At long last, the fifth installment of Ryan Murphy’s American Story franchise is almost here, with Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette premiering on FX on February 12. Starring I Know What You Did Last Summer’s Sarah Pidgeon and newcomer Paul Anthony Kelly, the anthology series will follow the tumultuous relationship between JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, from their whirlwind courtship to their untimely death.
Haven’t watched the trailer yet? Pls enjoy:
Of course, if you’re not familiar with the story of how JFK’s son fell for a Calvin Klein publicist, there’s no better time to study up. Here is John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s relationship timeline from the very beginning, starting with...
1992
John first met Carolyn during a fitting at Calvin Klein, where she was working with VIP clientele. As Kelly Rector (Calvin’s former wife and assistant) revealed in Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy (via People), John asked for Carolyn’s number and later “invited her to join his group at a gala dinner.”
The gala dinner was reportedly a bust, as John spent the night—according to Once Upon a Time—“sitting next to him was another woman that Carolyn either mistook as his date, or actually was his date.”
However! John and Carolyn later hit it off at a fundraiser in May, where the two were reportedly seen in “deep conversation” for more than an hour. The pair went on to date on and off over the next few years—though John was also spotted on several occasions with his actress girlfriend, Daryl Hannah, during that time.
1994
In May, John lost control of Daryl’s dog during a walk in Central Park, which led to the pet getting hit by a car and killed. Not long after, John’s mom Jackie Kennedy Onassis passed away following a battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma...but not before Daryl tasked John with flying to L.A. with her dog’s ashes.
As a friend noted in JFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biography (via Page Six), “He was deeply resentful that Daryl dragged him out there to attend a funeral for her dog when his mother was dying of cancer.”
And according to RHONY alum Carole Radziwill (who was married to JFK Jr.’s cousin Anthony Radziwill), “John felt [Daryl] was punishing him by insisting he fly to L.A. that weekend. It was just a terrible time and a bad omen.”
The two decided to split, and soon after, John began dating Carolyn in earnest.
1995
Just over a year after his mother’s death, John invited Carolyn to go fishing in Martha’s Vineyard over Fourth of July weekend and ended up proposing while the two were out on a boat.
“He went into this thing about how everything’s better with a partner, not just fishing but life,” Kennedy’s former assistant, RoseMarie Terenzio, later told People. “He said, ‘I want you to be my partner.’”
Fun fact: Carolyn apparently didn’t give John an answer for three weeks, but she finally agreed to marry him.
1996
On February 25, 1996, John and Carolyn were spotted having their infamous screaming match in Central Park, which later became an eight-page spread in the New York Daily News.
According to America’s Reluctant Prince: The Life of John F. Kennedy Jr. (per InStyle), “The cause of this infamous fight, and the many that followed, stemmed from Carolyn’s ongoing complaint that John let people walk all over him.”
Fortunately, the two moved past the public spat, and seven months later on September 21, 1996, they tied the knot in a secret ceremony on Georgia’s Cumberland Island. As Carole Radziwill later told the Daily Mail, “It was the most famous wedding of the year, the decade. And no one but the 32 close friends and family who arrived, knew.”
1999
After a turbulent few years of marriage and intense media scrutiny (during which time John watched his cousin Anthony Radziwill’s health decline), the couple reportedly began counseling in the spring of 1999.
According to The Kennedy Heirs (via People), “Both wanted to improve their marriage. John didn’t want to be one of those Kennedy men who didn’t care how his wife feels.”
A few months later on July 16, 1999, Carolyn and her sister, Lauren, boarded a plane piloted by John in order to attend the wedding of his cousin, Rory Kennedy. Tragically, they never made it, as the plane crashed into the water off Martha’s Vineyard, killing all three.
The first three episodes of Love Story will be available to watch on FX and Hulu on February 12, with new episodes airing weekly after the premiere.
