This summer will be the 25th anniversary of the deaths of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. They died in a plane crash in August 1999. I was in college, I remember it well, and it happened less than two years after Princess Diana’s tragic death. Since their deaths, hundreds of books have been written about their marriage and lives, very few of them complimentary to Carolyn. Hopefully, this new book will be different. Elizabeth Beller has written Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. People Mag had exclusive excerpts – go here to read the full excerpts. Beller says that she’s trying to show a different side of Bessette, the side which wasn’t some harsh ice queen.
When JFK Jr & Carolyn met: In spring 1992, Calvin Klein was just getting back into menswear. None other than John F. Kennedy Jr. had an appointment for a fitting and [Calvin decided] Carolyn should show John the selection. He came out of the meeting smitten, with a few suits and Carolyn’s number. “John invited her to join his group at a gala dinner,” recalled [Calvin’s assistant.] “Sitting next to him was another woman that Carolyn either mistook as his date, or actually was his date.” It was unclear, and Carolyn wasn’t pleased. But when they met again at a May 18 fundraiser, they were spotted in deep conversation at the bar. John and Carolyn stayed there for over an hour, never looking away from each other. Lightning had struck.
Early courtship: After the benefit, John and Carolyn continued to see each other, in a haze of sultry dinners, dancing, and walks in Central Park. John even brought Carolyn to Sea Song, the Long Island, home he rented with his cousin, Anthony Radziwill. The week after that, Carolyn met John for dinner at El Teddy’s, where he presented Carolyn with a letter [from] a friend of his. The letter claimed Carolyn was a user, a partier, that she was out for fame and fortune [and] “dated guys around town.” John casually tossed the piece of paper at her, stood, and walked out the door. Carolyn stared in shock at John as he departed.
Carolyn wanted John to think she moved on: “John called all the time,” says [a] Carolyn friend, “[We recorded] an outgoing message on her answering machine.” Anyone who called would get Carolyn saying, “Hey, hon, I’ll be back by seven o’clock, can’t wait to see you!” The idea was that John would hear it and assume she’d moved on. John did—and he called even more. But behind closed doors, Carolyn and John were developing a real kind of intimacy.
The proposal: The weekend of July 4, 1995, he asked her to go fishing in Martha’s Vineyard—and proposed. He turned to Carolyn and said, “Fishing is so much better with a partner.” Then he put a platinum band of diamonds and sapphires on her finger. Carolyn told him, “I’ll think about it.” This was also the time when Carolyn lost weight, and plucked her eyebrows to small wisps. And so when Carolyn stepped into the [Municipal Art Society] gala on John’s arm [on Feb 27, 1996], she had metamorphosed to a platinum siren.
Princess Diana’s death: Almost a year later, Princess Diana was killed in a car accident as the result of her driver trying to outrun the paparazzi. Carolyn was terrified. [She] tried to get John to call Princes William and Harry to give his condolences when it came out that Diana had hoped for her sons to emulate John’s modesty in the face of media obsession. He demurred, as he didn’t know them and thought that their situations greatly differed.
Marriage counseling: They began marriage counseling in the spring of 1999. A week [after July 4], John had told several friends and colleagues that he and Carolyn were splitting up. Yet, others noted they seemed very happy together, even the weekend before. After initially refusing to attend his cousin Rory’s July 17 wedding, Carolyn agreed. John would also fly Carolyn’s sister Lauren from New York to Martha’s Vineyard on their way to Hyannis Port.
The pedicure story: Tabloids put forth an alleged timeline in which Carolyn lingered for hours getting a pedicure. Yet an eyewitness report has her leaving the pedicurist by 5 p.m. She went to Saks to buy a dress for the wedding and picked out a black Yves Saint Laurent evening dress. After the purchase, the salesgirl wished Carolyn good luck. “Thanks,” Carolyn replied. “I’m going to need it.” [John, Carolyn and Lauren] were stuck in traffic and didn’t make it to the airport until after 8 p.m. Before they took off, Carolyn called Carole Radziwill, and they talked about Sunday-night dinner. “The plan,” Carole wrote in What Remains, “was grilled steaks and peach pie.”
The pedicure story was started years ago by a particularly brutal Vanity Fair article, in which it was heavily implied that Carolyn was so vain, she kept having her pedicure redone and redone to match her dress, and that she was the reason why they left in the plane so much later than people thought. But the marriage counseling story seems true, as was Carolyn’s general unhappiness in the marriage in the last year or so. Anyway, I’m totally going to read this book.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.