recent interview.
‘I’m good at accents, so that seemed a good plan,’ he said. ‘I want to use levity to reach younger voters.’
He doesn’t hold back. In a series of Instagram posts, he variously calls his 70-year-old cousin a ‘p***k’, suggesting he’s using steroids, claiming he was ‘lying to us’ and that he’s a stalking horse for Trump and a Russian stooge.
Needless to say, cousin Bobby is furious. And he’ll be even crosser now that, on the back of these posts, Jack has been snapped up by Vogue as its new political correspondent.Â
The Yale and Harvard Law School graduate, 31, has collected thousands of Instagram followers, often showing off his incredible physique and workouts at the gym
Jack is the son of JFK and his wife, Jackie Kennedy Onassis’ only surviving child, Caroline, and her husband, Edwin. JFK and Jackie are seen with Caroline and her brother in 1962
Jack Schlossberg – JFK’s only grandson and cousin to White House hopeful Robert J. Kennedy – is taking the internet by storm with his rabble-rousing rants and cartoonish impersonations of American voters
JFK’s daughter Caroline and grandson Jack recreate his heroic swim off the Solomon Islands to save himself in 2023
Ambassador Caroline Kennedy – JFK’s only surviving child – honors late father’s rescue during WWII with special swim (pictured with Jack last year)
His job is to cover what must be the most exciting and bizarre U.S. election ever, producing up to four monthly Instagram videos of his reactions to ‘key news’ in the election campaign in his very own particular style, along with as many articles as he fancies writing, presumably, with or without his top on.
For those new to Jack, he’s the son of Edwin Schlossberg (an artist and writer) and Caroline Kennedy, JFK’s sole surviving child, the only one who had children and, currently, Biden’s ambassador to Australia.
Like many of his vast family, he seems designed to thrive in the limelight. And, rather disconcertingly, he also looks the spit of his uncle — John F. Kennedy Jr, who died, aged 38, along with his wife, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and her elder sister, Lauren Bessette, in an aircraft crash in Martha’s Vineyard on July 16, 1999.
Jack and his late uncle also share a love of action-adventure and an off-beat sense of humour.
For all his goofing about, Jack insists he’s politically driven, with big dreams and a serious message to deliver, but in his own way — which, he says, is bringing ‘positivity to politics’ through humour and silliness.
Although politics and the Democratic Party is in his blood, he claims that his political epiphany took place during the early stages of Obama’s 2007 presidential campaign, when he was an underdog, and Jack saw that ‘anything could happen and I could make a difference’.
Jack speaks at the President John F. Kennedy library, in Boston, on March 11
Jack, pictured in 2019, will now join Vogue as their new political expertÂ
‘We have to wait there to eat something and we don’t get to choose, really, what it is,’ he said. We only have a couple of choices. And we don’t know what any of them will taste like’
Jack Schlossberg is JFK’s grandson and cousin to White House hopeful Robert J. Kennedy
Maybe, but if that is the case, it has taken him a long time, a very expensive education and a few incarnations to find his way.
There was a starter job in Japan, a speech-writing phase and some acting — as Officer Jack Hammer in the eighth season finale of Blue Bloods, his only television appearance to date. And a job with the Kennedy Library.
In between, he fits in a lot of sport, has recently taken up ballet, always dresses in black in homage to his hero Johnny Cash, and likes to keep his Manhattan apartment decked out with fresh flowers (preferably carnations) at all times.
There are rumours of a book — setting out his ‘method’ and how he sees the world — though no news of a publisher, yet. And in 2022, he passed the notoriously difficult New York State bar exam, apparently scoring in the top 1 per cent. But then he started making his attention-grabbing TikTok videos.
The Vogue job has been much trumpeted — not least by Kennedy himself. In some offbeat publicity shots, he sprawls across an office floor on a pile of photocopies of his own face.
But the role doesn’t pay much. At just $250 (£190) an article, it won’t even cover his weekly florist’s bill. Thank goodness, then, for all that lovely Kennedy family financial padding.
The one thing he won’t touch on is his relationship status — something his online followers have worked themselves into a frenzy about, agonising in the comments sections of his posts (particularly the shirtless ones) over the identity of the female laughter in the background of his videos.
‘Let’s just hope it’s his mum,’ says one.
But while some might argue that Jack hasn’t really stuck at anything yet, there’s no doubt he’s very clever. And handsome. And charming. And rich.
So, who knows. Maybe, sometime in the not-too-distant future, when the dust has settled on this extraordinary election, Jack might finally embrace politics the conventional way and stride into the Oval Office to reclaim his family seat. Or perhaps he’ll still be doing silly TikTok videos with his shirt off.
