JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Were Emotionally Distant and Disconnected Before Fatal Crash, Friend Reveals
On the heels of FX’s Love Story chronicling John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s relationship and tragic deaths, friends close to the couple are opening up about the state of their marriage before they died in a July 1999 plane crash. In a People articl…
JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Were Not Intimate and 'Disconnected' Prior to Their Deaths, Friend Says
On the heels of FX's Love Story chronicling John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette's relationship and tragic deaths, friends close to the couple are opening up about the state of their marriage before they died in a July 1999 plane crash. In a People article published this week, those who knew the couple best revealed that the glamorous pair had been struggling deeply in the months leading up to the fatal accident that claimed their lives along with that of Carolyn's sister Lauren Bessette.
According to friends interviewed for the piece, Kennedy and Bessette had become increasingly disconnected from one another and were no longer intimate in the period before their deaths. The couple, who married in a secret ceremony on Cumberland Island, Georgia, in September 1996, had reportedly been dealing with mounting tensions related to the pressures of public life, Kennedy's struggling political magazine George, and disagreements about starting a family. Friends described a relationship that had once been electric and passionate but had grown strained under the weight of constant media scrutiny and personal differences.
The revelations come as renewed interest in the couple's story has surged following the FX docuseries, which has brought their love story and its heartbreaking ending back into the public conversation. Those close to the pair noted that despite their difficulties, both Kennedy and Bessette still cared for one another and had not made any final decisions about the future of their marriage. Friends expressed that the couple had been working through their issues and that there remained hope they could have found their way back to each other.
The tragic plane crash on July 16, 1999, cut short any chance of reconciliation. Kennedy, an inexperienced pilot, was flying his Piper Saratoga aircraft from New Jersey to Martha's Vineyard when the plane went down in the waters off the coast of Massachusetts. The loss of JFK Jr., who was just 38 years old, along with Carolyn, 33, and Lauren, 34, stunned the nation and left those closest to the couple forever wondering what might have been had they been given more time to repair their bond.