A few months ago, I wrote what I considered to be a throwaway story about some new photos we had of Amal Alamuddin. I was just chatting, working through a comparison as I wrote, that George Clooney was trying to make Amal into this Carolyn Bessette-like figure, the princess-type who stole his heart after years of bachelorhood. Well, everybody yelled at me. So I won’t bring up that comparison again (although I still think the comparison is solid). Anyway, everybody still has some kind of Kennedy nostalgia. Last month was the 15 year anniversary of JFK Jr and Carolyn Bessette’s untimely plane crash deaths. I still remember where I was. Do you? People Mag has put John and Carolyn’s “untold story” on their cover this week, which is pretty smart. Everybody is still interested in them.
He was the world’s most eligible bachelor, the only son of our 35th President, with a world of possibility ahead. She was the impossibly chic Calvin Klein fashion publicist, so beautiful that her close friend Daniel Pfeffer says, “no photograph ever did her justice.” In Carolyn Bessette, those closest to John F. Kennedy Jr. say he finally met his match.
Still, she turned him down the first time he asked her out after meeting her at the Calvin Klein showroom in 1994. The first few times, in fact.
“She didn’t think he was serious,” says their close friend Gustavo Paredes, son of Jackie’s personal assistant, Provi Paredes. “He couldn’t believe she turned him down. It had never happened before.”
Flummoxed, he was. Discouraged, he was not. Kennedy, who had just launched George, his political and pop culture magazine, “kept figuring out a way to keep coming back going back to the showroom for more business meetings and more fittings,” says Paredes.
Their fairytale romance and surprise wedding on September 21, 1996, on Georgia’s Cumberland Island, was chronicled all over the world. Yet the fairytale came to an tragic end on July 16, 1999, when the plane piloted by Kennedy, 38, carrying his wife, 33, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, 34, crashed off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, killing all aboard. Fifteen years later, their closest confidantes remember John, not as Camelot’s heir, but as a friend and colleague who liked to drink Rolling Rock and had begun to talk about starting a family.
Carolyn they remember as a girl who loved to tease John about his penchant for blondes and his lack of fashion sense.
“She thought he was a fashion mistake,” says Gustavo Paredes.
“They were fiery,” says Ariel Paredes, Gustavo’s daughter and a close friend of Carolyn’s. “They would love hard and they would fight hard but they were very much a couple.”
Some of their closest confidantes share these and other stories in this week’s PEOPLE because they want John and Carolyn to be remembered as the warm and wonderful friends they loved.
“John was more famous than any celebrity but in a weird way, he was the simplest person,” says Matt Berman, former creative director of George and author of a new book: JFK Jr,. George, & Me, excerpted in this week’s PEOPLE. “The world saw them as this prince and princess, but they were the most real and engaging people I’ve ever known.”
Yeah, I think in the 15 years that’s passed, a lot of people have successfully whitewashed their marriage. I think he was in love, for sure, but she really bristled under the media’s gaze and she wasn’t very happy being this “America’s princess” figure. I always sort of believed that Carolyn had other stuff going on, and her ex-boyfriend always claimed that they were still occasional lovers even after she got with John.
Oh, and she refused his advances at first? Just like Amal Alamuddin and George Clooney!!
Photos courtesy of People, Getty.
So strange… I just picked up Rob Lowe’s Stories I Only Tell My Friends, yesterday at the library… and he spends the first chapter talking about JFK, Jr. I hadn’t thought of him in years! And now this story!
I do think when people die tragically, the story becomes MORE wonderful, MORE romantic, MORE heroic, etc. It’s just the nature of society, I think.
Om…I remember those days when JFK junior could be seen at the Central Park with his shepherd dog, I saw him few times, his mom with the chick scarf covering her head and those signature shades. I thought as many back then, that he will make the difference in his own way. Coralyn was a chick timeless beauty, unprepared for whole media circus. Very sad ending….
The zeal and smugness that people show in trying to affix blame for this accident is truly disgusting.
What’s wrong with people that they can’t just shut up, instead of piling on to criticize the accident victims? Do they feel better about their own dreary little lives if they can critique his flying or his decisions? Blame her for getting a mani/pedi?
Are they really that jealous and spiteful?
I don’t feel zeal or smugness personally, at the time I had a vivid nightmare of being in the plane and awoke feeling profoundly sad for their young lives being cut so tragically short. However I do think it’s fair to state the facts in this situation when the media just concentrates on preserving the fairy tale. It was not fate or a divine curse from the gods because the Kennedys were just too good for this earth, as is often the tagline, but rather a poorly made series of decisions. I just think for the Bessette family maybe more honest, less glowing accounts from the press would stop the loss of JFK Jr. swallowing the devastation of their family completely in the history of the event.
Can’t believe it’s been 15 years already since their deaths. It’s still so sad after all this time.
I know, so tragic, that weekend of hoping they would be found alive.
I hoped for the same thing: that they would somehow be found alive that weekend. A very sad story. I often wonder, if they lived, would they still be together today?
I have often wondered that myself, mom2two.
I can’t believe it either. John Jr. and Princess Diana were two icons of my generation and I still am sad that they both left us way before their time, two years apart and both in horrific accidents. Whenever I see pictures of either of them it’s hard to believe they are gone. 🙁
I always thought she looked much better with her natural hair color…also, much younger.
The blond aged her and made her look ‘harsher’.
I think she is pretty but I don’t know how she got elevated to a great beauty after death. John John I liked but he spent his entire life in his father’s shadow with high expectations of future ambition that he would never have been able to achieve. I haven’t even thought of them in years and didn’t think of them as a Prince and Princess.
He did not spend his entire life in his father’s shadow. He was very much his own man. Jackie parented both her children well, and they knew their own strengths. I worked with her. Did you know them?
I don’t think it would have been hard for him to rise to the level of his father. Certainly not impossible. He was beloved by the entire country. The public and media were yearning for a complete political story for this family where his own fathers was cut short. If he decided at any point to get into politics, he would have won, no matter what it was.
I think there were stories about her being on drugs and verbaly abusing him in public.
She looks like Goop, that typical waspy ice cold look. So bland.
I’m pretty sure they were both into coke. They made a beautiful couple and all but their marriage wasn’t perfect.
Maybe that’s another item Kaiser is hinting at for this solid comparison of Carolyn and Amal. Coke. They both do buckets of coke.
Richard Blow wrote a memoir about his time at George Magazine, and he strongly implied Matt Berman HATED Carolyn.
He also wrote about the fights he and John would have over her interference.
Berman’s being diplomatic, and loyal in these People quotes (rightly so)
I didn’t read Richard Blow’s memoir but I did pick up Berman’s. He was very complimentary of JFK Jr and Carolyn. Don’t really know what to think. They died so tragically and it’s sad all around. I’m just glad his mother wasn’t alive to see this because it would probably have broken her.
I didn’t read Richard Blow’s memoir but that Matt Berman stuff is a load of crap. Every other person who worked at George, including JFK Jr.’s assistant RoseMarie Terrenzio, have said that whenever Carolyn would come into the office she would stop by Matt Berman’s office first and hang out with him before she even went in to see John in his office. Apparently Carolyn and Matt Berman were very good friends. And all of John’s closest friends have said that Blow was only at George for a year and wasn’t remotely close to John, Carolyn or Matt Berman. Richard Blow was never invited to any parties or intimate gatherings where other staff were invited and was dismissed after only a year because he was a complete screw-up at work. Then he breaks his confidentiality agreement with George and writes a salacious book for $300,000? Frankly, I wouldn’t believe a word that guy says.
I think your confusing the two Bermans. Michael Berman who was John’s business partner was the one that Carolyn didn’t get along with apparently.
Richard Blow doesn’t write about MATT Berman in his book, he writes about MICHAEL Berman.
Michael Berman founded George together with John. He was not related to Matt.
Michael also was the one who introduced Rosemarie Terenzio to John (she worked for Michael before (in his PR firm).
Michael Berman apparently didn’t like Carolyn and vice versa.
Carolyn thought Michael was using John for his own interests and Michael hated John’s dependency on Carolyn and her interfering with the magazine’s business.
That went so far that one day John and Michael Berman had a fight in the office, with John tearing Michael’s shirt.
Yes. There were quite a few articles at the time about this. Proper articles done by journalists. Fashion mags (in particular) did glowing eulogies about Carolyn’s style, beauty etc etc and glossed over the other issues. I’m OK with remembering the tragedy of their deaths..not OK with things being whitewashed though.
The Camelot myth and Kennedy worshipping needs to end though. Seriously.
I really don’t understand complaints like this. Why does it matter that people who were loved and died tragically young have “whitewashed” life stories? I mean, the president, his father, was murdered on television. His uncle, also a loved and respected political figure, was murdered the same way. This entire family was full of the collective promise that was never fulfilled. Maybe u and Kaiser want ur flaws and failures as a person memorialized in your funeral and eulogy. I certainly don’t. It’s not a bad thing to celebrate only the good.
Jane: GOOP co-opted Carolyn’s look. If people hadn’t forgotten Carolyn, they’d see that GOOP continues to co-opt her look.
Im Over mag covers Lionizing Kennedys to be honest…and he was one of the nicer ones but still this dredging up Kennedys thing that magazines do NEEDS To stop
And really how about this chest beating and remembrance etc about the poor Bessettes losing two daughters in one go like that?
ITA.
Yes, QQ. People often forgot that the Bessettes lost two children in that accident. The surviving daughter lost her twin in that crash. Difficult to even fathom that kind of loss.
I’m over lionizing the Kennedys, too. Unparalleled privilege that 99.9999% of us can’t even begin to comprehend.
“The surviving daughter lost her twin in that crash”
I didn’t know that, how sad. There is nothing like that relationship.
:: picks up phone and immediately calls twin sister ::
I agree with all of your points.
I always feel sorry for the Bessette family when this story gets brought up. The other sister rarely gets a mention when people talk about this accident, and if she does, it’s along the lines of “Oh, yeah, she died, too.” How awful.
UGH YES!! Greengirl, exactly that! The media literally mention this poor woman as an aside or debris from the flight that brought down our camelot dreams royalty perfection..,instead of, you Know… A Person?
And the diaries of Robert Kennedy Jr (brought up again on the thread about his marriage) had some less than flattering things to say about the way the Kennedy clan and Ed Schlossberg (Caroline’s husband) treated the Bessette family. (And apparently Caroline & Carolyn did NOT get along at all and that had caused a great deal of strain between the always-tight siblings. )
Wasn’t there talk or actual action about a wrongful death lawsuit or some kind of settlemenent?
I vaguely remembered a wrongful death lawsuit or a threat of one. I’m sure Caroline paid off the Bessette family so we never head about it again.
I think it’s well known that Caroline and Carolyn didn’t get along.
@QQ….Agree with everything you said 100%
Its terrible what happened with the Bessettes.
But JFK Jr was the focus because he was the famous one.
He was one of the most famous men in the world
If not, the story would have simply being a “couple and their relative who went down in a private plane”.
No traction from that as 270 private flights in America crashed that year as well.
And no one would care or pretend to
I agree. People rarely point out that JFK Jr. was EXTREMELY reckless in his behavior that led up to the crash. He was informed by multiple pilots that he really should not be flying in the conditions they flew in. He was not trained in night flying, flying over water, etc. He made so many stupid, stupid choices that directly resulted in three deaths. I hate when people behave as though this “tragedy” could not have been prevented. It totally could have.
Yes, it certainly could have. Reckless is the right word for this. Very sad that he wasn’t careful enough with their lives to consider these things the way he should have done.
I always thought it was strange that the Bessette family sued the Kennedy family over their daughter’s deaths, & got a hefty settlement. I would bet that wouldn’t have happened if they weren’t Kennedys.
Very good point! And I’m sick of the obsession with the Kennedys too. This was a sad loss for two families but I’m done with all the romanticizing of their lives and deaths.
I read an article many years ago that stated JFK Jr. wanted to fly out earlier that day but Carolyn was late because she got a mani/pedi or something like that. Don’t remember exactly what she had planned that day that led to them leaving later than originally scheduled. Apparently JFK Jr. was upset about that but instead of waiting until the morning he decided to fly at night. I would not be surprised if both made silly decisions that ultimately led to the plane crash. Of course, JFK Jr. is primarily responsible because he flew the plane and could have postponed travel until the following morning, but what if they had left earlier? Would they still be alive today?
Wow didn’t look at it from that angle especially at the time – His ego killed them.
JFK, Jr as a reckless pilot whose incompetence and flippant disregard off the rules is a manufactured angle that is unfortunately settling into fact. I believed this version myself until I read Rob Littel’s memoire. I think Kennedy’s rep as a hunky, dumb playboy helped make the accusations of recklessness easier to swallow. But he was fully certified and took flying seriously. The accident was attributed to spatial disorientation, which can happen to seasoned pilots. Sometimes an accident is just an accident.
@damesnarkweek I totally agree. I think there were bad (or, in hindsight, tragic) decisions that were made but I don’t think JFK Jr was ‘reckless’. He was perfectly equipped to fly that plane. Was he perhaps too inexperienced to fly in those conditions? Maybe–but that was a bad decision, not a reckless or indifferent one. In the NTSB report, which found pilot error, it was noted that he was “unqualified to fly a plane by “instruments only”” but that the crash occurred in conditions not legally requiring such qualification–the weather listed Visual Flight Rules. So he made a (bad) judgement call and it cost him and 2 others their lives. Even the most experienced pilots suffer accidents, especially in less than ideal conditions–rarely a month goes by that some headline isn’t out about a small aircraft crashing and usually the pilots are well-experienced.
And, yes, they were held up but according to the NTSB report it was because Lauren was late leaving work and then they hit the dreaded NYC traffic. So they left 2.5 hrs late (8:30 pm instead of 6 pm). They were going to drop Lauren off and the 2 were going to have dinner with JFK Jr’s best friend/cousin Anthony Radziwill and his wife Carol. I believe it was Anthony who first became worried when too much time had elapsed.
I’d like to think the 2 of them were, overall, happily married. It doesn’t seem like it was an easy relationship but I’ve also read a lot of people who (while not glossing over the bad times) said they were in it for the long haul. But, also according to the NTSB report, he had spent the last 3 nights at a separate residence from his wife. (This was included because stress factors can affect a pilot’s performance.)
@ Dame Snarkweek :
JFK Jr. was an experienced pilot but not on the type of plane that he flew that day. I recall articles at the time saying he was “stepping up” to a more difficult type of aircraft and he barely had the hours required to fly it solo.
I’m an impatient person by nature but it is sad to think of the tragedy that could have been avoided if they had just waited until the next morning to fly out when no one would have been tired and it would have been daylight. So much safer but that is just 20/20 hindsight. They were going to his cousin Rory Kennedy’s wedding that weekend. Extra tragic because of this – a family celebration turned into a death watch.
Kori – I remember there being this huge in depth look into it. You know CNN likes to draw out a story and make very little thing seem newsworthy and I seem to remember they had a segment on and they were in a small plane showing how the flight error would have occurred and most of it was down to flying over water. Because there’s no point of reference you’re basically flying blind and are entirely dependent on your instruments. It was actually a pretty interesting piece.
sometimes I don’t really think he was thinking to be honest. Accounts from that time said that he was pretty pissed off that Carolyn was late because she didn’t really want to go (I believe she disliked the Kennedy clan), and they were fighting with each other. Apparently Carolyn had a horrible temper. Add to that his leg. I get the feeling that the weather, the of conditions were all an afterthought and it was just “let’s get to the damn destination already”. I’m not excusing his reckless behavior but I don’t think either him or Carolyn were happy go lucky before the flight. It was inferred that they were probably even fighting during the flight and that also led to him not paying attention and eventually that coupled with his inexperience was their downfall.
Jackie Kennedy was said to have begged her son not to get his pilot’s license, as she had some sort of premonition that he would be killed piloting his own plane.
Dame Snarkweed: I’m sorry, but No. Have you ever read the NTSB report about the crash? The report (which was compiled by people who know their stuff) placed the blame for the crash solely as “pilot error.” The plane did not malfunction, it was just poor piloting. JFK Jr. had a responsibility to know his own abilities and limitations, and the flight that night was not within his ability to do safely. The report actually states that multiple people questioned the safety of his choices before they took off. He also chose a route that took them out of sight of the horizon (which would have been safer) to cut some time off. Almost every decision he made went against good flying practices. Whitewashing that doesn’t make his death less sad, but it does mean that this was preventable and stupid.
Spot on. He was responsible for what happened. He was warned but the Kennedy in him told him he should not listen to EXPERTS and fly anyway. They said both Carolyn and her sister were not happy about going on that plane at all but John won out and good sense did not prevail.
I am just going to throw this out there and I know it sounds nuts. Anyway I read somewhere that all the stories we have heard about the weather, his reckless behavior, etc. was a ploy to throw everyone off what really happened. They go on to say if you look at his flight hours he had more than enough to be a commercial pilot, the weather was clear that night, and everything was going fine for him. The story basically implied we are all fed lines by the media and we believe them.
Now what really happened, I have no idea.
****Not saying I buy this at all I am just saying this is what I read****
Eliza
“The Kennedy in him”?
You lost my attention right there. Presumptious and unfair, imo.
Pilot error is the logical conclusion when mechanical issues, weather, criminal sabotage etc have all been ruled out. This, however, does not automatically indicate recklessness or blatant disregard for safety or SOPs. All one can really say is that more experience would have probably prevented the accident, but given the fact that seasoned pilots crash every day it is unfair to paint JFK, Jr as someone who just decided to throw caution to the wind.
@Dame- Fair enough. The Kennedy’s, historically, have always been reckless and hard headed and that is not my opinion but the opinions of many who have known them and written extensively about them. That is the basis of my comment.
Sam, I am a pilot and so is my brother and father. Dame Snarkweek is completely correct: Whenever mechanical or other unforeseeable environmental factors are eliminated, pilot error is ALWAYS the ruling by the NTSB. But pilot error is not in any way synonymous with “reckless” and it’s important that you understand that. Spatial disorientation is extremely common and has happened to thousands of more experienced pilots. In fact, you wouldn’t believe how easy it is to become disoriented when flying, through no real fault of your own. The weather was supposed to be clear that night and when he took off, it was. The flight plan he had scheduled from New York to Martha’s Vineyard is a very short, simple trip and you basically just hug the coastline the whole way. I’ve made this same trip myself several times and it’s a very short, easy flight. The problem that night was that unexpected hazy conditions rolled in that weren’t anticipated for by weather reports. Kennedy wasn’t instrument trained. So when the haze enveloped the plane, it would have been like flying blind. In those conditions you only have a matter of minutes, sometimes seconds, to get your bearings before things get scary. But to dismiss his actions as “reckless” simply because of how you interpret the Kennedys or what you’ve read in the tabloids is both unfair and irresponsible. It was an accident and the full reading of the NTSB report and analysis of weather conditions that night bear that out.
Eliza
Fwiw you are essentially correct about those Kennedy traits but it only takes a cursory familiarity with JFKs life to see that he was far more Jackie than Jack. Besides, blaming the victim makes me uncomfortable in this situation. Still, I hope I didn’t come across as heavy-handed. If so, it was not my intention.
Kristen
You said it so much better than I did. Thank you for your insight.
I remember listening to many Larry King Live interviews at the time of the accident, and I recall vividly the accounts of several people who talked to JFK Jr. on that day. According to them (quoting John), they were late because Lauren, Carolyn’s sister, had gone shopping and did not arrive in time for the scheduled late afternoon flight.
Apparently, she also had an event or something later that night (not at Hyannis Port), so they took off anyway and were supposed to drop her off first.
John and Carolyn, of course, had to be at Hyannis Port for Rory’s wedding the next day, and had been expected to join the Kennedy family at the rehearsal dinner on the evening before (i.e. on the day of the accident)
@Kristin, A similar accident happened when I lived on the Cape. A pilot who became disoriented in fog, and the plane crashed into the dunes.
Kristen, thank you for your explanation. It was very helpful.
I doubt Jackie had a premonition. I think unfortunately she just knew her son and felt that perhaps he wasn’t pilot material. Not everyone should be a pilot.
Agreed.
Of course the Kennedys were/ are newsworthy. One was president and was assassinated, one would have been president but was assassinated, and a third would have been president if it hadn’t been for Chappaquidick. Not to mention the glamour of Jackie O, the Marilyn connection and the various other family stories. Maybe it’s an age thing but but the sense of shock about JFK’s death, as well as the bizarre events that followed, meant that the continued interest was inevitable. It doesn’t mean they have to be sanctified.
You make a really good point, QQ. It’s like we are glossing over all that was “bad” with them (like I said above – their marriage was so tumultuous, I wonder if they would even have been together today had they lived).
He was so handsome, and she was lovely, but I don’t think their marriage would have lasted much longer.
IA.
There were a lot of stories about her being a pretty unpleasant lady (there was a couple of very unflattering accounts of her after her death) and I’ve wondered how true they were.Though I love how they used the word “fiery” to describe the relationship – I think you’re right GNAT, they wouldn’t have made it through the long haul.
@Bridget
Yep.
And when Carolyn’s mother sued Caroline for the death and got a pay off, …… whole thing just never sat well with me. JMO
@ Jegede – I never heard that. Carolyn’s mother sued Caroline for what?
For their deaths. It was played out in the tabloids Carolyn’s mom went after Caroline while Carolyn’s biological father thought it was bad taste.
(Especially as Carolyn was by all accounts very strong willed, had flown with John before and did not have to be coerced into anything).
The family settled with $15-$20 million.
I was 12 at the time and I remember my mum being baffled and saying it was poor taste
As Caroline Kennedy’s children were John Kennedy Jr.’s heir’s, as his wife died with him, her biological parents sued his estate, not Caroline. A NTSB report into the accident concluded that Kennedy was too inexperienced to at fly at night and was flying a plane too advanced for his experience. They lost two of their three daughters in what seems to have been an avoidable accident so I don’t believe it was in poor taste.
Jegede, as a mother who lost 2 daughters to JFK Jr’s piloting error I think she was entitled to sue JFK Jr’s estate. When you fly someone in your own plane you have a financial responsibility if something goes wrong. She wasn’t suing Caroline as much as Caroline was in charge of John’s estate after his death since his money was going to her children. It was a wrongful death lawsuit and Carolyn Bessette’s Dad was part of it too.
@KAI
Different culture I guess in the taste angle.
She lost 2 children and the pilot lost his life but would the money bring them back?
And it was spatial disorientation which accounted for half the US private plane crashes in 1999.
Its not like he set out to murder them
But I guess considering how miserable their marriage was apparently becoming, the pay off was a fitting endnote.
@someone – Maybe her stepfather but her biological dad did give interviews saying he disagreed with Ann Freeman’s actions.
And according to John’s friends, Rob Litterel and Billy Noonan considering how icy Ann Freeman was to John while he was very much alive right until their wedding day; Its an interesting conclusion
Caroline was most certainly strong willed, complicated and domineering. JFK, Jr spent more than a few nights sleeping on the couch. But she was also very sensitive, vulnerable and overwhelmed at times. There were a few close friends who saw a different dynamic between Caroline and John, in private he often had to calm her bad nerves and allay her fears, both real and imagined.
They both did drugs, mostly at parties. Caroline was a handful and I doubt they would have remained married for the rest of their lives but at the time of their deaths they were actually a lot closer than most people realize. Eerily enough, JFK and Jackie had also entered a new, close, intimacy just months before the assassination.
Jegede
Of course, they likely knew the money wouldn’t bring back their deceased loved ones. There are other reasons people go for the wallets of others in those cases. To inflict pain, lessen theirs, or to simply lash out in any way they can. It’s not always the most rational move, but people grieving aren’t always the most rational.
Jegede, out of curiosity I searched the internet to see how the payoff worked out. It was report in July 2001 that the Kennedys and William Bessette and Ann Freeman came to an undisclosed agreement on a settlement, thereby keeping the Bessette parents from filing a wrongful death lawsuit. While the exact amount wasn’t disclosed it was “estimated” to be $15 million out of the $50 Million in JFK jrs estate. The judge announced that the money would be put in a separate account while Ann Freeman and William Bessette decided how to split it amongst themselves. I couldn’t find anything further to see how Ann and William decided to split it – 50/50 etc. That would be interesting to know!
Murder is not the only basis on which to file a wrongful death suit. If John Kennedy Jr. was found to be responsible for his wife’s death, which he was, her parents are entitled to sue. They did not rewrite any laws to appease her grieving parents and the state of their marriage (if unsubstantiated rumours are to be believed) is irrelevant.
Well, I don’t think there are too many pilots out there who take off thinking, ‘I can’t wait to kill us all today’, so I don’t how not intending to murder anyone makes a difference. Lots of people are killed unintentionally due to some sort of accident. In the most stark of terms, no, the money doesn’t bring them back, but to be painfully blunt, what is he going to do with it? I suppose that’s when the awkward part with the lawyers starts. He didn’t mean to, but he crashed that plane.
The reason that so many private planes go down because of spatial disorientation is because their pilots don’t bother to get instrument training. They’re supposed to, but about half of them don’t and have no idea why this is this the case. I didn’t know that he intentionally flew out of sight of the horizon line but, forgive me for saying, that’s an astronomically stupid thing for a person in his position to do. THAT can throw off even the seasoned commercial pilots. I’m not speaking ill of the dead, I’m just thinking of the myriad bad decisions that were made that resulted in three people dying almost certainly unnecessarily. I’m sure that L and C Bessette’s family don’t think that what he did was on purpose or that he deserves to be dead or this was their opportunity to finally stick it to that family but if I were in their position, I don’t know. They lost almost half of their family.
But even if the most experienced of pilots goes down because of spatial disorientation, they aren’t always blameless, either. This is why I could never be a pilot. He wasn’t drunk or high or anything like that, just blinded by impatience and an overestimation of his skill set. When the experts tell you not to fly, you hop in a car, or tell your pushy family that you’ll give them a call before you take off tomorrow morning. I don’t know why these Kennedy men believe themselves to be so invincible, nothing in the history justifies that belief.
I know hindsight is 20/20, but i think the whole point was that you should be able to see some things coming, or at least hear them when experts say them to you. I guess that’s how you get a payout.
Well, I don’t think there are too many pilots out there who take off thinking, ‘I can’t wait to kill us all today’, so I don’t how not intending to murder anyone makes a difference. Lots of people are killed unintentionally due to some sort of accident. Fall asleep at the wheel, it’s still impaired driving. In the most stark of terms, no, the money doesn’t bring them back, but to be painfully blunt, what is he going to do with it? That’s just how it goes, people have insurance for stuff like this and you do automatically take up financial responsibility for your passenger, so it really is a matter for the courts.
The reason that so many private planes go down because of spatial disorientation is because their pilots don’t bother to get instrument training. They’re supposed to, but about half of them don’t and have no idea why this is this the case. I didn’t know that he intentionally flew out of sight of the horizon line but, forgive me for saying, that’s an astronomically stupid thing for a person in his position to do. THAT can throw off even the seasoned commercial pilots. I’m not speaking ill of the dead, I’m just thinking of the myriad bad decisions that were made that resulted in three people dying almost certainly unnecessarily. I’m sure that L and C Bessette’s family don’t think that what he did was on purpose or that he deserves to be dead or this was their opportunity to finally stick it to that family but if I were in their position, I don’t know. They lost almost half of their family.
But even if the most experienced of pilots goes down because of spatial disorientation, they aren’t always blameless, either. This is why I could never be a pilot. He wasn’t drunk or high or anything like that, just blinded by impatience and an overestimation of his skill set. When the experts tell you not to fly, you hop in a car, or tell your pushy family that you’ll give them a call before you take off tomorrow morning. I don’t know why these Kennedy men believe themselves to be so invincible, nothing in the history justifies that belief.
I know hindsight is 20/20, but i think the whole point was that you should be able to see some things coming, or at least hear them when experts say them to you.
I don’t think so, either. Too much drama.
I remember that by many reports (while they were still alive) their marriage was very rocky. This seems like a rewrite of history.
Yep.
Yeah. Wasn’t everyone speculating about their possible divorce when they died? Maybe I am mis-remembering that. But I thought there was lots of gossip that they fought quite a bit.
Imo, they died before the things probably would have gotten really bad. Still tragic, though.
Yes, there was speculation that they were on the verge of separating. I don’t think Bessette ever adapted to the media crush that followed JFK Jr. around. I don’t think she was prepared for the way it would take over their lives. But I also think the pre-nup was set up so she didn’t get anything unless the marriage lasted for at least 3-4 years – then she would get a million dollar payout. It is possible that she was hanging around in a miserable marriage in order to get that. She would have left the marriage penniless otherwise.
Yes-I remember very clearly how miserable she looked most of the time. Definitely a volatile relationship. And I think this is such a gross money grab by People magazine.
People magazine around that time suggested that JFK jr. had spent the night with an ex-girlfriend at a hotel the day before the plane crash occurred. Kind of surprised that they’re on the whitewashing bandwagon now…but maybe that angle sells more copies.
I would whitewash it too at this point in time. Neither of the families deserve to have the ugliness dragged out again. And Caroline Kennedy’s kids are in their early ’20’s now. Do they need to hear all the “dirt” about the uncle they adored? I don’t think so.
Had they lived, I think divorce would’ve been a very real possibility by now. There were so many rumors about drugs and breakdowns, it just seemed like things were crazy.
Carole Radziwill would’ve known best, but she has never spilled that kind of tea.
It certainly does! I remember hearing at the time (btw, I was on a cross trainer at Bally’s when this Tragedy popped up on TV!), that one of the reasons they crashed is because Carolyn was late. She was angry because her assistant couldn’t get the right color of nail polish she wanted. They crashed due to severe weather. I also heard that JFK, Jr had moved out of his Tribeca Condo and was staying in a different apartment because of her drugging and hosting her friends all the time. It’s a genuine pity that this had to happen. He was as close to royalty as we had in the U.S. His loss and the far greater loss of the extraordinary Princess Diana are among the saddest of the 90s! At least her children are carrying on her legacy.
He was smoking hot. The only good looking Kennedy, IMO. She looked cold and bland, but I remember liking her fashion sense. She dressed very classic.
WORD.
ICONIC beautiful man in looks and style and modernity. That’s all I got here.
The BEST People’s Sexiest Man Alive in my opinion. A beautiful man and I hear a really nice guy. I can’t
believe it’s been 15 years.
He was lucky that he looked more like Jackie’s side of the family…sorry, but those Kennedy gene’s can be fugly!
ITA
all i see in the rest is enormous teeth and bad skin
You need to check out some pictures of young JFK before the Addison’s disease puffed him up. Gorgeous
And the Kennedy/Shriver boys are actually very good looking Tim and Anthony rival John John for hotness, but they were of course not as famous
A little wonk-eyed but definitely a handsome guy:
http://www.dailyjfk.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/JFK-forelock.jpg
Great head of hair just like his son.
It wasn’t the Addisons disease that puffed him up, it was the testosterone injections he was given to gain weight and build muscle. Apparently he hated his puffy face and just before his inauguration, he looked in the mirror and said something like “My God, look at this face. We should just cancel the inauguration, shouldn’t we?”
Idk I still think that he was pretty goodlooking but he was definitely gorgeous back in the day, especially in his Navy uniform.
Alexis
Wasn’t her fashion more of Calvin Klein styling? They did her up and got exposure?
Simple lines, cuts, styles. That kind of classic look is always lovely.
Amal could learn a thing or 2 regarding keeping away from leopard print sunglasses and clear heeled hooker shoes.
Agree! Her styling had A LOT to do with Calvin Klein. The simple lines and cuts are timeless. My mom still references her style. Haha!
Didn’t Carolyn work for Calvin Klein at some time?
Her fashion really became iconic when she started wearing Japanese designers….all that Comme des garcon, Yohji Yamamoto in black, with no jewels, and a red lip! Perfection.
Chrissy
Yes she did. I think someone told me it was a job like Friends Rachel worked for RL. The label attached itself to the show//character for exposure. Not because that person could bring so much more than that to the table.
LAK
She could pull off the no jewels, simple hair, and red lips. And that is no easy task.
http://rarevintage.blogspot.com/2014/07/missing-carolyn-bessette-kennedy.html
Oh yeah he was the only Kennedy that turned my head. That’s because he doesn’t have the horsey, toothy Kennedy look that Caroline and Maria Shriver has. He’s a Bouvier through and through.
Yeah I also thought he could have done better than who he ended up with (I wasn’t crazy about Darryl Hannah or Madonna either) but whatever. Marriage is tough. He and Carolyn were hitting a rough patch at the time of their deaths, that was too bad. If they were alive today, I doubt they would be still together.
As a kid I always thought he was so attractive. One of the most striking men I have ever seen.
I love Carolyn Bessette… so elegant, so cool. Gwyneth Paltrow basically copied her whole look in the 90s.
+1 she was stunning and I loved her style it was effortless and YES he was HOT I use to see him with his bike walking with the average guy and a basketball. I always fumbled in my bag to walk slower and get a better look. He had a great smile too.
I remember looking at magazine photos of the two of them in Central Park–they were so stylish and so quintessentially New York Upper East Side.
They always managed to look incredibly carefree but perfectly refined at the same time.
Two really well-matched (at least looks-wise) stunners.
Well …… maybe refined when they weren’t screaming at each other. The paps caught quite a few fights between the two of them.
Me too. There are so many BS rumors floating around out there, but they’ll never be clarified because she can’t defend herself. That idiot Michael Bergin instigated a lot of it. One of the books written by a friend of John’s refutes at least one rumor Bergin started about infidelity. There was proof Carolyn was elsewhere when Bergin said they were together. That man is pond scum. I can only imagine how much her family was hurt by that book (and Ed Klein’s).
I actually do remember where I was. I was on my first date with my husband! I remember the news coverage going on all the TV’s surrounding us in the restaurant.
I was driving across the Sonoran desert with my sister and our friend. It was hot and the news was so unbelievable. I spoke to him on the phone once, he called my boss’s office. He was so polite and sweet I wanted to call him “John-John” but managed to call him “Mr. Kennedy”.
it sounds like he was not an uppity person – and good save – interactions like this are often the most interesting to read about because it shows how the celeb with the fancy image treats others 🙂 it appears he was graceful in his interactions.
Wow, Maryjones, who pissed in your cornflakes this morning?
I was having an emergency appendectomy! There was a heatwave here (typical southern Ontario summer heat & humidity,) & the hospital’s AC wasn’t up to snuff. I had to have my husband bring me a little electric fan. I spent hours just lying in bed watching one of those little personal hospital tv’s on an arm, followong the story on CNN, sweating & feeling sore & sick.
I remember where I was, Key West with an RAF officer. That was the day he asked me to marry him. We were in Sloppy Joes and it came across the TV’s at the bar. I was completely shaken. Being in the age range that thought JFK jr was a prince, Kevin was fascinated that everyone in the bar was upset. It was interesting to have that insight. I’ll never forget that day for a variety of reasons.
Side note: Alas, we didn’t make it down the aisle. One of the great regrets in my life. Le Sigh…
Sighing with you. What a bittersweet memory.
+1.
Ah, Kneepads strikes again. Fairytale romance? They fought like cats and dogs, cheated on each other, she couldn’t stop snorting coke – and all that was before they were married. He was planning on (finally) getting into politics, and found, what he thought, was the perfect fit; a non-celebrity, professional woman from a nice family with no skeletons for the press to uncover. They were miserable toward the end, and it’s a shame People is bringing this all up again, but to whitewash the truth like this…
I read several memoirs by the people close to them and working for them – nobody talked about any coke addiction. Who is your source?
Its a fairly well known rumor about Bessette, I’m surprised you’ve never come across it if you’re that interested in her.
@Bridget, well, can you give me at least one source where you’ve heard that rumor from? “Fairly well known” doesn’t mean much
Ive heard the coke thing too. I believe it was in a book about about his life. Its more than just a one off rumor.
http://www.vanityfair.com/society/features/2003/08/john-f-kennedy-jr-carolyn-bessette-divorce-drugs-scandal
If you watch the documentary about their deaths (I believe it’s called “Final 24”) one of Caroline’s friends personally appears on the show and confirms that she was a cocaine user – although he maintained she used it socially only and was not an addict.
I too assumed it was well known that she had a serious drug problem. Just Google ‘Carolyn Bessette cocaine’ and you’ll get all the sources you could want. If you prefer a hard copy source, start with ‘The Kennedy Curse’, by Edward Klein, published 2003.
I also remember the coke rumors. I remember another rumor about her sister or a friend (escapes me at this time) going to their apartment and getting rid of coke.
Sam
Rumaging through netflix for something to fall asleep to I watched that show thinking it was 24. They did cover it, but the coke rumors were around for ages while she was alive.
@epiphany, Cocaine use or not, it’s important to know that no one within Kennedy circles would ever speak to Ed Klein. He is a fabricator speaking to 4th-hand sources.
To be fair, basically all rich celebrities do coke recreationally. It’s not super sensational; I guess it only matters if he wanted her to stop and she didn’t want to stop partying. I have couple friends who break up and get back together on basically a bi-monthly coke cycle. It used to be entertaining to watch from the outside, but now it’s just tedious.
@Bucky, do you think if she did it, he definitely did not? I mean it sounds like if she did coke and the rumors are true and it’s nothing sensational, it might be safe to assume JFK Jr. did it as well…
I saw this and thought WTF. It’s not the anniversary of their deaths or the anniversary of their wedding. Talk about desperate for a story. Pathetic. Let the dead rest. Don’t resurrect them every time you have nothing to offer. People has slipped down to the bottom of the barrel.
I think they died over Labor Day weekend-People is trying to get a jump on the anniversary. And it’s gross.
The plane crash was on July 16th. Diana’s accident was at the end of August and the funeral around Labor Day.
The plane went down in July 1999. He was attempting to get to the Cape for a cousin’s wedding.
That’s right, the wedding. Somewhere I read at the time that part of the reason for the crash was that they took off later than expected because Carolyn had to have her pedicure done over because the polish did not match the exact shade of her purple dress… I always think of this when any of the ironies of life come up, or whenever I get my feet done.
So sad.
Ah. I posted the same story about Carolyn getting a pedicure which was the cause if them leaving late. I knew I had read that somewhere and that detail also stuck with me. Very ironic and sad to die over something like that.
I always hated that pedicure story… it seemed like a way to blame the non-Kennedy (and of course, the woman) for what seems to have been simply a tragic accident. There was a story (maybe in Vanity Fair?) that just seemed to dwell and dwell on it in a way that I don’t think it would have, had she been late for the flight due to a traffic jam instead of something that could be pinned on vanity and “those silly ladies amirite?”
My recollection is that her sister, who was hitching a ride to the wedding and died as well (poor Bessettes!), was held up by her boss at work at Morgan Stanley. This made them late taking off so that they were flying at that dangerous time of dusk/beginning of nighttime, when an inexperienced flyer would have a hard time distinguishing the horizon from the sea.
Here’s a good summary of what happened with the plane. Air pollution was a big factor in their deaths. http://profhorn.meteor.wisc.edu/wxwise/weather/lesson6/CaseI.html
I just finished “Fairytale Interrupted” a memoir by John’s personal assistant. Pretty good read. He seemed like a normal guy, not entitled or anything, not a jerk. It also appeared like they did fight a lot, apparently, because Carolyn wasn’t happy with the media attention. She really took it very hard, while John’s has been used to it for years.
Matt Berman’s book was interesting as well. A lot of John stories, not that many of John and Carolyn. He sounds like he was a great boss to work for. Very down to earth. The pictures in the book are different too – unguarded and not media perfect.
I remember too. Was supposed to go to work that morning (it was a Saturday) but I woke up with a stomach virus and called out. They announced it on the news and I stayed glued to the TV hoping against hope they would be found alive. It was awful.
I was so in love with him. I grew up in RI and JFK jr went to Brown. One night, a group of friends and I were going to a frat party, that we had heard he belonged. I was beside myself that I could possibly meet him. We got to the house, and I promptly tripped and fell into the doorway on the floor, and flat on my face. It also turned out it was the wrong house and we had stumbled into (literally) an all black frat. We ended up staying and having a helluva time!! Sadly, no John-John.
Awe. Some.
Great story.
Best. Story. EVAH. Thanks for sharing, Soxfan!
I heard he wasn’t instrument rated in flying, the weather reports weren’t good. He chose to fly anyway. Sad ending. Bad decision to take off that night.
Supposedly he intended to fly earlier, but one or both sisters were delayed in arriving at the airport. There were also reports of fog for that area. If I recall correctly, he also chose to change to a flight path over water (possibly to save time, as it was a shorter route — but it was also void of any lights that might have helped him navigate by sight).
On top of that, he was recovering from an injury and had been hobbling around on crutches.
One of the things that I’d always heard about John Jr. was that he took unnecessary risks. So he probably shouldn’t have been flying anyway. Investigators did eventually conclude that the accident was pilot error.
I didn’t see your comment before posting above that I think it had something to do with taking off late because Carolyn had her pedicure done over for the cousin’s wedding they were flying in to attend. So tragic, it’s an unbelievably sad story from start to end.
I remember thinking it was good that his mom had passed away previously-bec how horrible would it have been for her to live through this? All three in that plane passed away way too soon. I hope People had the compassion to give their survivors the heads up that this cover was in the works.
Interesting that People is only now getting to the story. I mean it was 15 years ago in July . . . . August is such a slow news month that now this long past event makes the cover. Just my two cents.
Agreed.
If it was an anniversary they could have gone for it in early-mid July and relegated some of their other stories.
Giving it a big spread now just seems like well there’s not much else to talk about
I lived in NYC when this happened so needless to say it was big news. I thought it was a terribly sad thing at the time but seemed preventable from so many angles. JFK jr died and took his wife and her sister with him because he was an overly confident Kennedy who didn’t begin to consider the risks he was taking that night. Carolyn did not want to fly, and expressed her nerves about it before the crash – a sad case to remind us to always trust your intuition. Far more experienced pilots than he decided not to fly because of the conditions, and he was not trained to fly at night with no co-pilot or night vision instruments. So mainly I feel sad for the Bessettes for losing two of their children to this sad yet completely avoidable accident. I’m tired of the media continuing to whitewash it because it was a Kennedy. He was not noble or heroic, nor was his marriage perfect. Camelot is a myth, they need to let it go. For me personally i was just about to go through a horrific breakup, not as sad maybe but I remember that just as vividly. So I kind of associate this era with personal heartbreak so maybe I’m less inclined to be sympathetic, I don’t know. Life is short, and people who play hard and fast as they did run higher risks.
My cousin was born the same year as John (1960), and she died the month after this. However, she had struggled with brain cancer and the after-effects since she was a teenager.
I just remember thinking how she (bedridden for years) had slightly outlived someone so full of health and vitality because of an evening of bad decisions.
How sad, I am sorry to hear that she suffered for so long. I don’t mean to be heartless about it but as you point out life is something that someone like your cousin clung onto and fought for valiantly – it’s just a different perspective. I’m sure JFK had his own perspective, maybe having his Dad and Uncle murdered when he was so young made him the daredevil, seize the day type. I get it, but the wealth and power of his background combined with that to make a deadly common sense error that I don’t think most people would have risked.
I probably could have worded my comments better. I don’t intend to sound as if it’s unfair; their deaths at a young age from entirely different circumstances was a life lesson to me that there are no guarantees.
I agree he made a bad decision that night that proved deadly. He also had a broken foot (may have still been in a cast) from come type of glider accident. The women being delayed just added to the many red flags that suggested doing things differently due to the risks involved.
I am sorry about your breakup. My personal life wasn’t very solid at that time, either, and that’s another thing I recall about that summer. I hope things got better for you.
Oh I really don’t need sympathy for a 15 yr old breakup but thank you anyway! I’m happily married now. It’s weird how some personal events you remember more vividly maybe partly because of the dramatic events surrounding them though.
I agree with everything you said, and you said it so well.
I’m sorry for your personal heartbreak, I hope all is better for you now.
I don’t know if you are talking to me but thanks if so – in light of @Christine’s family loss my little breakup was nothing in comparison though.
he once brought a girlfriend to the restaurant i worked in to break up with her
everyone has a right to break up with anyone. and he wasnt mean about it or anything. but to do it in a restaurant that was smaller than my living room where every stranger could hear. that poor girl.
If JFK Jr. were still alive, no one would ever consider Clooney for politics!
She didn’t have perfect features but I thought she was the most beautiful woman. Loved her style!
I liked the attitude that accompanied her style.
The evening he died I was on a flight from DC to my home state. Coincidentally, I happened to sit next to a woman who had worked as a maid for the Kennedys for 20 years. I spent the entire flight listening to her stories about Caroline and John-John, the touch football games, etc. I’m not a democrat and I’m not a Kennedy fan, but she clearly loved them she told charming stories that humanized them to me.
What was weird is that my flight touched down at approximately the same time as the crash. I didn’t find that out until the next morning when I saw the news. It sent chills up my spine.
My Aunt worked as a nanny for the Kennedy’s. Oh the stories she has to tell. She worked for several super wealthy families over the years and said they were one of the best families she worked for at the time. She loved the Kennedy’s. They paid her well, gave her time off as needed and she didn’t treat her like a “servant” and were just good to her overall. She said it was one of the best nanny jobs she had, but the kids were brats haha. My Aunt is salt of the earth type, tells it like it is, and doesn’t just say nice things, think its very possible they were kind to their workers. She cried a lot when JFK jr, passed and talked weeks afterwards about her experience with them.
I think that’s very nice. Your aunt probably knew the lady I sat next to! Not that I can remember her name…
They were definitely kind to their staff — most everyone had been with them for 20 to 30 years. There was a lot of love and respect that went both ways.
When you’re alive you have vicious, unpleasant fights where you throw things and make hurtful accusations. Die young and beautiful and all of a sudden you were fiery. Sounds so much better than the truth.
I agree somewhat, but even by fiery couple standards they were pretty dramatic, esp. remembering they were in their 30’s (John was almost 40), so they were hardly kids. The first couple of years of marriage are the hardest though so I’m not inclined to write them off/think they would have necessarily split. There are so many what if’s with this situation, hence the public fascination 15 yrs on still being strong I guess.
I totally agree…Carolyn was on anti-depressants and things were not going well from all accounts. Screaming matches are not a “natural” part of a marriage. It’s dysfunctional drama.
That is the upside to lives interrupted. People can now say that it was a flawless relationship and can speculate on what an amazing life they would have had. JFK, Jr.’s secretary said they were having “normal marital problems all young (they were not that young) married couples go through.” And in the same breath says that Carolyn thought John was cheating. HUH? I would not think I was in a good marriage if that is what I’m thinking of my spouse. We will never know, but I would bet they would not still be married if they were alive today.
It deepens on who’s opinion you take seriously. Either Carolyn was playing the game. How else do you get a player like that to really fall for you? You rebuff his advances. He either doesn’t waste his time and moves on, or he falls hard. It’s a game of chance. She got lucky. Or she really didn’t care for him all that much.
Carolyn was a really strange figure. I never got the feeling that anyone knew her. In all of the books I’ve read she’s seems like an enigma even to her close friends. And I think it was very foolish of her to marry Jr. if she hated the paps so much because it seemed like her unhappiness made both of their lives miserable. I mean she became Howard Hughes unhappy. Live with blinds drawn paranoid. It seemed like their marriage was very rough towards the end. But oddly enough I never got the feeling that he would have divorced her. Even if she was cheating, he seemed to truly love her. It came off as both love and obligation. It was very strange.
If she felt the same way about him, who knows because she was so private. If she did in fact cheat also remains to be seen. She certainly never made any moves for divorce, despite her unhappiness.
This is the best, most intuitive assessment of Caroline I’ve read – brava! It seems to match what I have always believed. I should have read this before I posted ^ lol.
With Dame. Very well constructed!
(And another reason her and amal are nothing alike. Amal appears to enjoy the paps and attention greatly) *cough*
Don’t forget the Taylor Swiftian pap strolls lol.
I think that’s a pretty good assessment too. I’ve read some of the recent JFK Jr. biographies and it seems as if Carolyn was very guarded. Perhaps she should have kept working rather than quitting her job. It sounds as if she was bored and paranoid about the paps. She should have figured out that media thing way before deciding to get serious with JFK Jr.
He sounded like a great guy.
I’m sure the families miss them all, it certainly was a tragedy, in some ways unbelievable even now.
There is no perfection with any human being. From what people say about the family, they did not address issues directly, and John was no exception. As someone who has dated men who are part of big Irish Catholic families, I get how the non-confrontational, living in denial stuff works for many people. Carole Radziwill made a comment that she and her husband never discussed the fact he was dying. Now that is complete denial and totally impossible to deal with if you are a sane, rational human being trying to grow emotionally and spiritually. It can drive a person crazy (think Princess Diana).
I agree that she should not have married him of all people if being followed by reports was a major problem, but she may not have known how intense it would be before she married him. And she really could not have kept working in PR for Calvin Klein as his wife. All the press would want to know is her stuff. It’s hard to have a personal career when married to a man in that position. Ah, first world problems!
I was living in Greenwich, CT at the time and that was Carolyn Bessett’s hometown. The entire town was in shock and talking about it. It was surreal.
Thats so sad. Did you or any of your family know her or her family?
She always seemed like such a elegant woman.
No, I didn’t know anyone that knew Carolyn or her family.
Funny, I was in a beauty retail store the other day and there was a young woman who was the SPLITTING image of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. I told her so and she smiled saying she gets that from people all of the time. I always felt that Jackie should have allowed John Jr to become an actor like he wanted to, instead of forcing him to uphold the Kennedy legacy–which is odd to me considering that neither her husband nor the rest of that family were the images most people saw them as at the time. She should have broken away from the Kennedy thing completely and allowed John Jr. to live his own life.
I totally agree. He should have had the opportunity to live the life he wanted. He always seemed somewhat lost professionally and couldn’t seem to find a comfortable place. He may have been a fabulous actor.
Strangely enough, it’s the photos from 1998/1999 that show Carolyn at her most comfortable with the spotlight. She was full of smiles at several events (compared to some in ’96 or ’97 where she looked very uncomfortable) and RoseMarie Terenzio said she was starting to cope with the publicity a little better. She still wanted “married time” with John and didn’t want to go to Rory’s wedding, but RoseMarie talked her into going.
They were in counseling and probably did have their share of disagreements, but you could also tell that they were really in love. He was so protective of her in most of the photos you see of them together, and their body language was always somehow in sync.
Carolyn’s mom gave a toast at their wedding and said something to the effect that she wasn’t sure the marriage was in her daughter’s best interests. How right she was.
PS – Pilots told John about the weather but he decided to go anyway. He wasn’t instrument rated, so once he couldn’t rely on his visuals, he was finished.
Carole Radziwill wrote the best book of them all because she talks about Carolyn and John like real people and not tabloid fodder.
Carole Radziwill’s book was really well written and it contradicts the timeline in this People story. They first dated briefly in 1992, then broke-up right after he introduced her to Carole & Anthony (he broke up with her to date Darryl Hannah again) then got back together late summer 1994 after he and Darryl broke up for good.
I would argue that when a wife does not want to attend a family wedding with her fairly new spouse, there are serious issues going on. That is something that a committed spouse would feel obligated to do for his or her significant other. It was not a good sign.
My god he was a good looking man, wasn’t he? I was just a young teen when they were killed. Definitely not mature and wise enough then to appreciate his beauty.
Actually, I somehow understand the comparison the author of this article makes about Bessette and Amal. It isn’t really about features, or style. It’s more about the type of person. Both were/are independent women, professionally and financially, with some sort of a career. They like/are used to call the shots, and both, I believe, like(d) the attention from wealthy, influential men. That turning down is a game, they know how to make themselfs interesting by challenging the big egos of man like John F., and Clooney. They know these men will keep trying- they simply like to conquer. And yes, the man takes on the challenge, starts fantazising about the woman, and puts her mentally on some sort of a throne. Both Carolyn and Amal were/are intelligent, very articulate, and perhaps need that sort of ‘sparring partner’. I don’t think it has much to do with love, but rather with two egos needing the constant challenge. It seems rather imature. That’s why these relationships work best when both partners keep doing their own thing, and don’t spend too much time together. I wouldn’t want that- but if they are happy with it…
I can sort of see the comparison between Amal and Carolyn (although I think their fashion sense is completely different).
I don’t think of JFK jr. as being similar to George Clooney. JFK Jr., despite being a Kennedy, never seemed as…sleazy? Although JFK, Jr. dated actresses, I think he dated other “types” as well.
Clooney to JFK Jr. Clooney is a 50+ moviestar, w fake girlfriends, & Rumours of sexual preferences.
JFK Jr. Was a iconic figure, part of one of the most well known political families in US history, who truly fell in love with a woman and dated her openly for several years before marriage. In other words it was a REAL love, a real marriage and people genuinely cared about them, were interested in this 30something Presidents son future with his new wife.
His father one of the most famous Political figures of all time. Almost Every politician since on the political stage in even European countries, in some way shape or form has hoped to exude that JFK magic.
Amal is IMO just another fake contracted George Clooney production- gf turned fiancée, to soothe his ego from being made a WORLDWIDE joke of at some award show…who Clooney hasn’t really even dated more than a year before proposing. I don’t buy they knew each other for a long time. It all looks fake, feels fake and IMO is fake.
JFK jr had a real Law education , law degree even if it took him a few tries to earn it, he went back and did and he was genuinely beloved by a good portion of the public.
George is a dropout, moviestar, who has contracted FAKE girlfriends for two decades and now wants the world to believe this woman is somehow taming the 50something bachelor and judging by the comments Amal receives lately when articles are put up about her in various newspapers, the Daily Mail included, the public interest in her is not exactly growing. The last time the Daily Mail did a article on her, it got somewhere around 18 to 28 comments and most negative when I read it.
Clooney is no JFK and certainly no JFK. JR. No matter how much he wants to be.
A comparison to Warren Beatty, a older bachelor movie star with political interest who finally married, Might be a better comparison.
Also I still wonder where George’s votes would come from in large number? JFK , Clinton, Obama,even Arnold Swarzenegger had strong voting bases. Arnold had a big republican base male and female and even some democratic young males crossed over to vote for him and being married to a Kennedy helped greatly. What does George really have? I’m a democrat loyal, from a family whose mom first time voting was for President Kennedy and I certainly would not vote for George and Amal puts me off.
The Kruger-Dunning effect: meaning an unskilled person who thinks they are highly skilled because they do not know how unskilled they are.
He paid a very high price because of it.
People always talk about how it’s such a saving grace that his mother didn’t have to live through it but her mother did. I know Jackie faced some pretty major loss, but it often appears that people have more sympathy for the feelings of a woman who didn’t have to see her child die than the one who had to endure that with two. It’s as though the Camelot Monster is completely unable to do anything but relegate anything outside of its imaginary castle walls to non-entity status. And something tells me that that’s the way they like it. I just don’t understand the mythology surrounding this family and frankly, I’m including Jackie in that confusion. Maybe it’s a cultural thing since I’m not American, but I just don’t see the ‘there’ there. I do see the ‘run like hell’, there, however–I see that clearly.
Jackie seared herself into American history with the grace in how she responded to her husband’s assassination. And then, aside from one or two public statements, she refused to talk to the press for the remainder of her life. With such extreme privacy, she was the perfect target of projection and conjecture. She also had incredible style, which women admired.
Love, love love them. Adored JFK Jr.
Had the opportunity to see him around NYC a few times over the years in the early 90’s.
He was very good looking in person. Perfection. IMO
But what I noticed about him in person, was that his eyes had a very deep inner sadness or melancholy , that didn’t show in photos, but in person there was a aura there.
The day the news came out his airplane was missing, I was in Paris, the news was all over the television and I remember a store had huge photos of Jackie Kennedy from the 1960’s in their window as a display. Photos I had never seen before. The window display was just a coincidence , because it had been up all that week before, but when his plane went down people showed up and laid flowers in front of the store. It was just a strange synchronicity that the store used photos of a Jackie that week.
I went back to US few days later and watched ( more so consumed by) the heartbreaking news coverage on tv. It was heart wrenching.
To this day, many feel JFK JR. Would have run for President.
The deaths of Carolyn, Lauren and John were a shocking tragedy.
In Europe the papers were full of tales of the Kennedy Curse.
Whenever I see something mentioning the Versace Funeral , I remember it was one of the first prominent events Bessette attended alone after the marriage and she sat behind Princess Diana. After Versace’s funeral both Carolyn Bessette and Diana died.
Jackie’s birthday was in late July. I just realized his death was approximately one week before what would have been her 70th birthday. Perhaps the Paris displays were related to commemorating her birthdate.
She’d be 85 had she lived.
He was at the Yankee game I attended the night before. My sister and I were so excited to see him and were so sad when we heard the news.
Also, who could forget the Seinfeld ‘virgin’ episode that was basically centered around him?
That’s a nice memory Jen34.
Yes that Seinfeld episode is classic. Love it when it comes on.
Seeing this photo made me so sad. I can’t believe 15 years has passed so quickly. And I felt sick to my stomach seeing that photo just the way I did when I heard about his missing plane. I always thought he was so gorgeous and blessed (ha). All I can say is read the book What Remains by Carole Radziwill. If you have an interest in John and Carolyn, they figure prominently in the book. Warning: the book is a tearjerker, but totally worth it . Enjoy.
hi
also
john was not the sharpest knife in the drawer
he was..how shall we say………………slow
I don’t think he would have been considered slow if he wasn’t a Kennedy. It’s just that the weight of expectation was greater for him because of the family he came from.
If he was a regular guy, we’d probably consider him getting a law degree good enough.
I suspect he was more into sports and athletics though.
John earned a law degree. I don’t believe he was slow at all.
Many people dont pass the first few times. He was intelligent, thoughtful and more into the creative, which is why he enjoyed creating George Magazine.
NY & CA bars are the toughest to pass. Yeah I remember all the articles about how it took him several tries to pass and he was a “failure’ blah blah. Caroline passed the first time and probably most of the other Kennedys too. For regular people, he’s good, for a Kennedy, it might be seen as a failure.
I think he always gravitated toward the arts. He did some acting in college but Jackie discouraged it.
The most interesting thing I read about them was that they faked their own death. Even if it is just a conspiracy, it was an interesting read.
John wasn’t slow, he simply wasn’t very academic. He was probably the handsomest man I’ve ever seen – not at all Kennedy type, more like his grandfather, Black Jack Bouvier (only taller and not smarmy). I remember thinking that in a way it was a blessing that his mother didn’t live long enough to see him die, it would have destroyed her. What a terrible waste for 3 young people to die this way – at the time I was working in a CT law firm with Ted Kennedy Jr (a very decent guy btw) – he was on vacation when it happened (and in Hyannis for Rory’s wedding) – it was so strange to see him on the cover of New York Times helping to carry a metal coffin, after they recovered the bodies. The whole thing was surreal.
Ah, the “refusing a powerful man to drive him crazy” trick. Goes back to the days of Anne Boleyn. 😉
They were separated at the time of their deaths. Carolyn was staying at their apartment and John was staying at a hotel.
The reality is that the “Kennedy Curse” comes along with living a daredevil life. Taking the kind of risks John and others in the family took will usually catch up with the person at some point. John was just coming off a broken foot from a hang gliding accident. Sadly, two other people payed the price for his thrill seeking character.