Teresa Heinz Kerry grew up in Mozambique`s capital, Lourenço Marques (now called Maputo). Her father, José Simões-Ferreira, was an oncologist and tropical disease specialist, and "Teresinha" (her nickname in Portuguese) led a privileged existence. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Romance Languages and literature from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. She graduated from the Interpreters School of the University of Geneva before moving to the United States to work at the United Nations as a translator. She is fluent in five languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian, and her native Portuguese. She married ketchup magnate and Senator John Heinz in 1966, and they had three sons. She became a United States citizen after marrying Sen. Heinz and retiring from her U.N. translator job. She met Sen. John Kerry in 1990, after Heinz introduced them. (This was the only known time that Teresa and John Kerry met while she was married to Heinz.) After John Heinz died in a airplane accident in 1991, Teresa inherited his $500 million fortune. She and John Kerry ran into each other again at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at a United Nations sponsored environmental summit. They were married in 1995.

Heinz Kerry currently manages several Heinz foundations, disbursing money to various social and environmental causes. Heinz Kerry is beneficiary of her late husband`s trusts, making her extremely wealthy in her own name, and a powerful trustee of Heinz family wealth. Ironically, Teresa was a registered Republican for most of her voting life. In the early 2000s, she changed her registration to Democrat. Should Senator Kerry be elected President, Teresa will be the second foreign-born first lady.