How John F. Kennedy Jr. Met His Wife, Carolyn Bessette? Died Together In Horrific Plane Crash In 30s

The nine-episode series, FX’s Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette, shows the journey of their relationship. From their first meeting in 1992 to their horrific death in a plane crash when they were in their 30s, JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s love story wasn’t an ordinary one. 

Who were John F Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette?

JFK Jr. was the son of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. He was no less than royalty. He was also the most handsome bachelor in Manhattan, who had dated Madonna and Darryl Hannah. On the other hand, Carolyn was the rising star at Calvin Klein. She first worked there as a sales associate and then as the director of publicity. Her cool-girl style shaped the brand’s look during her most influential era. 

How did John F Kennedy Jr. meet the love of his life, Carolyn Bessette?

Ever since Carolyn Bessette started working in PR at Calvin Klein in the late ’80s, she got a lot of attention. People loved her and were talking about the new girl who graduated from Boston University. However, her first meeting with John F Kennedy Jr. was no less than a film’s tale. In the early ’90s, when John came to buy a suit at Calvin Klein, Carolyn Bessette attended the VIP clients. He was instantly smitten by her charm and aquamarine eyes. He quickly asked for her number, and the rest was history. However, as Paul Eckstein revealed, John F. Kennedy, at one of their Naked Angels parties, asked him to hook him up with Caroline. However, he asked him to meet her on his own, and he did that. He was quoted as saying:

“I remember John at one of our Naked Angels parties [a downtown theater troupe] coming up and saying ‘Yo man, you gotta hook me up. Who is that girl?’ He was trying to get me to introduce him to Carolyn. I was like, ‘You’re f—ing John Kennedy. Go introduce yourself!’ Of course he met her anyways.”

It was in 1993 when JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s first photo made it in the news. They were sitting at a corner watching the New York Marathon. By that time, people referred to Carolyn Bessette as John F Kennedy Jr.’s mystery girlfriend. 

Carolyn Bessette and John F. Kennedy Jr. broke up for a brief period

As per a close friend, Carolyn Bessette broke up with JFK Jr. after his photo with her then-girlfriend, Daryl Hannah, at a 1993 movie premiere was all over the headlines. Carolyn’s mother, Ann Freeman, had sent her daughter the article with a note to move on with her life and signed it with a sad face. After which, Carolyn cut off all contact with John F Kennedy Jr. However, JFK decided to make things okay and sent her a giant bouquet of flowers and left her a message, “Are you angry or just sore?”

Carolyn wasn’t waiting around for JFK Jr.’s call. She reached out to him. JFK Jr.’s mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, passed away in 1994. That’s when their relationship turned into love, and they made their relationship public. George Carr remembers Carolyn and how nicely she was dressed for the dinner with John F. Kennedy. He said:

“I remember her wearing a black cashmere sleeveless turtleneck with a black tweed pencil skirt and black high heel boots and sitting with her friend Gordon Henderson at Felix [restaurant] downtown and it was breathtaking. All that hair falling all over her. She was the chicest person in the world and it wasn’t planned. It was just the way she was.”

John F Kennedy and Carolyn Bessette’s secret wedding

The couple secretly married on September 21, 1996, and the next morning, they called for help choosing which wedding photo to send to the media. They were the most publicised couple, yet they kept their wedding a secret with only 30 people in attendance, including their family and friends. They got married in a one-room church on Georgia’s Cumberland Island. In fact, Carolyn’s unconventional choice of a slip dress redefined bridal fashion. 

The couple’s tragic death in 1999 in a plane crash

JFK Jr. and Carolyn’s relationship looked picture perfect from the outside, but it was breaking apart inside. The couple had begun marriage counselling in the spring of 1999. In fact, John had told several of his friends and colleagues that they were parting ways. But no one believed that they looked the happiest. 

The plane JFK Jr. was Piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean after it became disoriented while flying through thick fog over Martha’s Vineyard on July 16, 1999. JFK Jr., Carolyn and her sister, Lauren, died in the tragic crash. Their bodies were discovered on July 21, 1999. JFK. JR. was 38 when he passed away with his beautiful wife, Carolyn, who was 33 years old. As per reports, John F Kennedy Jr. refused any other pilot to fly the plane. Kennedy’s close friend, Steven M. Gillon, told People: 

“At the first sign of danger, he should have done what a lot of pilots did that night and flew inland, away from the ocean, spend the night somewhere and then pick up the next morning,…It was [John’s] poor judgment that led to his death and the death of his wife and his sister-in-law, and there’s no way around that. John bears the responsibility of his recklessness that night and John alone.”

John F Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s love story was one of a kind, and many still wonder what would have happened if they had survived the crash.

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