Many incredible world events happened during my 30-year career as a newscanchor/reporter. The Berln Wall came down and capitalism came tumbling in. O. J. Simpson’s murder trial, the lengthy Korsech stand off in Waco, Hurricane Katrina, Tienneman Square, The Gulf war of course, September 11th and all the world changing procedurese e and processes that happened afterwards.
I might have covered them from by proxy, from safety of a studio but when you report on a story long enough, you come to know the characters. Even the terrain.
I felt that way about John Kennedy, JR’s.plane crash. From an age perspective, I fall between John and his sister , Caroline. I grew up with them, basically. I have vague memories of the frolicking in thevOcal a Office. But their mother’s desperate need for privacy kept them out of the limelight for most of their our childhood. I saw even less of them after Jackie married Onassis. Years went by and I don’t remember hearing or seeing a thing about either sibling, then all of a sudden, John John as he was called as a child , had grown up into a very handsome man.
In 1994, I was assigned to cover the Houston Rockets NBA finals match up with the New Year Knicks, not covering the game per se, but doing whacky slice of life, fish out of water stories in the city. But I went to Madison Square GArden for one game and with my media access badge, I could go almost anywhere. I’m on the corner of the court and sitting mere feet from me court side, is Johnzkennedy. White button down shirt, sleeves rolled up and he was drinking a beer from a plastic cup. Like an Everyman, but trust me, he wasn’t. He was probably one of the best looking men I’d ever seen. Security told me to step back which I did, and that ended my 13 second relationship with John John.
I was sad to learn his plane had crashed and it was apparent to everybody even though it was never mentioned on the air, that all three passengers were dead. John, Carolyn and her sister, Lauren were flying to Martha’s Vinyard for the wedding of John’s cousin’s Rory Kennedy, a documentary producer with whom Ethel was pregnant when her husband, presidential candidate Robert Kennedy assassinated. There was JFK killed in Dallas, two family members killed in plane crashes in the 1940’s. Teddy and then early crash at Chappiquidic. Several Kennedy cousins died for various reasons. The Kennedy family have to have grieving down to a science.
I remember doing a few stories on his marriage to Carolyn Bessette. Overall, I wasn’t impressed. We all know the stories about the lusty Kennesy men and as far as that goes, she was typical Kennedy female fare, blond and blue eyes. I really didn’t think that much of her. She was attractive; from a well to do family and of course, she was as mandatory, a Catholic.
But it wasn’t until I watched a documentary on the 15th anniversary of the plane crash that I actually noticed Carolyn. That lead to me becoming a voracious reader about all things CBK.
If she were alive, I’d love to have a beer with her at some hole in the wall. I don’t know how I know this , but I firmly belive that underneath the wealthy private school girl demeanor, the designer clothes, the tony NYC address, the balls, the cotillions, and the forced magazine smiles that never seemed all that easy for her to make, I know there was a regular girl who probably didn’t brush her teeth every night and wore unwashed jeans from time to time and farted and burped and laughed at the even the dirtiest dick jokes.
So in getting to know Carolyn, first by photos, I thought she was prettier as a younger woman. She did some modeling and she wore well what was left of her baby fat.
Then she got a job doing PR for Calvin Klein and as the story goes, John came in for a his bespoke suit fitting. They met and fell in love and maybe a year later, they had a small, secret marriage on an island off the coast of Georgia.
They went to Turkey on their honeymoon and upon their return, John escorted Carolyn out of their TriBeCa apartment in front of horses of photographers and camera people, and he begged them to give her her space. The new Mrs. Kennedy was new to all this media hullabaloo. Did they oblige? Oh, hell no.
She was photographed doing everything, everywhere from attending galas to picking up dog doodoo after walking their dog Friday. And you could tell it bothered her. The gorgeous clothes, the pretty long blond hair, piercing blue eyes and long, coltish legs couldn’t hide the “I’m so annoyed look!”.
I suppose that’s why I began to appreciate her. All that money, all that access to excess, yet she didn’t seem like a snob. Her friends and coworkers would tell great stories about her kindness and humanity…..demonstrating all of it, even while wearing a $5000 vintage Valentino gown and uh, that’s in 1998 prices.
Her Patrician profile kind of tells it all. I’d show you but, for some reason WordPress is limiting me to one picture per post, but trust me, she had a perfect linear profile. An artists’s dream. Definitely not a Dora Marr.
Then, there were rumors flying around that the marriage was in trouble. She had affairs, he had affairs. She and her fashionista friends were doing a lot of cocaine, a habit which John apparently abhorred. He wanted kids, she didn’t. They were separating one minute, divorcing a week later, recommitting their vows the next day.
I then remember seeing Carolyn looking very pale and thin. Her face had gotten very angular, hollow. People Magazine published candid shots of them walking along New York streets, holding hands or her arm tucked around his, but they didn’t look happy and again, keep in mind, that’s Just a very unprofessional opinion.
I’ve probably seen every photo and every video short of the private things the Bessette family have and would never release to the world. I’m ordinarily not an obsessive person, but when I find someone who interests me for whatever reason, I’ll read everything I can about them, study every photo and video in an attempt to get into their heads and imagine life through their eyes. AndcwithbCarolyn, I began to realize It wasn’t that sgevwas just married to JFK, the younger. I was more curious about Carolyn’s life under the microscope of being in this man’s life, which also means being in his dynastic family. After reading all things truly credible and all things completely incredible, I surmised that it couldn’t have been easy.
If all the authors of all the books and articles are to be believed, there were abortions, affairs, public arguing and a separation right before the plane crash.
Like I said, obsession isn’t in my lexicon, not in the classic sense. I studied Carolyn Bessette Kennedy not to immulate her—-hell, she was almost six feet tall, I’m practically that in width. I know what her favorite parfum was, what her favorite Bobbi Brown eye shadow was and that she liked Bud Light, but knowing these things only sate dmy curiosity. The sullen eyes told me a whole another story. I’m not obsessed with CBK, I still feel sorry for her and her all too short life.
When she married John John, she married the handsome man AND the media, the gossip mongerung and a very wealthy mythic family that doesn’t like nonconformists and is almost as Scotch Guarded as the Clintons.
Where’s the happiness in that?
What did that chunky little Italian host of that show all about the seedier, tragic side of Hollywood say at the end of each show on E!??
“Fame–ain’t it a bitch.”
