Tragic Details About Ted Cruz's Relationship With His Daughter Caroline

Every parent wants a good relationship with their child, but unfortunately, there are signs that Senator Ted Cruz and his daughter, Caroline Cruz, may be at odds. As the eldest daughter of Ted and Heidi Cruz, Caroline was born on April 14, 2008, and has a sister, Catherine, who is two years younger than her. But as eldest siblings often do, Caroline has led the way by being more vocal about her relationship with her Texas senator father.

Given that Caroline was only four years old when Ted campaigned and was elected to his first term in 2012, she has spent much of her life in the shadow of her father's politics. And while she is often at his side when he has won elections, there have also been instances where he appeared to use his children for political purposes. In 2021, The Independent reported that Ted used his daughters as an excuse for going on a trip to Cancun when Texas was hit by a deadly winter storm in 2021. According to the outlet, Ted made a statement that said, "With school canceled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends. Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon." Suffice it to say, users on social media were quick to shame him for aiming blame at them. And given that the New York Times reported that it was a last-minute trip planned by Heidi due to freezing home conditions, there was no need for Ted to blame his daughters for asking for a vacation. But it did illustrate how politics has infiltrated into their family life — which appears to be a main sticking point between Caroline and her father.

Caroline Cruz took to Gen Z's platform of choice to make her opinions about her father's politics known. In 2021, Caroline posted a TikTok in which she decided to list the pros and cons of being the daughter of Ted Cruz. Pros included her family receiving gifts and traveling to all sorts of different places (and we assume living in Ted's multi-million dollar home), while cons included being followed around by security to all those many different places. But what really stuck out was when she said, "Also, a lot of people judge me based upon him at first glance, but I really disagree with most of his views." She did not specify which views in particular, but it felt telling that she was willing to make her disagreements publicly known.

A year later, in a 2022 TikTok, Caroline solemnly acknowledged that she couldn't escape being her father's daughter but asked viewers to recognize that she was also her own person with her own dreams and aspirations, and found it "dehumanizing" how everyone always had to relate things back to her dad. It was a sad glimpse into Caroline's relationship with her father, especially because she also had to remind viewers that she was a teenager and had additional hardships besides just being Ted's daughter. Dads can definitely be embarrassing to their teenage kids, but we can't shake the feeling that Caroline's angst might run a little deeper.

Caroline Cruz inadvertently took some of her father's shine during his victory speech in 2024 when polls showed that he would be winning his third term as a Texas senator. In a clip posted to YouTube, Caroline and her sister Catherine are seen standing next to their father in requisite Republican red dresses. The two girls are seen clapping, cheering, and whispering to each other as Ted whips up the crowd to celebrate his victory. But Caroline was crowned the shadiest political kid when she gave a grimace for the ages after her dad said, "And I believe, and I hope and pray, that Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States." Caroline's look of pure cringe says everything we need to know about her disagreeing with her father's politics, and seconds later, she made it explicit by mouthing, "Don't clap for that," at her mother. As for why people shouldn't have been clapping, she may have been remembering that Trump once insulted her mother's looks on X, formerly known as Twitter, which feels like grounds for plenty of resentment.

But Caroline's cringe was not done. She also unapologetically wore her Trump disapproval on her face when her father brought the family to Washington, D.C., in 2025 to get sworn in as a senator by Kamala Harris. Caroline looked more than ready to leave, even as she wore a stunning, sheer blue-grey dress to her father's big day. The dead-eyed look on her face was a nice evolution of her victory speech grimace, but it did not give any indication that she has enjoyed her dad's continued career in politics.

There is also video evidence of Caroline Cruz's contentious relationship with her father's political career taking shape many years ago. In a video clip from 2016, where Ted Cruz was campaigning before the Iowa caucuses for his failed presidential bid, he tried to hug a much younger Caroline, and she resisted, even attempting to flick him away with her finger.

BBC Newsnight had footage of the awkward encounter, and it makes for a sad watch as Ted tries to lean in and kiss his daughter multiple times, as she repeatedly resists, even saying "ow" a number of times. Users in the comments section of the video agreed, with some pointing out that Ted did not ask for consent to kiss Caroline, which may have been a nice acknowledgment of her personhood. Another user was more direct, writing, "You can see that she knows that kiss was phony he don't give her that kind of attention at home." We're certainly not saying there's anything wrong with a father kissing their daughter, but the incident made for a strange interaction that seemed to imply that Caroline wanting distance from her dad's politics is nothing new.

Caroline Cruz's TikTok account may have also revealed a detail about her sexuality that she was not ready to share with her father. In 2022, LGBTQ Nation reported on a screenshot of a comment thread stemming from Caroline describing herself as "bi." In the thread, a user reportedly asked if her father knew that she was bisexual, to which Caroline replied, "I haven't told him yet, I'm kinda nervous tbh but I don't think he would be mad about it." And while we hope that Caroline's right, GLAAD has extensive documentation that Ted has decidedly anti-LGTBQ views, including the belief that traditional marriage is defined as being between a man and a woman. These views make it easy to understand why Caroline may not have shared her orientation with him.

Unfortunately, reporting on the incident took the Internet by storm, with Forbes tracking all the various individuals who weighed in, though many people condemned speculating on the then-13-year-old's sexuality, including notable Republicans JD Vance and Meghan McCain. So, while we don't know exactly how the invasive press cycle affected Caroline or whether it resulted in a negative or positive reaction from her, there is a glimmer of tragedy in a daughter having to hide any part of herself from her father in the first place.