A celebratory trip to St. Barts for the bachelorette party of Jade Jones, fiancée of Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton, has ended in tragedy. Mackenzie Kern, 26, a close friend of Jones, passed away from unexpected health complications on June 8, 2026.
The group was in the Caribbean to celebrate Jones’ upcoming wedding. Jones had documented the start of the trip on social media, captioning a collection of photos, “hopped on a flight to cloud 9.” Kern was featured prominently in the images. Her passing occurred just two days after her 26th birthday. According to her obituary, foul play, drugs, and alcohol are not suspected in her death. The obituary stated, “She was surrounded by her closest friends on a once in a lifetime trip to St. Barthelemy Island,”
Jones, Kern, and Haliburton were all friends from their time at Iowa State University. Jones and Kern were teammates on the cheerleading squad while Haliburton was the star of the men’s basketball team. Kern’s family noted that at Iowa State, “she deepened her friendships there that she maintained way beyond her days at ISU.” She was remembered as someone who “lived life to the fullest; she was silly, goofy and could brighten everyone’s spirits when she was around.”
Kern graduated from Iowa State in 2022 and was the Membership Director at the YMCA of Greater Omaha. Since the news, Jade Jones has not been active on social media. Neither she nor Haliburton have issued a public statement regarding the loss. A celebration of life for Mackenzie Kern is pending.
