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Vanessa Kerry Biography

Political Relative

Vanessa Kerry caught the public eye when she introduced her father, presidential nominee John Kerry, at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Vanessa and her older sister Alexandra (b. 1973) are Kerry's two daughters with his first wife, the former Julia Thorne. (John Kerry has since remarried to Teresa Heinz Kerry.) Vanessa attended Andover Academy (graduating in 1995) and then Yale University (graduating with a biology degree in 1999). She was in her third year at Harvard Medical School in 2004 when she took a leave of absence to work on her father's campaign for the presidency.

Extra credit: Vanessa Kerry was a four-year varsity lacrosse player at Yale; she was a third-team Academic All-American in 1999... She graduated summa cum laude from Yale and later earned a postgraduate Fulbright Scholarship... Her parents separated in 1982 and formally divorced in 1988... Vanessa is blonde and blue-eyed; her sister Alexandra is dark-haired.

Other relatives of political leaders: America's Bush Twins, Britain's Prince William, and Monaco's Princess Caroline.