John and Carolyn: Love, Beauty and Loss (2026) Movie Script
1
It's impossible to overstate
the sense of fascination with
jfk Jr.
He was absolutely unique.
He was the son of a slain
president.
And he grew up into being an
incredibly good-looking,
handsome, attractive young man.
And Carolyn bessette, with her
kind of mysterious, elegant,
glamorous quality, was
absolutely emblematic of that
1990s cool.
But she's not famous.
When John F. Kennedy Jr. ended
up in this relationship with
Carolyn bessette, it was natural
people were fascinated.
I think "love story" is about
the lives that Carolyn bessette
and John F. Kennedy Jr. led
before they met each other.
Their meeting and their budding
romance.
Their relationship with the
public, paparazzi, tabloid
culture and how that brings them
together.
They represent American
glamor.
Carolyn was more beautiful in
person than she was in
photographs.
She had a magic.
Her.
It was everything from the way
she moved to the way she engaged
to the way, when you talked to
her, she owned you.
She was just so much fun.
She was very playful, very
impulsive, very affectionate.
There was a lot of touching, you
know.
It took me awhile to get used to
all the hugging and
hand-holding.
You know, I was thinking the
other day... that trip we took
to Honduras...
I think the biggest thing for
me initially was getting to
illustrate the woman that she
was, especially the driven,
intelligent woman that she was
and the life that she had before
she met John and entered into
this whirlwind.
John grew up with the media.
He was born to it.
Second nature for him.
But for her, it wasn't.
She had a really difficult time
adjusting to the meanness, the
viciousness of the media
attention.
That became a real source of
tension in the relationship.
Well, I think a lot of people
who are that beautiful get
judged for being something just
because they're so
spectacular-looking.
I think they kind of thought of
her the same way people thought
of grace Kelly in the 1950s,
that she was sort of an ice
Princess or this forbidding, you
know, goddess type.
And she Kent have been further
from that.
In 1966, Carolyn bessette is
born in white plains, which is a
suburb north of Manhattan.
She was the youngest of three
girls.
Her mother was a schoolteacher.
After her parents divorced, she
moved to greenwich, Connecticut,
where her mother had remarried
an orthopedic surgeon.
She goes to a catholic high
school called St. Mary's where
she is a very popular young
girl.
At her graduation from high
school, she is named as the
ultimate beautiful person in the
yearbook.
She's seen as something of an it
girl and a popular girl in the
community.
She went to Boston
university, where she studied
education.
And I think for a while, she
wanted to be a teacher.
As evidence of her popularity
at Boston university, Carolyn
bessette dates Alessandro
benetton, the son of the
benetton fashion empire, which
was very, very popular in the
'80s and '90s.
This is a charismatic young
woman that people want to be
around, and she's finding that
she is drawing a larger and
larger crowd of people from, you
know, definite wealth and
prominence, and she enjoys it.
I think that Caroline had
always fantasized about being
married to John.
And she made that fantasy come
true.
John loved making waves.
And he loved being irreverent.
He was the world's most eligible
bachelor.
And John showed up for an event,
it got a lot of attention.
John F. Kennedy Jr. never
knew anonymity.
He was never anonymous.
In many ways, he became sort
of america's little prince when
he was born.
People referred to him as, you
know, the prince of Camelot.
You've got jfk, and he's
glamorous.
You have his imposteriorly
glamorous wife.
I mean, they literally were
something out of a movie set.
You couldn't... it looks as if
this was... that he's Cary Grant
and she's Audrey hepburn.
So John is born in between
the time his father wins the
election and when he takes
office in January.
News of John's birth spread all
around the world.
He was on the front page of
every major newspaper.
And that's the world he grew up
in.
The only home he knew up until
1963 was the white house.
I was young, you know, but he
had this desk in the oval office
which belonged to a sea captain.
And I just remember the inside,
and there were kind of cabinet
spaces in it.
Just hanging out there.
He used to give US chewing gum,
because our mother didn't like
to US chew gum.
He'd go to the oval office at
night, and he'd feed US gum
under the desk.
Again, it may be real, it may
not be.
But I sort of remember that.
John was always rambunctious.
It used to drive the secret
service agents nuts are running
around, wanting to play.
Forts, playing guns, airplanes.
John was full of thisser why gy.
You wanted to be an Australia?
Helicopter pilot, astronaut.
Something in the air.
Growing up, there always were
helicopters landing on the front
lawn of the white house.
And usually one parent or
another would emerge from them.
So I kind of got this thing
about helicopters.
John... John is caught
between the conflicting
ambitions of his parents.
On the one hand, his father
loves him dearly but also wants
to put him on display as much as
possible.
Whereas John's mom, Jackie, was
much more reserved.
When she planted these, like,
30-foot-high bushes so that
people couldn't see John playing
in the south lawn.
And the president saw them, "get
them out of there, take them
out."
There was this tug-of-war going
on around John.
Mrs. Kennedy regretted, later in
life, naming hip John F. Kennedy
Jr.
And the problem that she
inadvertently created was that
the more you emboldened the
myth, the more focus there's
examining to be on John as the
heir of that myth.
The president of the united
states, John Fitzgerald Kennedy,
is dead.
The president is dead.
It's not something that I
spend, really, honestly, much
time thinking about.
You know, I understand that that
was obviously a very
historically significant event.
He was a president.
And there are historians,
filmmakers, et cetera, studying
that.
Whatever they decide, whatever
they find, is not going to
change the one fundamental fact
in my life, which is that it
won't bring him back.
And so I don't really dwell on
it all that often.
I leave that to others.
When they're watching the
coffin go by, Jackie says to
John, "this is a chance to say
good-bye to your dad."
He takes a couple of steps
forward.
He salutes his father's grave.
Which is an image that, for
those of US of that generation,
is one of the defining images of
our lives.
That moment, he became the heir
of Camelot.
So that's the burden that John
grew up with his whole life.
Well, it's not really a burden.
It's not something that I wake
up to while I'm shaving and
think, alas, the burden.
But it is... in most instances
it's really a very positive
thing.
One of the things he said to
me, he said, I'm really two
people.
I'm John.
But I have a role to play, and
that role is John Fitzgerald
Kennedy Jr., the son of a slain
president.
And I think that helps you to
understand the world that he
grew up in.
And also how successful he was
in coping with it.
I mean, the amount of pressure
he was under from the moment...
Almost from the moment he was
conceived.
You know, would have crushed
most people.
But it not only did not crush
him, it made him stronger.
There was a fascination with him.
There's a story.
He's on the rise, he's in his
20s.
He's about to become a man in
full.
Yeah, I mean, he was a hunk.
I mean, come on, let be honest.
He was a hunk.
And then his girlfriends.
For John, his greatest
achievement wasn't public, it
was private.
A guy who seems to have had
everything given to him.
But who struggled his whole life
with his own identity.
And in an effort to try to find
who he was, separate from the
Kennedy family, separate from
public expectations of who he
was going to be.
So he goes to nyu, where he
studies law.
And I think he would be the
first to say he perhaps didn't
have the greatest legal mind.
But he was serious and wanted to
have that law degree.
It was important for whatever he
would do next.
And then he ends up at the
Manhattan da's office.
And his face in the New York
bar becomes an obsession among
the tabloid newspapers of new
York.
I know because I worked at one
at the time.
And he famously flunks the exam,
not once but twice.
When I failed the bar exam,
it was... the "New York post"
had the headline "the hunk
flunks."
Some of that I could actually do
without.
My recollection is that you
fail a third time, you lose the
job.
But it seemed like the third
time was a charm.
Certainly was for John.
Did you pass the bar?
Apparently it's true.
I got the official word not long
ago.
Columnist for the "New York
daily news" in the '90s.
My gossip column was called "hot
copy."
Because of that gossip column, I
was privy obviously to a lot of
stuff John was going through
with his dating.
John had a lot of
girlfriends, pretty much
starting from early on.
John and I met... I guess it
was '89.
I was with a friend in west palm
beach.
And we all ended up at this
random place and daysed until
4:00 in the morning.
I just loved that he was kind of
silly, quirky, forget full, fun,
adventurous.
Like a normal, humble, great
guy.
John and I met when I was 15,
and I had known him for ten
years before we got involved.
So, we knew each other pretty
well.
He made you feel alive.
And I remember how often we just
laughed so much.
Curious intellectually.
Physically, he wanted to try new
things.
He wanted to push the boundaries
of who he was.
He wanted you not to think of
yourself in this little box, but
all the things that the world
could offer.
All the things that you could
do.
And that's a true friend.
We know about him dating
Sarah Jessica Parker, Julie
baker Mark Donna.
Those are the ones we knew
about.
When you're as good-looking as
John Kennedy, there are another
hundred girls we don't know
about.
He dates much more seriously
and for a longer period of time
Daryl Hannah, who made a splash
in the movie "splash."
I definitely think they were
in love.
She was really lovely.
Sweet, fun, funny, loved John.
When they broke up, I was... to
be honest with you, I was
surprised.
I was like, why?
They just said, it's not
working.
The women who John is
attracted to are, first of all, stunning.
They're beautiful.
But they're also smart.
And they're engaging.
And they're curious.
And I think he saw all those
qualities in Carolyn.
Carolyn and I met in '87.
We were really good friends.
A lot of the mornings, we'd get
almond croissants.
She'd take the almonds off.
"Okay, you can have it."
What?
There were all kinds of
restaurants we would go to.
And of course we would have
martinis.
But my favorite thing is Carolyn
curled up on my bed with a big,
huge sweater, sitting and being
happy.
That would be my favorite thing.
I was very taken by, you
know, something we explore in
the show, which is just how
radically her life was changed
by this romance.
And I love in the pilot episode
getting that snapshot of her
life.
New York in the early '90s.
The sort of freedom and the fun.
And a time I think also of great
ambition and ascent for her of
like, I'm going places, i'm
doing things.
She had an entire full life
and career, and one that was
really blossoming.
She climbed the ranks of Calvin
klein so quickly.
She got along with all the
clients, which was her job.
I think Calvin adored her.
I remember walking into a
Calvin klein fashion show in the
'90s and seeing Carolyn bessette
across the runway for the first
time.
And thinking, that's one of the
prettiest girls I've ever seen
in my entire life.
I had no idea who she was.
In the series, Carolyn was
working at Calvin klein, and she
managed to get herself into that
fashion fund-raiser.
You know, she was living a life
of, you know, going out at
night, hanging with her friends,
showing up in the showroom.
She was dressing all the
celebrities.
She was about to be elevated to
publicity.
And Calvin introduced her to jfk
Jr.
And he then did show up looking
for her.
Showed up to get fitted for a
suit, asking for her
specifically.
She was coming to buy a few
suits.
And Calvin decided that they
would get the most effervescent
person to show him the clothes,
even though she usually showed
the women's line.
Everybody knows who he is.
And he's accepting and
acknowledging that but still
very determined to get to the
back, where's Carolyn bessette,
I'm here to do one thing.
You know, here's a man who has
countless suits, doesn't need
anything.
But that's his excuse to just
get close.
Of course, he left with a crush.
And her phone number.
Oh, he definitely chased her.
Early on, he would be
frustrated.
I mean, he would say, "I called
her, and she hasn't called me
back."
John wasn't used to having
people say no to him.
I think it made him want her
even more.
And find her even more
attractive, that she was strong
enough and independent enough to
say no to him.
They came for the weekend,
and I think he had told US he
was coming for the weekend, he
was bringing a friend.
Okay.
In the morning she walked out,
and she's quite striking.
You know.
Blond and ten stories high.
And I thought, oh, this is not a
friend.
Carolyn was very independent.
She was a strong woman.
And I think he loved that.
She could be his friend.
She could listen to his secrets
and not judge him.
And I think that that was rare
for John, to be that comfortable
doing that with someone.
Look at the birdie.
When he settled down with
Carolyn, it was kind of a
remarkable moment where he said,
I'm out, I'm done, I've found
the one.
And I got to say, I think he
ended on the classiest, coolest
chick he ever dated.
John loved New York, and he
was a creature of New York.
And he loved everything about
it.
There was no more beautiful
sight than John Kennedy Jr., who
looked like James Bond with a
backpack, skating down Broadway
with his hat on backwards.
He was acutely conscious of
the fact that he could not avoid
having a public image.
And he sculpted his public image
as surely as he sculpted his
abs.
John just had this desire to
be a normal guy.
But also, really focused on
carving his own path in life,
doing it his way.
John was used to the kind of
attention that he got being his
mother's son and his father's
son.
And he grew to have a comfort
level with that.
But things were different when
he was voted "people's"
sexiest man.
I was dating him at that time,
and the attention on him became
much more about him in his own
right.
We're here to talk about sexy
man.
The thing has become a huge
part what was we do, and there's
a lot of attention paid to it.
And frankly, I think it's
probably the issue most waited
for.
Become part what was Americans
talk about.
John F. Kennedy Jr. has now
entered this canon of people who
are thus designated, and the
readers agreed.
It hit pay dirt.
Do you mind all this stuff
about you?
People can say a lot worse
things about you, right, than
that you were attractive and you
look good in a bathing suit.
Occasionally it's an annoyance,
but for the most part there's a
sense that it's... kind of
continues on and it's generated
and it doesn't really have a lot
to do with my life in a strange
way.
It's kind of... it's sort of...
Continues at the periphery, and
I kind of, you know... laugh
about it.
His glamor and his kind of
cachet is absolute gold for the
stars of the new magazine.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet
George.
The first cover is Cindy
Crawford, you know, it model of
the time, dressed up as George
Washington with a bare midriff.
So this is great, the
contrast...
What John did is different.
Because there were serious ideas
within the pages of "George"
magazine.
Then there were also, you know,
flashy celebrities.
It was meant to draw people
in who care more about
supermodels than about
presidents.
So, how is the magazine doing?
The early signs are that...
We sold out in about two weeks.
He also was sort of feeling
his way into politics.
I mean, he was kind of thinking
about running for the senate,
kind of thinking about maybe
not, maybe.
Everybody wanted John to be
in politics.
There was a part of him that
wanted to be great.
Wanted to leave his Mark.
Our hope is not lost
idealism, but a realistic
possibility.
You know, you grow up in the
Kennedy family, and you... you
know, you aspire to much bigger
things.
And "George" magazine I think
was his way of sort of exploring
a public forum into politics.
Make it... the front of it
more visual...
I think it was an ambitious
idea.
And maybe not a completely sane
one.
I mean, if you're interested in
looking at Cindy Crawford, you
might not be interested in
reading about nuclear missile
proliferation.
So John becomes the
editor-in-chief.
And at the very same time, he's
starting a new relationship.
That was a real love affair.
He was in love with Carolyn.
He just thought she was this
amazing woman.
Beautiful.
Complicated.
Fun.
They were really in love.
What we really wanted to do
was tell a love story that was
something anybody who's ever
been in love could relate to.
We wanted to celebrate the life
of these people.
I can't even imagine the
weight and responsibility on
them.
1995 that she reportedly
moves into his Tribeca
apartment.
And it's because of that that
the siege begins at this
apartment.
It's on a very open public
street.
It's an industrial door in what
used to be an industrial
building.
And paparazzi started to camp
out in front of the building.
So I would just ask any
privacy you can give her as she
makes that adjustment, it would
be greatly appreciated.
Carolyn bessette was not
someone who was prepared to be
the wife of John F. Kennedy Jr.,
sexiest man alive, potentially a
presidential candidate.
Okay, enough, enough.
Let's go.
John was just in a place in
his life where he wanted to...
He wanted to get married.
He was eager to start a family.
Are you crazy?
How can we possibly raise kids
in this environment?
She was very cautious.
She was in no rush.
They pull off a truly genius
secret wedding on a place called
cumberland island in Georgia.
Nobody knew this was happening.
The thing is, you can pull
off a secret wedding like that
even if you're John Kennedy if
you know who your friends are
and you know who you can trust.
A very small wedding.
But nevertheless, no paparazzi
found out about it.
It was just seen as being almost
a CIA-like operation, and good
for them.
John, come over here!
It's impossible to look at
the grace and glamor and mystery
around Carolyn bessette and not
compare her to Jackie Kennedy.
I mean, the way Jackie Kennedy
bore herself.
Her mystery.
Her grace.
Her seemingly existing above it
all.
Was evident in Carolyn bessette
as well.
The parallels between Carolyn
and Jackie are so extraordinary.
Because they very much were cut
from the same kind of cloth, in
many ways.
They both had incredible style
and taste.
Jackie had such an elegance.
And Carolyn was very much in
that aesthetic.
Carolyn as a fashion icon, I
mean, since the first photograph
that was ever taken of her, she
was looked at for her personal
style.
She's been gone for, you know,
almost 30 years.
But she's been a constant when
it comes to referencing her look
or her silhouette.
Girls wanted to look like her
back then, and I mean, still
today they want to look like
her.
No one did '90s minimalism
like Carolyn bessette Kennedy.
She's someone who let the sim
miss of your outfits speak for
itself.
Something about her specifically
is just the blueprint.
This whole side here, these
first two bays, are all Carolyn
bessette's closet.
This was a coat that she had
worn.
An old Prada coat.
She wore a lot of Prada, a lot
of Valentino, a lot of Yamamoto.
Yamamoto described his
clothing to be like armor for
the women that wore it.
I think that made so much sense
on to me as to why she wore so
many of his designs to these
public outings.
Carolyn obviously had such an
understanding of the power of
clothing.
It's the first thing that
someone takes in about you.
There she is.
A lot of vintage and then just
beat the hell out of it.
Because she famously would beat
up all of her bags.
I think for many people, she
has become a kind of ultimate
fashion reference for how to
channel minimalist '90s style.
She just knew what worked for
her, and that is very alluring
to people and has a sort of aura
of mystery around it.
Mostly because people can't
figure out how somebody can be
so sure of what it is they want
to wear and how they want to
present themselves.
So, this was probably the
most daunting design challenge.
This was a recreation of the
wedding dress which narciso
Rodriguez made for her.
They were very good friends.
That dress was so influential.
Nobody got married in a slip
dress like that before that.
That just spoke to her
extraordinary confidence, and it
started a whole new trend.
They got married in the
middle of 92 where.
Access to cumberland island was
virtually impossible.
It wasn't like getting married
at some downtown church or in
Montecito, California, someplace
you could stake out.
You couldn't get there.
And that's precisely why they
chose it we flew down to
Jacksonville, Florida, I think,
then took a boat to the island.
I mean, at what is a secret
among even the family, which is
why it was able to be kept a
secret, I think.
It was very clear that first day
that nobody knew that they were
getting married.
Originally, we wanted to have
the wedding on the beach.
Until Carolyn saw that church.
And she was like, we're getting
married there.
One of the great things about
John and Carolyn's wedding is
there was no wedding planner.
One night Carolyn meets John's
executive assistant, and they
print the wedding programs on
the "George" magazine office
copier.
I, John, take thee,
Carolyn...
It was just a great, magical,
fun weekend.
And we were... there were only
about 30 of US.
So it was like camp.
And we were just running around
this whole island.
And we had it all to ourselves.
I kind of didn't believe that
they had pulled it off.
It was like a fantasy.
He knew that she wouldn't
want the big, splashy,
paparazzi wedding.
She wanted something different,
and he wanted to give that to
her.
Everybody in america put them
on a pedestal.
We wanted them to be the John
and Jackie Kennedy.
You can't even imagine the
weight and responsibility on
them.
Following their wedding,
Carolyn started to have a lot
more fears and anxiety.
Her whole life changed
overnight.
She really couldn't go out, day or night,
without being followed and filmed.
I think she underestimated, as
anyone would, what that pressure
was going to be.
Carolyn was really having a
hard time with paparazzi.
Just was a slow erosion of
happiness, of privacy, that she
didn't know how to handle.
I said, this is what you
bargained for?
And she goes, no, this was not
what I thought it would be.
I can't even walk the dog on the
street.
I can't pick up poop.
There's a photographer in your
face everywhere you go.
It was taking a toll on their
relationship.
He was trying to protect her,
but they couldn't 24 hours a
day.
John was naive.
He told her, once I'm married,
all this is going to disappear.
I think she bought into that.
It turned out to be very, very
different.
It was considered kind of
radical, that John chose to live
in the Tribeca area.
It was industrial, it was
gritty.
It was a little forbidding.
But it was cool.
It was not the Upper East Side.
He chose not to live the life
that he probably had been raised
to.
I'm Alex digerlando,
executive
producer of "love story."
This is John and Carolyn's
Tribeca loft.
We recreated it here on the
stage.
Our production designer and
the production design team
really took care in researching
not just what felt like the
'90s, but the specificity where
our characters lived.
And it was important for US to
go to the real locations, too.
We were actually able to film
outside of their real building
on north Moore next to Walker's.
So it was at times haunting to
be in the actual spaces they had
been.
One of the great things about
New York is that generally it is
a place where you can be
anonymous, even when you're very
famous.
Greta garbo famously said she
moved to New York at the end of
her life because the only place
that she could be alone.
And so what was strange about
their New York existence is they
were hassled here.
Part of the tragedy was that so
quickly this did not become a
city that was a safe haven.
My name's Victor malafronte.
I was a paparazzi in the '80s
and '90s in New York City.
I was part of a documentary
called "blast 'em."
What a jerk.
It was about the paparazzi
and how they created their
craft.
What are you going to do?
He doesn't want to pose, he
doesn't want to pose, you know?
The one of John is one of the
most famous I'm known for.
I followed John back to his
house, and he comes bounding out
on rollerblades.
And I started running after him.
John just stooped, made a dead
stop, turned around and saw me.
And he started to charge me.
And I thought he was going to
attack me or something.
But he said, "do you think you
could give me a break so I could
spend my day enjoying myself and
not being hunted by you?"
He had a pretty respectful
relationship with the paparazzi.
It changes when he gets married.
And for some reason, the press
cannot accept Carolyn.
It was tough on her.
There's this one phrase that
actually makes me really angry
when people say.
"Well, she knew what she was
getting into."
Nobody knows what they're
getting into until they're in
it.
I think one of the things
that the show explores is that
because John has grown up in the
public eye, he has sort of
learned how to manage and
coexist with the paparazzi.
But for her, especially because
she won't feed the machine, they
turn on her.
The scenes were very intense.
I mean, just the amount of
people, the flashes.
It was so constant.
You know, you... your nervous
system gets fried pretty
quickly.
You have to understand one
thing about Carolyn.
She hates being taken a picture
of.
That's why she wears sunglasses
and shrouds herself.
She wanted to hide.
She was not able to leave her
front door on north Moore
street.
It was almost like a stage.
These two steps down, there was
no other exit, there's no
doorman.
And the paparazzi were always,
always there.
And it just built on itself.
And the more frightened she
became, the more isolated she
became.
I mean, she just... I don't
think the company and the
business could handle her being
so photographed.
And so in the media.
And that was her life.
She had been a professional.
She was a director person.
And she loses that.
Then she's trapped in this
prison.
Okay, enough, enough, let's go.
Which in her mind, it really
was a prison.
Which she can't escape from.
And a narrative starts to
emerge that she can't take this,
this is too much for her.
The rumors at the end of
their life was obviously the
marriage was breaking apart.
John was staying at the stanhope
uptown.
They were fighting incessantly.
Had a volatile relationship.
And unfortunately, the cameras
were always there to record it.
There were scenes that were
captured on film of them
squabbling in the park, shoving
each other, arguing loudly.
Apparently unaware of the fact
that they were always being
filmed.
Having issues.
And theirs were playing out in
public.
And I think a lot of the issues
had to do with the obligations
of "George."
His magazine is failing.
The one thing that John has done
in his life, which his name is
clearly associated with.
He doesn't know whether it's
going to survive.
His marriage is falling apart.
John is interested in
starting a family.
They're starting to talk about
it.
But Carolyn doesn't want to
bring a child into the
relationship the way it is now.
I've learned that people have
pretty much said everything
there is to say about the two of
them.
Regardless of its truth.
They went to marriage
counseling because they love
each other, and they were
determined to make their
relationship work.
You know, who knows what would
have happened.
There just wasn't enough time.
John loved to fly.
When you think about it, when
you think about the intensity of
the attention on John, flying up
in the air is the one place
where he can be left alone.
Nobody wanted him to fly.
Carolyn bessette wasn't crazy
about it, either.
But toward the end of their
lives, she started to like it.
She said that, when they're up
there together, it was when she
felt closest to him.
Because there were no paparazzi.
There were no fans.
It was just the two of them.
On the night of July 16th,
1999, jfk Jr. and Carolyn
bessette are planning to head to
Cape Cod for the wedding of his
cousin, Rory.
Along with them is her sister,
Lauren.
It's a summer night.
It's very hot and hazy.
For whatever reason, they leave
late.
Carolyn had just gotten to
the airport.
She was just calling to say they
were ready to take off.
And then she said, "I love you."
And I said, "I know."
Then by hung up.
It's just heartbreaking.
I mean, it just... you remember
the last thing you say to your
best friend.
The haze is really, really
thick.
And John is in the midst of
getting his instrument training.
So as it gets darker and
darker, that kind of sense of
vertigo starts to grow in the
plane.
And we all know what happens
after that.
It was midnight.
And the phone rang.
And it was John's friend.
He was at hyannis airport
waiting for them.
Just one of those moments where
the minute I heard his voice, I
just knew.
He didn't even have to say
anything.
I just thought, this doesn't
make sense, and I just started
making calls.
It was pretty late.
I said, "Carol, it's Rose,
what's going on?"
And she said, "they haven't
landed, they're not here,
something's wrong."
You know, I remember Brian
steel saying afterwards, you
know, "I knew right away.
John Kennedy's plane doesn't go
missing."
I knew he was dead.
I knew that John didn't
disappear.
For days, we didn't know.
I couldn't understand what
was going on.
And when I went up to
Connecticut, the mom was... she
had tried... cried so much, that
she couldn't sleep.
Abc news has learned that a
significant portion of the
wreckage of Jon f. Kennedy's
plane has been found in the
waters off Martha's vineyard,
and that John F. Kennedy's body
is in it.
It was earth-shattering.
It was unbelievable.
It was as if the earth had
cracked in half somehow.
And when you think about his
father, right, his father had an
unfinished life.
And then in a strange way, John
also had an unfinished life.
And so did Carolyn.
She was only 33 when she
passed away.
Because of the tragic way her
life ended, she'll never grow
old.
She'll never have to age.
Just this, like, frozen in time
image that people have.
Could they have a family?
Would he have been a good
president?
There's always going to be a
sense of what-if, I think, with
John and Carolyn.
I think that my greatest fear
would be to be faint of heart.
And feel that, you know, I
missed an opportunity, or you
could have taken a path less
traveled that would have ended
into something completely
wonderful and unexpected.
There really was never
anybody like them before or
since.
They had a glamor, they had
style, they had tragedy.
They are an unfinished story.
It's impossible to overstate
the sense of fascination with
jfk Jr.
He was absolutely unique.
He was the son of a slain
president.
And he grew up into being an
incredibly good-looking,
handsome, attractive young man.
And Carolyn bessette, with her
kind of mysterious, elegant,
glamorous quality, was
absolutely emblematic of that
1990s cool.
But she's not famous.
When John F. Kennedy Jr. ended
up in this relationship with
Carolyn bessette, it was natural
people were fascinated.
I think "love story" is about
the lives that Carolyn bessette
and John F. Kennedy Jr. led
before they met each other.
Their meeting and their budding
romance.
Their relationship with the
public, paparazzi, tabloid
culture and how that brings them
together.
They represent American
glamor.
Carolyn was more beautiful in
person than she was in
photographs.
She had a magic.
Her.
It was everything from the way
she moved to the way she engaged
to the way, when you talked to
her, she owned you.
She was just so much fun.
She was very playful, very
impulsive, very affectionate.
There was a lot of touching, you
know.
It took me awhile to get used to
all the hugging and
hand-holding.
You know, I was thinking the
other day... that trip we took
to Honduras...
I think the biggest thing for
me initially was getting to
illustrate the woman that she
was, especially the driven,
intelligent woman that she was
and the life that she had before
she met John and entered into
this whirlwind.
John grew up with the media.
He was born to it.
Second nature for him.
But for her, it wasn't.
She had a really difficult time
adjusting to the meanness, the
viciousness of the media
attention.
That became a real source of
tension in the relationship.
Well, I think a lot of people
who are that beautiful get
judged for being something just
because they're so
spectacular-looking.
I think they kind of thought of
her the same way people thought
of grace Kelly in the 1950s,
that she was sort of an ice
Princess or this forbidding, you
know, goddess type.
And she Kent have been further
from that.
In 1966, Carolyn bessette is
born in white plains, which is a
suburb north of Manhattan.
She was the youngest of three
girls.
Her mother was a schoolteacher.
After her parents divorced, she
moved to greenwich, Connecticut,
where her mother had remarried
an orthopedic surgeon.
She goes to a catholic high
school called St. Mary's where
she is a very popular young
girl.
At her graduation from high
school, she is named as the
ultimate beautiful person in the
yearbook.
She's seen as something of an it
girl and a popular girl in the
community.
She went to Boston
university, where she studied
education.
And I think for a while, she
wanted to be a teacher.
As evidence of her popularity
at Boston university, Carolyn
bessette dates Alessandro
benetton, the son of the
benetton fashion empire, which
was very, very popular in the
'80s and '90s.
This is a charismatic young
woman that people want to be
around, and she's finding that
she is drawing a larger and
larger crowd of people from, you
know, definite wealth and
prominence, and she enjoys it.
I think that Caroline had
always fantasized about being
married to John.
And she made that fantasy come
true.
John loved making waves.
And he loved being irreverent.
He was the world's most eligible
bachelor.
And John showed up for an event,
it got a lot of attention.
John F. Kennedy Jr. never
knew anonymity.
He was never anonymous.
In many ways, he became sort
of america's little prince when
he was born.
People referred to him as, you
know, the prince of Camelot.
You've got jfk, and he's
glamorous.
You have his imposteriorly
glamorous wife.
I mean, they literally were
something out of a movie set.
You couldn't... it looks as if
this was... that he's Cary Grant
and she's Audrey hepburn.
So John is born in between
the time his father wins the
election and when he takes
office in January.
News of John's birth spread all
around the world.
He was on the front page of
every major newspaper.
And that's the world he grew up
in.
The only home he knew up until
1963 was the white house.
I was young, you know, but he
had this desk in the oval office
which belonged to a sea captain.
And I just remember the inside,
and there were kind of cabinet
spaces in it.
Just hanging out there.
He used to give US chewing gum,
because our mother didn't like
to US chew gum.
He'd go to the oval office at
night, and he'd feed US gum
under the desk.
Again, it may be real, it may
not be.
But I sort of remember that.
John was always rambunctious.
It used to drive the secret
service agents nuts are running
around, wanting to play.
Forts, playing guns, airplanes.
John was full of thisser why gy.
You wanted to be an Australia?
Helicopter pilot, astronaut.
Something in the air.
Growing up, there always were
helicopters landing on the front
lawn of the white house.
And usually one parent or
another would emerge from them.
So I kind of got this thing
about helicopters.
John... John is caught
between the conflicting
ambitions of his parents.
On the one hand, his father
loves him dearly but also wants
to put him on display as much as
possible.
Whereas John's mom, Jackie, was
much more reserved.
When she planted these, like,
30-foot-high bushes so that
people couldn't see John playing
in the south lawn.
And the president saw them, "get
them out of there, take them
out."
There was this tug-of-war going
on around John.
Mrs. Kennedy regretted, later in
life, naming hip John F. Kennedy
Jr.
And the problem that she
inadvertently created was that
the more you emboldened the
myth, the more focus there's
examining to be on John as the
heir of that myth.
The president of the united
states, John Fitzgerald Kennedy,
is dead.
The president is dead.
It's not something that I
spend, really, honestly, much
time thinking about.
You know, I understand that that
was obviously a very
historically significant event.
He was a president.
And there are historians,
filmmakers, et cetera, studying
that.
Whatever they decide, whatever
they find, is not going to
change the one fundamental fact
in my life, which is that it
won't bring him back.
And so I don't really dwell on
it all that often.
I leave that to others.
When they're watching the
coffin go by, Jackie says to
John, "this is a chance to say
good-bye to your dad."
He takes a couple of steps
forward.
He salutes his father's grave.
Which is an image that, for
those of US of that generation,
is one of the defining images of
our lives.
That moment, he became the heir
of Camelot.
So that's the burden that John
grew up with his whole life.
Well, it's not really a burden.
It's not something that I wake
up to while I'm shaving and
think, alas, the burden.
But it is... in most instances
it's really a very positive
thing.
One of the things he said to
me, he said, I'm really two
people.
I'm John.
But I have a role to play, and
that role is John Fitzgerald
Kennedy Jr., the son of a slain
president.
And I think that helps you to
understand the world that he
grew up in.
And also how successful he was
in coping with it.
I mean, the amount of pressure
he was under from the moment...
Almost from the moment he was
conceived.
You know, would have crushed
most people.
But it not only did not crush
him, it made him stronger.
There was a fascination with him.
There's a story.
He's on the rise, he's in his
20s.
He's about to become a man in
full.
Yeah, I mean, he was a hunk.
I mean, come on, let be honest.
He was a hunk.
And then his girlfriends.
For John, his greatest
achievement wasn't public, it
was private.
A guy who seems to have had
everything given to him.
But who struggled his whole life
with his own identity.
And in an effort to try to find
who he was, separate from the
Kennedy family, separate from
public expectations of who he
was going to be.
So he goes to nyu, where he
studies law.
And I think he would be the
first to say he perhaps didn't
have the greatest legal mind.
But he was serious and wanted to
have that law degree.
It was important for whatever he
would do next.
And then he ends up at the
Manhattan da's office.
And his face in the New York
bar becomes an obsession among
the tabloid newspapers of new
York.
I know because I worked at one
at the time.
And he famously flunks the exam,
not once but twice.
When I failed the bar exam,
it was... the "New York post"
had the headline "the hunk
flunks."
Some of that I could actually do
without.
My recollection is that you
fail a third time, you lose the
job.
But it seemed like the third
time was a charm.
Certainly was for John.
Did you pass the bar?
Apparently it's true.
I got the official word not long
ago.
Columnist for the "New York
daily news" in the '90s.
My gossip column was called "hot
copy."
Because of that gossip column, I
was privy obviously to a lot of
stuff John was going through
with his dating.
John had a lot of
girlfriends, pretty much
starting from early on.
John and I met... I guess it
was '89.
I was with a friend in west palm
beach.
And we all ended up at this
random place and daysed until
4:00 in the morning.
I just loved that he was kind of
silly, quirky, forget full, fun,
adventurous.
Like a normal, humble, great
guy.
John and I met when I was 15,
and I had known him for ten
years before we got involved.
So, we knew each other pretty
well.
He made you feel alive.
And I remember how often we just
laughed so much.
Curious intellectually.
Physically, he wanted to try new
things.
He wanted to push the boundaries
of who he was.
He wanted you not to think of
yourself in this little box, but
all the things that the world
could offer.
All the things that you could
do.
And that's a true friend.
We know about him dating
Sarah Jessica Parker, Julie
baker Mark Donna.
Those are the ones we knew
about.
When you're as good-looking as
John Kennedy, there are another
hundred girls we don't know
about.
He dates much more seriously
and for a longer period of time
Daryl Hannah, who made a splash
in the movie "splash."
I definitely think they were
in love.
She was really lovely.
Sweet, fun, funny, loved John.
When they broke up, I was... to
be honest with you, I was
surprised.
I was like, why?
They just said, it's not
working.
The women who John is
attracted to are, first of all, stunning.
They're beautiful.
But they're also smart.
And they're engaging.
And they're curious.
And I think he saw all those
qualities in Carolyn.
Carolyn and I met in '87.
We were really good friends.
A lot of the mornings, we'd get
almond croissants.
She'd take the almonds off.
"Okay, you can have it."
What?
There were all kinds of
restaurants we would go to.
And of course we would have
martinis.
But my favorite thing is Carolyn
curled up on my bed with a big,
huge sweater, sitting and being
happy.
That would be my favorite thing.
I was very taken by, you
know, something we explore in
the show, which is just how
radically her life was changed
by this romance.
And I love in the pilot episode
getting that snapshot of her
life.
New York in the early '90s.
The sort of freedom and the fun.
And a time I think also of great
ambition and ascent for her of
like, I'm going places, i'm
doing things.
She had an entire full life
and career, and one that was
really blossoming.
She climbed the ranks of Calvin
klein so quickly.
She got along with all the
clients, which was her job.
I think Calvin adored her.
I remember walking into a
Calvin klein fashion show in the
'90s and seeing Carolyn bessette
across the runway for the first
time.
And thinking, that's one of the
prettiest girls I've ever seen
in my entire life.
I had no idea who she was.
In the series, Carolyn was
working at Calvin klein, and she
managed to get herself into that
fashion fund-raiser.
You know, she was living a life
of, you know, going out at
night, hanging with her friends,
showing up in the showroom.
She was dressing all the
celebrities.
She was about to be elevated to
publicity.
And Calvin introduced her to jfk
Jr.
And he then did show up looking
for her.
Showed up to get fitted for a
suit, asking for her
specifically.
She was coming to buy a few
suits.
And Calvin decided that they
would get the most effervescent
person to show him the clothes,
even though she usually showed
the women's line.
Everybody knows who he is.
And he's accepting and
acknowledging that but still
very determined to get to the
back, where's Carolyn bessette,
I'm here to do one thing.
You know, here's a man who has
countless suits, doesn't need
anything.
But that's his excuse to just
get close.
Of course, he left with a crush.
And her phone number.
Oh, he definitely chased her.
Early on, he would be
frustrated.
I mean, he would say, "I called
her, and she hasn't called me
back."
John wasn't used to having
people say no to him.
I think it made him want her
even more.
And find her even more
attractive, that she was strong
enough and independent enough to
say no to him.
They came for the weekend,
and I think he had told US he
was coming for the weekend, he
was bringing a friend.
Okay.
In the morning she walked out,
and she's quite striking.
You know.
Blond and ten stories high.
And I thought, oh, this is not a
friend.
Carolyn was very independent.
She was a strong woman.
And I think he loved that.
She could be his friend.
She could listen to his secrets
and not judge him.
And I think that that was rare
for John, to be that comfortable
doing that with someone.
Look at the birdie.
When he settled down with
Carolyn, it was kind of a
remarkable moment where he said,
I'm out, I'm done, I've found
the one.
And I got to say, I think he
ended on the classiest, coolest
chick he ever dated.
John loved New York, and he
was a creature of New York.
And he loved everything about
it.
There was no more beautiful
sight than John Kennedy Jr., who
looked like James Bond with a
backpack, skating down Broadway
with his hat on backwards.
He was acutely conscious of
the fact that he could not avoid
having a public image.
And he sculpted his public image
as surely as he sculpted his
abs.
John just had this desire to
be a normal guy.
But also, really focused on
carving his own path in life,
doing it his way.
John was used to the kind of
attention that he got being his
mother's son and his father's
son.
And he grew to have a comfort
level with that.
But things were different when
he was voted "people's"
sexiest man.
I was dating him at that time,
and the attention on him became
much more about him in his own
right.
We're here to talk about sexy
man.
The thing has become a huge
part what was we do, and there's
a lot of attention paid to it.
And frankly, I think it's
probably the issue most waited
for.
Become part what was Americans
talk about.
John F. Kennedy Jr. has now
entered this canon of people who
are thus designated, and the
readers agreed.
It hit pay dirt.
Do you mind all this stuff
about you?
People can say a lot worse
things about you, right, than
that you were attractive and you
look good in a bathing suit.
Occasionally it's an annoyance,
but for the most part there's a
sense that it's... kind of
continues on and it's generated
and it doesn't really have a lot
to do with my life in a strange
way.
It's kind of... it's sort of...
Continues at the periphery, and
I kind of, you know... laugh
about it.
His glamor and his kind of
cachet is absolute gold for the
stars of the new magazine.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet
George.
The first cover is Cindy
Crawford, you know, it model of
the time, dressed up as George
Washington with a bare midriff.
So this is great, the
contrast...
What John did is different.
Because there were serious ideas
within the pages of "George"
magazine.
Then there were also, you know,
flashy celebrities.
It was meant to draw people
in who care more about
supermodels than about
presidents.
So, how is the magazine doing?
The early signs are that...
We sold out in about two weeks.
He also was sort of feeling
his way into politics.
I mean, he was kind of thinking
about running for the senate,
kind of thinking about maybe
not, maybe.
Everybody wanted John to be
in politics.
There was a part of him that
wanted to be great.
Wanted to leave his Mark.
Our hope is not lost
idealism, but a realistic
possibility.
You know, you grow up in the
Kennedy family, and you... you
know, you aspire to much bigger
things.
And "George" magazine I think
was his way of sort of exploring
a public forum into politics.
Make it... the front of it
more visual...
I think it was an ambitious
idea.
And maybe not a completely sane
one.
I mean, if you're interested in
looking at Cindy Crawford, you
might not be interested in
reading about nuclear missile
proliferation.
So John becomes the
editor-in-chief.
And at the very same time, he's
starting a new relationship.
That was a real love affair.
He was in love with Carolyn.
He just thought she was this
amazing woman.
Beautiful.
Complicated.
Fun.
They were really in love.
What we really wanted to do
was tell a love story that was
something anybody who's ever
been in love could relate to.
We wanted to celebrate the life
of these people.
I can't even imagine the
weight and responsibility on
them.
1995 that she reportedly
moves into his Tribeca
apartment.
And it's because of that that
the siege begins at this
apartment.
It's on a very open public
street.
It's an industrial door in what
used to be an industrial
building.
And paparazzi started to camp
out in front of the building.
So I would just ask any
privacy you can give her as she
makes that adjustment, it would
be greatly appreciated.
Carolyn bessette was not
someone who was prepared to be
the wife of John F. Kennedy Jr.,
sexiest man alive, potentially a
presidential candidate.
Okay, enough, enough.
Let's go.
John was just in a place in
his life where he wanted to...
He wanted to get married.
He was eager to start a family.
Are you crazy?
How can we possibly raise kids
in this environment?
She was very cautious.
She was in no rush.
They pull off a truly genius
secret wedding on a place called
cumberland island in Georgia.
Nobody knew this was happening.
The thing is, you can pull
off a secret wedding like that
even if you're John Kennedy if
you know who your friends are
and you know who you can trust.
A very small wedding.
But nevertheless, no paparazzi
found out about it.
It was just seen as being almost
a CIA-like operation, and good
for them.
John, come over here!
It's impossible to look at
the grace and glamor and mystery
around Carolyn bessette and not
compare her to Jackie Kennedy.
I mean, the way Jackie Kennedy
bore herself.
Her mystery.
Her grace.
Her seemingly existing above it
all.
Was evident in Carolyn bessette
as well.
The parallels between Carolyn
and Jackie are so extraordinary.
Because they very much were cut
from the same kind of cloth, in
many ways.
They both had incredible style
and taste.
Jackie had such an elegance.
And Carolyn was very much in
that aesthetic.
Carolyn as a fashion icon, I
mean, since the first photograph
that was ever taken of her, she
was looked at for her personal
style.
She's been gone for, you know,
almost 30 years.
But she's been a constant when
it comes to referencing her look
or her silhouette.
Girls wanted to look like her
back then, and I mean, still
today they want to look like
her.
No one did '90s minimalism
like Carolyn bessette Kennedy.
She's someone who let the sim
miss of your outfits speak for
itself.
Something about her specifically
is just the blueprint.
This whole side here, these
first two bays, are all Carolyn
bessette's closet.
This was a coat that she had
worn.
An old Prada coat.
She wore a lot of Prada, a lot
of Valentino, a lot of Yamamoto.
Yamamoto described his
clothing to be like armor for
the women that wore it.
I think that made so much sense
on to me as to why she wore so
many of his designs to these
public outings.
Carolyn obviously had such an
understanding of the power of
clothing.
It's the first thing that
someone takes in about you.
There she is.
A lot of vintage and then just
beat the hell out of it.
Because she famously would beat
up all of her bags.
I think for many people, she
has become a kind of ultimate
fashion reference for how to
channel minimalist '90s style.
She just knew what worked for
her, and that is very alluring
to people and has a sort of aura
of mystery around it.
Mostly because people can't
figure out how somebody can be
so sure of what it is they want
to wear and how they want to
present themselves.
So, this was probably the
most daunting design challenge.
This was a recreation of the
wedding dress which narciso
Rodriguez made for her.
They were very good friends.
That dress was so influential.
Nobody got married in a slip
dress like that before that.
That just spoke to her
extraordinary confidence, and it
started a whole new trend.
They got married in the
middle of 92 where.
Access to cumberland island was
virtually impossible.
It wasn't like getting married
at some downtown church or in
Montecito, California, someplace
you could stake out.
You couldn't get there.
And that's precisely why they
chose it we flew down to
Jacksonville, Florida, I think,
then took a boat to the island.
I mean, at what is a secret
among even the family, which is
why it was able to be kept a
secret, I think.
It was very clear that first day
that nobody knew that they were
getting married.
Originally, we wanted to have
the wedding on the beach.
Until Carolyn saw that church.
And she was like, we're getting
married there.
One of the great things about
John and Carolyn's wedding is
there was no wedding planner.
One night Carolyn meets John's
executive assistant, and they
print the wedding programs on
the "George" magazine office
copier.
I, John, take thee,
Carolyn...
It was just a great, magical,
fun weekend.
And we were... there were only
about 30 of US.
So it was like camp.
And we were just running around
this whole island.
And we had it all to ourselves.
I kind of didn't believe that
they had pulled it off.
It was like a fantasy.
He knew that she wouldn't
want the big, splashy,
paparazzi wedding.
She wanted something different,
and he wanted to give that to
her.
Everybody in america put them
on a pedestal.
We wanted them to be the John
and Jackie Kennedy.
You can't even imagine the
weight and responsibility on
them.
Following their wedding,
Carolyn started to have a lot
more fears and anxiety.
Her whole life changed
overnight.
She really couldn't go out, day or night,
without being followed and filmed.
I think she underestimated, as
anyone would, what that pressure
was going to be.
Carolyn was really having a
hard time with paparazzi.
Just was a slow erosion of
happiness, of privacy, that she
didn't know how to handle.
I said, this is what you
bargained for?
And she goes, no, this was not
what I thought it would be.
I can't even walk the dog on the
street.
I can't pick up poop.
There's a photographer in your
face everywhere you go.
It was taking a toll on their
relationship.
He was trying to protect her,
but they couldn't 24 hours a
day.
John was naive.
He told her, once I'm married,
all this is going to disappear.
I think she bought into that.
It turned out to be very, very
different.
It was considered kind of
radical, that John chose to live
in the Tribeca area.
It was industrial, it was
gritty.
It was a little forbidding.
But it was cool.
It was not the Upper East Side.
He chose not to live the life
that he probably had been raised
to.
I'm Alex digerlando,
executive
producer of "love story."
This is John and Carolyn's
Tribeca loft.
We recreated it here on the
stage.
Our production designer and
the production design team
really took care in researching
not just what felt like the
'90s, but the specificity where
our characters lived.
And it was important for US to
go to the real locations, too.
We were actually able to film
outside of their real building
on north Moore next to Walker's.
So it was at times haunting to
be in the actual spaces they had
been.
One of the great things about
New York is that generally it is
a place where you can be
anonymous, even when you're very
famous.
Greta garbo famously said she
moved to New York at the end of
her life because the only place
that she could be alone.
And so what was strange about
their New York existence is they
were hassled here.
Part of the tragedy was that so
quickly this did not become a
city that was a safe haven.
My name's Victor malafronte.
I was a paparazzi in the '80s
and '90s in New York City.
I was part of a documentary
called "blast 'em."
What a jerk.
It was about the paparazzi
and how they created their
craft.
What are you going to do?
He doesn't want to pose, he
doesn't want to pose, you know?
The one of John is one of the
most famous I'm known for.
I followed John back to his
house, and he comes bounding out
on rollerblades.
And I started running after him.
John just stooped, made a dead
stop, turned around and saw me.
And he started to charge me.
And I thought he was going to
attack me or something.
But he said, "do you think you
could give me a break so I could
spend my day enjoying myself and
not being hunted by you?"
He had a pretty respectful
relationship with the paparazzi.
It changes when he gets married.
And for some reason, the press
cannot accept Carolyn.
It was tough on her.
There's this one phrase that
actually makes me really angry
when people say.
"Well, she knew what she was
getting into."
Nobody knows what they're
getting into until they're in
it.
I think one of the things
that the show explores is that
because John has grown up in the
public eye, he has sort of
learned how to manage and
coexist with the paparazzi.
But for her, especially because
she won't feed the machine, they
turn on her.
The scenes were very intense.
I mean, just the amount of
people, the flashes.
It was so constant.
You know, you... your nervous
system gets fried pretty
quickly.
You have to understand one
thing about Carolyn.
She hates being taken a picture
of.
That's why she wears sunglasses
and shrouds herself.
She wanted to hide.
She was not able to leave her
front door on north Moore
street.
It was almost like a stage.
These two steps down, there was
no other exit, there's no
doorman.
And the paparazzi were always,
always there.
And it just built on itself.
And the more frightened she
became, the more isolated she
became.
I mean, she just... I don't
think the company and the
business could handle her being
so photographed.
And so in the media.
And that was her life.
She had been a professional.
She was a director person.
And she loses that.
Then she's trapped in this
prison.
Okay, enough, enough, let's go.
Which in her mind, it really
was a prison.
Which she can't escape from.
And a narrative starts to
emerge that she can't take this,
this is too much for her.
The rumors at the end of
their life was obviously the
marriage was breaking apart.
John was staying at the stanhope
uptown.
They were fighting incessantly.
Had a volatile relationship.
And unfortunately, the cameras
were always there to record it.
There were scenes that were
captured on film of them
squabbling in the park, shoving
each other, arguing loudly.
Apparently unaware of the fact
that they were always being
filmed.
Having issues.
And theirs were playing out in
public.
And I think a lot of the issues
had to do with the obligations
of "George."
His magazine is failing.
The one thing that John has done
in his life, which his name is
clearly associated with.
He doesn't know whether it's
going to survive.
His marriage is falling apart.
John is interested in
starting a family.
They're starting to talk about
it.
But Carolyn doesn't want to
bring a child into the
relationship the way it is now.
I've learned that people have
pretty much said everything
there is to say about the two of
them.
Regardless of its truth.
They went to marriage
counseling because they love
each other, and they were
determined to make their
relationship work.
You know, who knows what would
have happened.
There just wasn't enough time.
John loved to fly.
When you think about it, when
you think about the intensity of
the attention on John, flying up
in the air is the one place
where he can be left alone.
Nobody wanted him to fly.
Carolyn bessette wasn't crazy
about it, either.
But toward the end of their
lives, she started to like it.
She said that, when they're up
there together, it was when she
felt closest to him.
Because there were no paparazzi.
There were no fans.
It was just the two of them.
On the night of July 16th,
1999, jfk Jr. and Carolyn
bessette are planning to head to
Cape Cod for the wedding of his
cousin, Rory.
Along with them is her sister,
Lauren.
It's a summer night.
It's very hot and hazy.
For whatever reason, they leave
late.
Carolyn had just gotten to
the airport.
She was just calling to say they
were ready to take off.
And then she said, "I love you."
And I said, "I know."
Then by hung up.
It's just heartbreaking.
I mean, it just... you remember
the last thing you say to your
best friend.
The haze is really, really
thick.
And John is in the midst of
getting his instrument training.
So as it gets darker and
darker, that kind of sense of
vertigo starts to grow in the
plane.
And we all know what happens
after that.
It was midnight.
And the phone rang.
And it was John's friend.
He was at hyannis airport
waiting for them.
Just one of those moments where
the minute I heard his voice, I
just knew.
He didn't even have to say
anything.
I just thought, this doesn't
make sense, and I just started
making calls.
It was pretty late.
I said, "Carol, it's Rose,
what's going on?"
And she said, "they haven't
landed, they're not here,
something's wrong."
You know, I remember Brian
steel saying afterwards, you
know, "I knew right away.
John Kennedy's plane doesn't go
missing."
I knew he was dead.
I knew that John didn't
disappear.
For days, we didn't know.
I couldn't understand what
was going on.
And when I went up to
Connecticut, the mom was... she
had tried... cried so much, that
she couldn't sleep.
Abc news has learned that a
significant portion of the
wreckage of Jon f. Kennedy's
plane has been found in the
waters off Martha's vineyard,
and that John F. Kennedy's body
is in it.
It was earth-shattering.
It was unbelievable.
It was as if the earth had
cracked in half somehow.
And when you think about his
father, right, his father had an
unfinished life.
And then in a strange way, John
also had an unfinished life.
And so did Carolyn.
She was only 33 when she
passed away.
Because of the tragic way her
life ended, she'll never grow
old.
She'll never have to age.
Just this, like, frozen in time
image that people have.
Could they have a family?
Would he have been a good
president?
There's always going to be a
sense of what-if, I think, with
John and Carolyn.
I think that my greatest fear
would be to be faint of heart.
And feel that, you know, I
missed an opportunity, or you
could have taken a path less
traveled that would have ended
into something completely
wonderful and unexpected.
There really was never
anybody like them before or
since.
They had a glamor, they had
style, they had tragedy.
They are an unfinished story.