John Kennedy jr and Carolyn Bessette 25 years later: the book

The one composed of John Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette it was the symbolic couple of an era, the one that unfolded in the 90s. Not just Americans. A story that had all the ingredients to make people talk and newspapers write. John the heir to a political dynasty with a capital P, the tombeur de femmes who had all the women at his feet. The democratic political intellectual who filled the dreams of twenty-year-olds like a Prince Charming. And she.

Carolyn, the worthy princess. Starting from her physical features, she perfectly embodied the role of a Cinderella. Although she did not enjoy the same illustrious pedigree, she had earned the respect of his mother. The eternal first lady Jackie Kennedy. All thanks to style minimalist, elegant and iconic combined with an independent and ambitious character.

In Italy there were no books until now that had explored their lives with detailed attention in an attempt to fill in the unsaid. It’s in the bookstore now John Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. Two immortal icons (Minerva Publisher) written by Ursula Beretta and Maria Vittoria Melchioni. We interviewed the first of the two authors.

Why does it make sense to talk about the Kennedy-Bessette couple in 2024: what do they bring new to the customs of our society compared to everything that has already been said about them?

Precisely the fact that so much has been said about them and often inappropriately has pushed Maria Vittoria and me to pick up the – abruptly interrupted – thread of their lives to try to clarify things. They represented an era, the 90s, which has never become more current than today. In their short existence they embodied the dreams, expectations and contradictions of American society in search of models in which to recognize themselves. John was predestined for a public role because of his birth. Carolyn, on the other hand, came from a middle-class but normal family. She had a job like many other girls and was beautiful and with an innate sense of style…

Against her will, she found herself the muse of a lifestyle that took inspiration from her in a completely spontaneous way. And of which she was not – and perhaps did not even want to be – aware. A series of lucky coincidences which made both of them a model to look at and, at the same time, to dismantle, as always happens. Investigating their details, discovering their offshoots, taking charge of their history by purging it of the gossip and trivialities in which it has long been caged, allows us to rediscover what still remains of them. And evaluate the richness of what they have left as a legacy. And what they could have left behind, of course.

Could such a couple exist today? Or does it exist?

They represented the American dream par excellence: young, beautiful, in love and noble, with a personal pedigree that the surname Kennedy enriched with further declinations. They had everything and could be everything. They were America’s royal couple, destined for a bright future that would revive, as everyone hoped, the splendors of Camelot and the too-brief “reign” of his father. Beloved President JFK… They had that je ne sais quoi which perfectly summarizes the unrepeatable essence that characterized them and which today finds no equal.

Give space first to Kennedy’s life and then to that of Bessette, as if there were a dialogue which however leaves many conjectures open. You feel like you know more about Carolyn, but you don’t know for sure until the end. Who really was Carolyn?

Carolyn was a girl like many others, perhaps more beautiful and more stylish than others, capable of great consistency in listening to herself and seizing the opportunities that life reserved for her. It proves it rapid career which she did at Calvin Klein where she started as a simple sales assistant. She lived the New York of the 90s trying to capture the best of it, she surrounded herself with friendly people who loved her almost as if they wanted to recreate the family microcosm in which she had grown up and by which she felt protected.

Just the abrupt one father’s estrangement had caused a major break in the way Carolyn approached relationships and the confidentiality she maintained about her private life. A characteristic, confidentiality, which she never lost and which fueled all the conjectures that have multiplied. In reality, all that noise around her – inevitable, but not necessary – did not allow her to be what she was of her. Hunted, spied onsubjected to scrutiny in her every gesture, deprived of her freedom, she was destined not to be able to express herself except through the flashes of photographers and the chatter of the tabloids.

How do you imagine it today?

Many times I tried to imagine it, but the only constant was how he would deal with it tyranny of social networks…Carolyn today? She loved John and I like to think they would still be together after almost thirty years of marriage. The only reason that pushed her to leave her job was, once again, too much media attention surrounding her. She had been clear when she had given the resignation from Calvin Klein: he didn’t want his fame to precede that of the brand…

Do you think that Carolyn, as some claimed, had really “got” first the most envied scion of the Kennedy family on the planet?

From my research, as reported in the book, emerges the I remember a conversation in which a young Carolyn showed a lot of interest in John jr. She said she would move to New York just to make it her own. A detail that clashes quite a bit with her experience and her shy character… But all the alleged truths, put together, give the exact measure of the complexity of his person.

If they hadn’t died in the plane crash, how do you imagine they would have continued their lives?

This is something that Maria Vittoria and I thought about a lot, always imagining them together, at the center of a family that was finally theirs. Maybe more sheltered from gossip, even if right now it’s quite utopian. If it is inevitable to think about political career that John would undertake, as far as Carolyn is concerned, the matter is more complex. There are many variables, but none that have ever truly satisfied me. Precisely because she was unpredictable… Maybe the way I like to imagine her is only one: a free woman who lives his life the way he prefers.

What are the anecdotes or unpublished stories that you have learned about?

They concern his empathy towards others, her being so enveloping and thoughtful. Despite being beautiful, full of charm, luminous like an otherworldly creature, as Sciascia Gambaccini who knew her well remembers her, Carolyn remained a normal girl. Certainly endowed with a strong charisma and capable of doing her job well, adapting to everything that was necessary, work-wise, to obtain the result she had set for herself.

Does the Kennedy curse really exist?

Looking at the trail of tragedies that have ruined the dynasty one would be tempted to answer yes. In reality it was a sort of legend that not even Carolyn paid much attention to. She was worried about making her relationship with John work and staying away from excessively intrusive family issues…

From the portraits, Bessette emerges as a charismatic and attentive person in her private life. In your opinion is it a “saint” or was it really like that?

I am convinced that this was the case precisely because I listened stories which were all going in this direction. Then it is true that each person has nuances that are much more complex than what can emerge from individual narratives… But there is no doubt that Carolyn was truly that empathetic and charismatic woman that everyone described to me.