The Tragic Story of John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette, and the Woman Left Out
The tragic story of John F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife Carolyn Bessette has recently gained renewed attention through Ryan Murphy’s TV adaptation, Love Story. This nine-part biographical drama on FX and Hulu follows the couple’s relationship, from their initial meeting at a party to their untimely deaths in a plane crash on July 16, 1999.
The plane, piloted by Kennedy, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Martha’s Vineyard. Alongside them were Carolyn’s sister, Lauren Bessette. Yet, one figure from this time remains absent from the series — Carole Radziwill, a Real Housewives Of New York City star who lost her best friends, John and Carolyn, and her husband Anthony within three weeks.
Carole was married to Anthony Radziwill, a cousin of JFK Jr. and nephew of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The couple were close friends with John and Carolyn, with the men serving as best men at each other’s weddings. In an interview in 2005, she described their deaths as “soul-crushing,” saying, “We were all unbelievably close. Their deaths brought me to my knees.”
However, Carole is not present as a character in the series. A source told Rob Shuter that she was “adjacent, not central” to the plot. “This story is about John and Carolyn. Carole was never a primary player.” A producer added, “You can’t include everyone who attended the dinners. Audiences want the love story. That’s the engine.”
Yet, it seems Carole was more than just someone who “attended the dinners.” She considered the couple as two of her closest friends, writing after their deaths: “I lost everything that night.”
A Hollywood insider told Y! Entertainment, “For someone who values that Kennedy proximity, being left out of the definitive retelling? That’s a hard pill.”
Carole began her career in Manhattan, working her way up from unpaid intern to a producer at ABC. It was there that she met Anthony, John’s cousin, who was an associate producer at the company. After dating for two years, Carole was introduced to the family and in 1992, the couple rented a summer home in the Hamptons with John and Carolyn.
Speaking to People in 2005, Carole reminisced: “I never heard him introduce himself as ‘John F. Kennedy Jr.’ in the 10 years that I knew him. He was just ‘John Kennedy.’”
She quickly formed a friendship with Carolyn, recalling, “She came right over to me as though she knew me and put her hand on my shoulder and asked if I had an extra toothbrush.”
Carole and Anthony’s marriage was affected by Anthony’s long battle with testicular cancer. After his original diagnosis in 1989, he underwent treatment and was in remission. Yet new tumours emerged shortly before his wedding in 1994. He was diagnosed with fibrosarcoma, a fatal form of bone cancer, and for the next five years, Carole acted as his primary carer until his death in August 1999, just a month after the fatal plane crash.
Despite Anthony’s illness, the pair continued with their careers, with Anthony producing documentaries and Carole becoming a producer at a news channel in New York. Throughout his cancer battle, Carole described John and Carolyn as their biggest supporters.
Speaking to The Telegraph in 2005, Carole said of Anthony and John’s relationship: “When they were kids, John was always the one who joked with Anthony and could make him laugh. So his way of dealing with the cancer was to continue being funny. He thought it would cheer him up, and it did. But he also told me that he was afraid that if he stopped joking, Anthony would know things were really bad and would just give up and die.”
Yet in a tragic turn of events, John and Carolyn died just three weeks prior to Anthony’s death after their plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. Carole recalled how she spoke to Carolyn as they were getting ready for the plane to take off, and everything sounded fine. John had piloted this journey many times, but this time the night turned foggy, and John lost his bearings, leading to the crash.
Speaking to People in 2017, Carole revealed that on the night of their death, she received a late-night call from John’s friend “Pinky,” who was at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport awaiting the couple’s arrival. After contacting air traffic control, Carole realized the plane was missing and reported their disappearance to the Coast Guard at around 2:30 am.
“I once said that out loud to the Coast Guard and made the missing persons report, I knew that this was a real thing. That was a heartbreaking moment.”
Prior to the release of her memoir in 2005, Carole opened up about the deaths of John and Carolyn in an exclusive essay with The Daily Mail. Recalling their last conversation where they made plans to see each other, she said: “Frozen in mid-conversation, we had the luxury, the last time we spoke, of talking about what we might have for dinner Sunday. It was a quick call. John was preparing to take off from a small private airport.”
She described the foursome’s close bond, sharing the trips they had planned to take together and describing Carolyn as “the glue who kept people together.” Reflecting on their death, she penned: “I lost everything that night, I wasn’t the only one. We all lost something. It was personal for me, and for their friends and family, but it was also bigger. 1999 was the end of an era. The end of a century. It was the end of an innocence we didn’t even know we had.”
Following the plane crash, it was just three weeks later that Anthony died in Carole’s arms at a New York hospital. She wrote in her memoir, What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship and Love: “I listen to [his] heartbeat until it is so faint I can barely hear it and then it’s gone.”
Following Anthony’s death, Carole released her memoir in 2005, which spent 12 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list. In 2006, she began a monthly column with Glamour Magazine called Lunch Dates, where she would have lunch with a range of celebrity guests including Alec Baldwin and Prince Andrew.
She joined the fifth season of The Real Housewives of New York City in 2011, appearing on the show until its tenth season in July 2018. Carole quickly found herself at the centre of the drama, with fans watching the crumbling of her friendship with close pal Bethany Frankel. Throughout her run, viewers saw her new relationship unfold with chef Adam Kenworthy, who was more than 20 years her junior, but they split in 2017 after three years together.
Carole sensationally quit The Real Housewives in 2018 following five seasons, after she was involved in a public falling-out with producer Andy Cohen. In a statement at the time, Radziwill insisted she wanted to return to her passion for journalism, writing: “I have decided to return to what I do best – journalism and producing. I am sure this does not come as a surprise to any of the viewers, all of whom have been supportive, encouraging, and kind.”
She later revealed that she had persistent on-set issues that eventually forced her off the show, and she accused bosses of giving some stars preferential treatment. During the reunion for The Real Housewives’ tenth season, viewers saw Radziwill clash with Cohen, after she claimed he was “full of s**t” for saying she and Frankel “bashed each other” all season. She later defended her stance on X after Cohen claimed her behaviour was “Trumpian,” and just days later, she announced she would not return to the show.
So it came as a shock when this week it was revealed the star is returning to the hit show as a “friend” for the upcoming 16th series.
