Even though it’s been nearly 30 years since John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette died in a tragic accident, their love story still endures — and fascinates.
A new FX series series titled “Love Story,” out Feb. 12, revisits the couple’s relationship from courtship to marriage and gives viewers a fictionalized look into their highly public lives.
Episode 1 dives into the start of their relationship. According to the show, they meet at a black-tie event. But is that really the case? Here’s what’s been said about how the real JFK Jr. and Bessette met and started dating.
There are multiple versions of JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s meet-cute
In a documentary titled “JFK And Carolyn’s Wedding: The Lost Tapes,” subjects recall varying versions of how Bessette and Kennedy might have met.
“There’s one account of how both were running in Central Park and he was suddenly taken aback by her beauty,” The Knot Senior News Editor Esther Lee said in one interview.
Meanwhile, Kennedy’s close friend Billy Noonan seemed to think that one of Kennedy’s friends introduced the lovebirds.
J. Randy Taraborrelli, author of “The Kennedy Heirs,” acknowledged that the stories vary depending on who you ask.
“I tried to stay away from it in my book because everybody I talked to had a different story,” he said.
Lee mentioned another account about “a friend of hers and his going suit shopping.”
“Yeah, that sounds possible. The jogging in the park thing, no,” Kennedy’s friend Sasha Chermayeff said in the documentary.
Either way, Taraborrelli said Kennedy “swept her off her feet very early on in their relationship.”
“Carolyn was used to guys who were more closed and she had to draw out. John was not that kind of person. If John was interested in you, he was very open and very forthcoming, and she found that to be very refreshing,” he said.
The couple met for the first time in 1992
In her book, “Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy,” which inspired “Love Story,” Elizabeth Beller details another version of the story of how the couple met.
The author says Kennedy booked a fitting in Calvin Klein’s VIP room in spring 1992, and Bessette was selected to handle the important meeting.
“So even though Carolyn usually only showed the women’s line, Calvin … decided it should be she, the most effervescent person on the salesfloor, who would show John the selection of clothing. Unsurprisingly, John came out of the meeting smitten, with a few men’s suits and Carolyn’s phone number. He called within days,” the book reads.
Beller writes that Kennedy invited Bessette to attend a gala dinner and sit at his table with the rest of his group. However, it didn’t go well since another woman was sitting next to Kennedy and Bessette assumed she was his date.
“It was unclear, and Carolyn wasn’t pleased. When John invited her to the after-party at a local club, she coldly said, ‘I can’t. I’m meeting people,’ and abruptly left,” the book reads.
After reflecting on the night, Bessette later wrote a thank-you note to Kennedy to smooth things over. Unfortunately, he didn’t call right away.
While attending a fundraiser in May 1992, Kennedy and Bessette crossed paths again.
Kennedy’s friend Sasha Chermayeff recalled the encounter in the book, saying, “Eventually I spotted Carolyn. Just by looking at her I realized he has brought me here to see her, to tacitly approve… There was something captivating about the way she moved, the tilt of her head. Carolyn was captivating. Without John even looking her way, my eyes went to her, and I knew.”
Per Beller’s book, Kennedy and Bessette dated for a few months before breaking up temporarily.
The couple dated in 1994 and got engaged in 1995
The couple reconnected in 1994 and started dating again. However, they had a major obstacle to confront: Kennedy wouldn’t introduce Bessette to his mother.
Per Beller’s book, Bessette broke up with Kennedy “a couple of times” for not introducing her to his mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
Eventually, their relationship settled down and Kennedy proposed in 1995. Three weeks later, Bessette accepted his proposal, per “JFK And Carolyn’s Wedding: The Lost Tapes.”
The couple got married in 1996
Bessette and Kennedy tied the knot in an intimate ceremony on Cumberland Island, a small island off the coast of Georgia, in September 1996.
They died in a plane crash three years later.
Paul Anthony Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon star in the new Ryan Murphy series “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette,” which explores the high profile marriage of the couple who, in 1999, met a tragic end in a plane crash.
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