John Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette were one of the most famous couples in the world. Twenty-five years ago, on July 16, 1999, the plane piloted by 38-year-old John Kennedy Jr. crashed off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, with Carolyn Bessette and her sister Lauren Bessette on board. They were killed instantly. In Carolyn and Johnthe author Stéphanie des Horts tells, in a very romanticized way, the life of John Kennedy Jr. and looks at the couple he formed with Carolyn Bessette. Interview.
John Kennedy Jr., son of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was handsome, young, rich and living in New York. Did he fascinate Americans?
Yes, he had everything going for him, he was the ideal man and women fell into his arms! They were crazy about him! I think his mother Jackie Kennedy Onassis (who died in 1994) had a feeling about it and that’s why she was very protective of him all her life. She was aware of her son’s personality, she was afraid that he would be taken in by all these women, that he would not meet the right one and that he would be unhappy. When he had an affair with Madonna, Jackie refused to have her because it was inconceivable to her that her son would frequent the Material girl ! He had many conquests, including Sarah Jessica Parker, Julia Roberts, Daryl Hannah and others.
Did the Kennedy family constantly tell him that he would one day be President of the United States?
John’s life has always been scrutinized by the paparazzi, because he was considered America’s beloved little prince. He was friendly, warm, smiling, but he didn’t want to get into politics even though his uncle Ted Kennedy wanted to teach him the ropes. John has a crazy charisma, but professionally, he searched for himself. I think what he would have really wanted to do was theater. He loved it, maybe because he liked changing characters, and he acted very well, but his mother thought that theater was not good enough for a Kennedy, and he studied law. He would flee his political destiny all his life. He would create the glamour and political magazine Georgewhich was working very well at the beginning, but he was going to have a falling out with his right-hand man, and the magazine, just before his death, was going under.
Was Jackie Kennedy Onassis always afraid of what she called the Kennedy curse?
The Kennedys are like America’s royal family. They built something extraordinary with their sons, John and Bobby, but they were both assassinated. Jackie was very afraid for her son, she didn’t want him to fly! It’s as if the Kennedys had been blessed by the gods and suddenly rejected from Olympus. Many talk about the family curse, because there have been many tragedies. In 1944, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (brother of John Fitzgerald Kennedy), a Navy pilot, died in a plane crash. The worst were Bobby and Ethel Kennedy’s children: David Anthony Kennedy died of an overdose in 1984, his brother Michael Lemoyne died in a skiing accident in 1997 and it continues… a Kennedy granddaughter drowned in 2020 (Maeve Kennedy Mckean).
IMAGE TAKEN FROM DAILYNEWS.COM WEBSITE
On July 18, 1999, the front page of Daily News headlined the crash of the plane carrying John Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette.
The couple formed by John Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette is legendary, but behind this perfect image, the couple was stormy…
Yes, they were beautiful, but they argued a lot. Carolyn Bessette had a lot of allure, she was an incandescent blonde, she was tall, thin, mysterious, she had style and a difficult character. She became a fashion icon and even today she fascinates with her timeless allure. The problem is that she never wanted to play the game with the paparazzi, which John had learned to do.
Just before his death, was John thinking about politics?
By the time John dies, things are going badly. His marriage is failing, as is his magazine. Georgehe looks for new investors, but he knows very well that it won’t change anything and that he has to find another meaning for his professional life. He tells himself that politics, after all, is not so bad, and that he can count on the experience of his uncle Ted to support him and train him like you train a racehorse! Maybe it would have worked. During that summer of 1999, John’s life was at a crossroads.
John Kennedy Jr. should never have flown his plane on July 16, 1999…
John thought he was immortal. The couple were on their way to the wedding of Rory Kennedy, the youngest daughter of Ethel Kennedy’s 11 children, in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. John was recovering from a broken ankle, and had just had his cast removed. He had never flown his new plane, the Piper Saratoga, alone, without an instructor. They were late that night because of traffic in New York; it was foggy, visibility was poor, and he was advised at the airport not to take off or, if he did take off, to follow the coast, but the plane veered off course and ended up over the ocean. His limited instrument flying experience caused him to lose control in the fog, and it was dark. The plane plunged into the Atlantic and the three passengers died instantly on impact. We all remember that tragic death on July 16, 1999, it left a lasting impression on many people. I also remember the headlines with the title “LOST”.
Carolyn and John – The Kennedy Curse
Albin Michel Editions
288 pages