John and Carolyn: Love, Beauty and Loss (2026)

[bunniefuu]

It's impossible to overstate

the sense of fascination with

jfk Jr.

He was absolutely unique.

He was the son of a slain

president.

And he grew up into being an

incredibly good-looking,

handsome, attractive young man.

And Carolyn bessette, with her

kind of mysterious, elegant,

glamorous quality, was

absolutely emblematic of that

1990s cool.

But she's not famous.

When John F. Kennedy Jr. ended

up in this relationship with

Carolyn bessette, it was natural

people were fascinated.

I think "love story" is about

the lives that Carolyn bessette

and John F. Kennedy Jr. led

before they met each other.

Their meeting and their budding

romance.

Their relationship with the

public, paparazzi, tabloid

culture and how that brings them

together.

They represent American

glamor.

Carolyn was more beautiful in

person than she was in

photographs.

She had a magic.

Her.

It was everything from the way

she moved to the way she engaged

to the way, when you talked to

her, she owned you.

She was just so much fun.

She was very playful, very

impulsive, very affectionate.

There was a lot of touching, you

know.

It took me awhile to get used to

all the hugging and

hand-holding.

You know, I was thinking the

other day... that trip we took

to Honduras...

I think the biggest thing for

me initially was getting to

illustrate the woman that she

was, especially the driven,

intelligent woman that she was

and the life that she had before

she met John and entered into

this whirlwind.

John grew up with the media.

He was born to it.

Second nature for him.

But for her, it wasn't.

She had a really difficult time

adjusting to the meanness, the

viciousness of the media

attention.

That became a real source of

tension in the relationship.

Well, I think a lot of people

who are that beautiful get

judged for being something just

because they're so

spectacular-looking.

I think they kind of thought of

her the same way people thought

of grace Kelly in the 1950s,

that she was sort of an ice

Princess or this forbidding, you

know, goddess type.

And she Kent have been further

from that.

In 1966, Carolyn bessette is

born in white plains, which is a

suburb north of Manhattan.

She was the youngest of three

girls.

Her mother was a schoolteacher.

After her parents divorced, she

moved to greenwich, Connecticut,

where her mother had remarried

an orthopedic surgeon.

She goes to a catholic high

school called St. Mary's where

she is a very popular young

girl.

At her graduation from high

school, she is named as the

ultimate beautiful person in the

yearbook.

She's seen as something of an it

girl and a popular girl in the

community.

She went to Boston

university, where she studied

education.

And I think for a while, she

wanted to be a teacher.

As evidence of her popularity

at Boston university, Carolyn

bessette dates Alessandro

benetton, the son of the

benetton fashion empire, which

was very, very popular in the

'80s and '90s.

This is a charismatic young

woman that people want to be

around, and she's finding that

she is drawing a larger and

larger crowd of people from, you

know, definite wealth and

prominence, and she enjoys it.

I think that Caroline had

always fantasized about being

married to John.

And she made that fantasy come

true.

John loved making waves.

And he loved being irreverent.

He was the world's most eligible

bachelor.

And John showed up for an event,

it got a lot of attention.

John F. Kennedy Jr. never

knew anonymity.

He was never anonymous.

In many ways, he became sort

of america's little prince when

he was born.

People referred to him as, you

know, the prince of Camelot.

You've got jfk, and he's

glamorous.

You have his imposteriorly

glamorous wife.

I mean, they literally were

something out of a movie set.

You couldn't... it looks as if

this was... that he's Cary Grant

and she's Audrey hepburn.

So John is born in between

the time his father wins the

election and when he takes

office in January.

News of John's birth spread all

around the world.

He was on the front page of

every major newspaper.

And that's the world he grew up

in.

The only home he knew up until

1963 was the white house.

I was young, you know, but he

had this desk in the oval office

which belonged to a sea captain.

And I just remember the inside,

and there were kind of cabinet

spaces in it.

Just hanging out there.

He used to give US chewing gum,

because our mother didn't like

to US chew gum.

He'd go to the oval office at

night, and he'd feed US gum

under the desk.

Again, it may be real, it may

not be.

But I sort of remember that.

John was always rambunctious.

It used to drive the secret

service agents nuts are running

around, wanting to play.

Forts, playing g*ns, airplanes.

John was full of thisser why gy.

You wanted to be an Australia?

Helicopter pilot, astronaut.

Something in the air.

Growing up, there always were

helicopters landing on the front

lawn of the white house.

And usually one parent or

another would emerge from them.

So I kind of got this thing

about helicopters.

John... John is caught

between the conflicting

ambitions of his parents.

On the one hand, his father

loves him dearly but also wants

to put him on display as much as

possible.

Whereas John's mom, Jackie, was

much more reserved.

When she planted these, like,

30-foot-high bushes so that

people couldn't see John playing

in the south lawn.

And the president saw them, "get

them out of there, take them

out."

There was this tug-of-w*r going

on around John.

Mrs. Kennedy regretted, later in

life, naming hip John F. Kennedy

Jr.

And the problem that she

inadvertently created was that

the more you emboldened the

myth, the more focus there's

examining to be on John as the

heir of that myth.

The president of the united

states, John Fitzgerald Kennedy,

is dead.

The president is dead.

It's not something that I

spend, really, honestly, much

time thinking about.

You know, I understand that that

was obviously a very

historically significant event.

He was a president.

And there are historians,

filmmakers, et cetera, studying

that.

Whatever they decide, whatever

they find, is not going to

change the one fundamental fact

in my life, which is that it

won't bring him back.

And so I don't really dwell on

it all that often.

I leave that to others.

When they're watching the

coffin go by, Jackie says to

John, "this is a chance to say

good-bye to your dad."

He takes a couple of steps

forward.

He salutes his father's grave.

Which is an image that, for

those of US of that generation,

is one of the defining images of

our lives.

That moment, he became the heir

of Camelot.

So that's the burden that John

grew up with his whole life.

Well, it's not really a burden.

It's not something that I wake

up to while I'm shaving and

think, alas, the burden.

But it is... in most instances

it's really a very positive

thing.

One of the things he said to

me, he said, I'm really two

people.

I'm John.

But I have a role to play, and

that role is John Fitzgerald

Kennedy Jr., the son of a slain

president.

And I think that helps you to

understand the world that he

grew up in.

And also how successful he was

in coping with it.

I mean, the amount of pressure

he was under from the moment...

Almost from the moment he was

conceived.

You know, would have crushed

most people.

But it not only did not crush

him, it made him stronger.

There was a fascination with him.

There's a story.

He's on the rise, he's in his

20s.

He's about to become a man in

full.

Yeah, I mean, he was a hunk.

I mean, come on, let be honest.

He was a hunk.

And then his girlfriends.





For John, his greatest

achievement wasn't public, it

was private.

A guy who seems to have had

everything given to him.

But who struggled his whole life

with his own identity.

And in an effort to try to find

who he was, separate from the

Kennedy family, separate from

public expectations of who he

was going to be.

So he goes to nyu, where he

studies law.

And I think he would be the

first to say he perhaps didn't

have the greatest legal mind.

But he was serious and wanted to

have that law degree.

It was important for whatever he

would do next.

And then he ends up at the

Manhattan da's office.

And his face in the New York

bar becomes an obsession among

the tabloid newspapers of new

York.

I know because I worked at one

at the time.

And he famously flunks the exam,

not once but twice.

When I failed the bar exam,

it was... the "New York post"

had the headline "the hunk

flunks."

Some of that I could actually do

without.

My recollection is that you

fail a third time, you lose the

job.

But it seemed like the third

time was a charm.

Certainly was for John.

Did you pass the bar?

Apparently it's true.

I got the official word not long

ago.

Columnist for the "New York

daily news" in the '90s.

My gossip column was called "hot

copy."

Because of that gossip column, I

was privy obviously to a lot of

stuff John was going through

with his dating.

John had a lot of

girlfriends, pretty much

starting from early on.

John and I met... I guess it

was '89.

I was with a friend in west palm

beach.

And we all ended up at this

random place and daysed until

4:00 in the morning.

I just loved that he was kind of

silly, quirky, forget full, fun,

adventurous.

Like a normal, humble, great

guy.

John and I met when I was 15,

and I had known him for ten

years before we got involved.

So, we knew each other pretty

well.

He made you feel alive.

And I remember how often we just

laughed so much.

Curious intellectually.

Physically, he wanted to try new

things.

He wanted to push the boundaries

of who he was.

He wanted you not to think of

yourself in this little box, but

all the things that the world

could offer.

All the things that you could

do.

And that's a true friend.

We know about him dating

Sarah Jessica Parker, Julie

baker Mark Donna.

Those are the ones we knew

about.

When you're as good-looking as

John Kennedy, there are another

hundred girls we don't know

about.

He dates much more seriously

and for a longer period of time

Daryl Hannah, who made a splash

in the movie "splash."

I definitely think they were

in love.

She was really lovely.

Sweet, fun, funny, loved John.

When they broke up, I was... to

be honest with you, I was

surprised.

I was like, why?

They just said, it's not

working.

The women who John is

attracted to are, first of all, stunning.

They're beautiful.

But they're also smart.

And they're engaging.

And they're curious.

And I think he saw all those

qualities in Carolyn.

Carolyn and I met in '87.

We were really good friends.

A lot of the mornings, we'd get

almond croissants.

She'd take the almonds off.

"Okay, you can have it."

What?

There were all kinds of

restaurants we would go to.

And of course we would have

martinis.

But my favorite thing is Carolyn

curled up on my bed with a big,

huge sweater, sitting and being

happy.

That would be my favorite thing.

I was very taken by, you

know, something we explore in

the show, which is just how

radically her life was changed

by this romance.

And I love in the pilot episode

getting that snapshot of her

life.

New York in the early '90s.

The sort of freedom and the fun.

And a time I think also of great

ambition and ascent for her of

like, I'm going places, i'm

doing things.

She had an entire full life

and career, and one that was

really blossoming.

She climbed the ranks of Calvin

klein so quickly.

She got along with all the

clients, which was her job.

I think Calvin adored her.

I remember walking into a

Calvin klein fashion show in the

'90s and seeing Carolyn bessette

across the runway for the first

time.

And thinking, that's one of the

prettiest girls I've ever seen

in my entire life.

I had no idea who she was.

In the series, Carolyn was

working at Calvin klein, and she

managed to get herself into that

fashion fund-raiser.

You know, she was living a life

of, you know, going out at

night, hanging with her friends,

showing up in the showroom.

She was dressing all the

celebrities.

She was about to be elevated to

publicity.

And Calvin introduced her to jfk

Jr.

And he then did show up looking

for her.

Showed up to get fitted for a

suit, asking for her

specifically.

She was coming to buy a few

suits.

And Calvin decided that they

would get the most effervescent

person to show him the clothes,

even though she usually showed

the women's line.

Everybody knows who he is.

And he's accepting and

acknowledging that but still

very determined to get to the

back, where's Carolyn bessette,

I'm here to do one thing.

You know, here's a man who has

countless suits, doesn't need

anything.

But that's his excuse to just

get close.

Of course, he left with a crush.

And her phone number.

Oh, he definitely chased her.

Early on, he would be

frustrated.

I mean, he would say, "I called

her, and she hasn't called me

back."

John wasn't used to having

people say no to him.

I think it made him want her

even more.

And find her even more

attractive, that she was strong

enough and independent enough to

say no to him.

They came for the weekend,

and I think he had told US he

was coming for the weekend, he

was bringing a friend.

Okay.

In the morning she walked out,

and she's quite striking.

You know.

Blond and ten stories high.

And I thought, oh, this is not a

friend.

Carolyn was very independent.

She was a strong woman.

And I think he loved that.

She could be his friend.

She could listen to his secrets

and not judge him.

And I think that that was rare

for John, to be that comfortable

doing that with someone.

Look at the birdie.

When he settled down with

Carolyn, it was kind of a

remarkable moment where he said,

I'm out, I'm done, I've found

the one.

And I got to say, I think he

ended on the classiest, coolest

chick he ever dated.



John loved New York, and he

was a creature of New York.

And he loved everything about

it.

There was no more beautiful

sight than John Kennedy Jr., who

looked like James Bond with a

backpack, skating down Broadway

with his hat on backwards.

He was acutely conscious of

the fact that he could not avoid

having a public image.

And he sculpted his public image

as surely as he sculpted his

abs.

John just had this desire to

be a normal guy.

But also, really focused on

carving his own path in life,

doing it his way.

John was used to the kind of

attention that he got being his

mother's son and his father's

son.

And he grew to have a comfort

level with that.

But things were different when

he was voted "people's"

sexiest man.

I was dating him at that time,

and the attention on him became

much more about him in his own

right.

We're here to talk about sexy

man.

The thing has become a huge

part what was we do, and there's

a lot of attention paid to it.

And frankly, I think it's

probably the issue most waited

for.

Become part what was Americans

talk about.

John F. Kennedy Jr. has now

entered this canon of people who

are thus designated, and the

readers agreed.

It hit pay dirt.

Do you mind all this stuff

about you?

People can say a lot worse

things about you, right, than

that you were attractive and you

look good in a bathing suit.

Occasionally it's an annoyance,

but for the most part there's a

sense that it's... kind of

continues on and it's generated

and it doesn't really have a lot

to do with my life in a strange

way.

It's kind of... it's sort of...

Continues at the periphery, and

I kind of, you know... laugh

about it.

His glamor and his kind of

cachet is absolute gold for the

stars of the new magazine.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet

George.

The first cover is Cindy

Crawford, you know, it model of

the time, dressed up as George

Washington with a bare midriff.

So this is great, the

contrast...

What John did is different.

Because there were serious ideas

within the pages of "George"

magazine.

Then there were also, you know,

flashy celebrities.

It was meant to draw people

in who care more about

supermodels than about

presidents.

So, how is the magazine doing?

The early signs are that...

We sold out in about two weeks.

He also was sort of feeling

his way into politics.

I mean, he was kind of thinking

about running for the senate,

kind of thinking about maybe

not, maybe.

Everybody wanted John to be

in politics.

There was a part of him that

wanted to be great.

Wanted to leave his Mark.

Our hope is not lost

idealism, but a realistic

possibility.

You know, you grow up in the

Kennedy family, and you... you

know, you aspire to much bigger

things.

And "George" magazine I think

was his way of sort of exploring

a public forum into politics.

Make it... the front of it

more visual...

I think it was an ambitious

idea.

And maybe not a completely sane

one.

I mean, if you're interested in

looking at Cindy Crawford, you

might not be interested in

reading about nuclear m*ssile

proliferation.

So John becomes the

editor-in-chief.

And at the very same time, he's

starting a new relationship.

That was a real love affair.

He was in love with Carolyn.

He just thought she was this

amazing woman.

Beautiful.

Complicated.

Fun.

They were really in love.

What we really wanted to do

was tell a love story that was

something anybody who's ever

been in love could relate to.

We wanted to celebrate the life

of these people.

I can't even imagine the

weight and responsibility on

them.

1995 that she reportedly

moves into his Tribeca

apartment.

And it's because of that that

the siege begins at this

apartment.

It's on a very open public

street.

It's an industrial door in what

used to be an industrial

building.

And paparazzi started to camp

out in front of the building.

So I would just ask any

privacy you can give her as she

makes that adjustment, it would

be greatly appreciated.

Carolyn bessette was not

someone who was prepared to be

the wife of John F. Kennedy Jr.,

sexiest man alive, potentially a

presidential candidate.

Okay, enough, enough.

Let's go.

John was just in a place in

his life where he wanted to...

He wanted to get married.

He was eager to start a family.

Are you crazy?

How can we possibly raise kids

in this environment?

She was very cautious.

She was in no rush.

They pull off a truly genius

secret wedding on a place called

cumberland island in Georgia.

Nobody knew this was happening.

The thing is, you can pull

off a secret wedding like that

even if you're John Kennedy if

you know who your friends are

and you know who you can trust.

A very small wedding.

But nevertheless, no paparazzi

found out about it.

It was just seen as being almost

a CIA-like operation, and good

for them.



John, come over here!

It's impossible to look at

the grace and glamor and mystery

around Carolyn bessette and not

compare her to Jackie Kennedy.

I mean, the way Jackie Kennedy

bore herself.

Her mystery.

Her grace.

Her seemingly existing above it

all.

Was evident in Carolyn bessette

as well.

The parallels between Carolyn

and Jackie are so extraordinary.

Because they very much were cut

from the same kind of cloth, in

many ways.

They both had incredible style

and taste.

Jackie had such an elegance.

And Carolyn was very much in

that aesthetic.

Carolyn as a fashion icon, I

mean, since the first photograph

that was ever taken of her, she

was looked at for her personal

style.

She's been gone for, you know,

almost 30 years.

But she's been a constant when

it comes to referencing her look

or her silhouette.

Girls wanted to look like her

back then, and I mean, still

today they want to look like

her.

No one did '90s minimalism

like Carolyn bessette Kennedy.

She's someone who let the sim

miss of your outfits speak for

itself.

Something about her specifically

is just the blueprint.

This whole side here, these

first two bays, are all Carolyn

bessette's closet.

This was a coat that she had

worn.

An old Prada coat.

She wore a lot of Prada, a lot

of Valentino, a lot of Yamamoto.

Yamamoto described his

clothing to be like armor for

the women that wore it.

I think that made so much sense

on to me as to why she wore so

many of his designs to these

public outings.

Carolyn obviously had such an

understanding of the power of

clothing.

It's the first thing that

someone takes in about you.

There she is.

A lot of vintage and then just

beat the hell out of it.

Because she famously would beat

up all of her bags.

I think for many people, she

has become a kind of ultimate

fashion reference for how to

channel minimalist '90s style.

She just knew what worked for

her, and that is very alluring

to people and has a sort of aura

of mystery around it.

Mostly because people can't

figure out how somebody can be

so sure of what it is they want

to wear and how they want to

present themselves.

So, this was probably the

most daunting design challenge.

This was a recreation of the

wedding dress which narciso

Rodriguez made for her.

They were very good friends.

That dress was so influential.

Nobody got married in a slip

dress like that before that.

That just spoke to her

extraordinary confidence, and it

started a whole new trend.

They got married in the

middle of 92 where.

Access to cumberland island was

virtually impossible.

It wasn't like getting married

at some downtown church or in

Montecito, California, someplace

you could stake out.

You couldn't get there.

And that's precisely why they

chose it we flew down to

Jacksonville, Florida, I think,

then took a boat to the island.

I mean, at what is a secret

among even the family, which is

why it was able to be kept a

secret, I think.

It was very clear that first day

that nobody knew that they were

getting married.

Originally, we wanted to have

the wedding on the beach.

Until Carolyn saw that church.

And she was like, we're getting

married there.

One of the great things about

John and Carolyn's wedding is

there was no wedding planner.

One night Carolyn meets John's

executive assistant, and they

print the wedding programs on

the "George" magazine office

copier.

I, John, take thee,

Carolyn...

It was just a great, magical,

fun weekend.

And we were... there were only

about 30 of US.

So it was like camp.

And we were just running around

this whole island.

And we had it all to ourselves.

I kind of didn't believe that

they had pulled it off.

It was like a fantasy.

He knew that she wouldn't

want the big, splashy,

paparazzi wedding.

She wanted something different,

and he wanted to give that to

her.

Everybody in america put them

on a pedestal.

We wanted them to be the John

and Jackie Kennedy.

You can't even imagine the

weight and responsibility on

them.

Following their wedding,

Carolyn started to have a lot

more fears and anxiety.

Her whole life changed

overnight.

She really couldn't go out, day or night,

without being followed and filmed.

I think she underestimated, as

anyone would, what that pressure

was going to be.

Carolyn was really having a

hard time with paparazzi.

Just was a slow erosion of

happiness, of privacy, that she

didn't know how to handle.

I said, this is what you

bargained for?

And she goes, no, this was not

what I thought it would be.

I can't even walk the dog on the

street.

I can't pick up poop.

There's a photographer in your

face everywhere you go.

It was taking a toll on their

relationship.

He was trying to protect her,

but they couldn't 24 hours a

day.

John was naive.

He told her, once I'm married,

all this is going to disappear.

I think she bought into that.

It turned out to be very, very

different.

It was considered kind of

radical, that John chose to live

in the Tribeca area.

It was industrial, it was

gritty.

It was a little forbidding.

But it was cool.

It was not the Upper East Side.

He chose not to live the life

that he probably had been raised

to.

I'm Alex digerlando,

executive

producer of "love story."

This is John and Carolyn's

Tribeca loft.

We recreated it here on the

stage.

Our production designer and

the production design team

really took care in researching

not just what felt like the

'90s, but the specificity where

our characters lived.

And it was important for US to

go to the real locations, too.

We were actually able to film

outside of their real building

on north Moore next to Walker's.

So it was at times haunting to

be in the actual spaces they had

been.

One of the great things about

New York is that generally it is

a place where you can be

anonymous, even when you're very

famous.

Greta garbo famously said she

moved to New York at the end of

her life because the only place

that she could be alone.

And so what was strange about

their New York existence is they

were hassled here.

Part of the tragedy was that so

quickly this did not become a

city that was a safe haven.

My name's Victor malafronte.

I was a paparazzi in the '80s

and '90s in New York City.

I was part of a documentary

called "blast 'em."

What a jerk.

It was about the paparazzi

and how they created their

craft.

What are you going to do?

He doesn't want to pose, he

doesn't want to pose, you know?

The one of John is one of the

most famous I'm known for.

I followed John back to his

house, and he comes bounding out

on rollerblades.

And I started running after him.

John just stooped, made a dead

stop, turned around and saw me.

And he started to charge me.

And I thought he was going to

attack me or something.

But he said, "do you think you

could give me a break so I could

spend my day enjoying myself and

not being hunted by you?"

He had a pretty respectful

relationship with the paparazzi.

It changes when he gets married.

And for some reason, the press

cannot accept Carolyn.

It was tough on her.

There's this one phrase that

actually makes me really angry

when people say.

"Well, she knew what she was

getting into."

Nobody knows what they're

getting into until they're in

it.

I think one of the things

that the show explores is that

because John has grown up in the

public eye, he has sort of

learned how to manage and

coexist with the paparazzi.

But for her, especially because

she won't feed the machine, they

turn on her.

The scenes were very intense.

I mean, just the amount of

people, the flashes.

It was so constant.

You know, you... your nervous

system gets fried pretty

quickly.

You have to understand one

thing about Carolyn.

She hates being taken a picture

of.

That's why she wears sunglasses

and shrouds herself.

She wanted to hide.

She was not able to leave her

front door on north Moore

street.

It was almost like a stage.

These two steps down, there was

no other exit, there's no

doorman.

And the paparazzi were always,

always there.

And it just built on itself.

And the more frightened she

became, the more isolated she

became.

I mean, she just... I don't

think the company and the

business could handle her being

so photographed.

And so in the media.

And that was her life.

She had been a professional.

She was a director person.

And she loses that.

Then she's trapped in this

prison.

Okay, enough, enough, let's go.

Which in her mind, it really

was a prison.

Which she can't escape from.

And a narrative starts to

emerge that she can't take this,

this is too much for her.

The rumors at the end of

their life was obviously the

marriage was breaking apart.

John was staying at the stanhope

uptown.

They were fighting incessantly.

Had a volatile relationship.

And unfortunately, the cameras

were always there to record it.

There were scenes that were

captured on film of them

squabbling in the park, shoving

each other, arguing loudly.

Apparently unaware of the fact

that they were always being

filmed.

Having issues.

And theirs were playing out in

public.

And I think a lot of the issues

had to do with the obligations

of "George."

His magazine is failing.

The one thing that John has done

in his life, which his name is

clearly associated with.

He doesn't know whether it's

going to survive.

His marriage is falling apart.

John is interested in

starting a family.

They're starting to talk about

it.

But Carolyn doesn't want to

bring a child into the

relationship the way it is now.

I've learned that people have

pretty much said everything

there is to say about the two of

them.

Regardless of its truth.

They went to marriage

counseling because they love

each other, and they were

determined to make their

relationship work.

You know, who knows what would

have happened.

There just wasn't enough time.

John loved to fly.

When you think about it, when

you think about the intensity of

the attention on John, flying up

in the air is the one place

where he can be left alone.

Nobody wanted him to fly.

Carolyn bessette wasn't crazy

about it, either.

But toward the end of their

lives, she started to like it.

She said that, when they're up

there together, it was when she

felt closest to him.

Because there were no paparazzi.

There were no fans.

It was just the two of them.

On the night of July 16th,

1999, jfk Jr. and Carolyn

bessette are planning to head to

Cape Cod for the wedding of his

cousin, Rory.

Along with them is her sister,

Lauren.

It's a summer night.

It's very hot and hazy.

For whatever reason, they leave

late.

Carolyn had just gotten to

the airport.

She was just calling to say they

were ready to take off.

And then she said, "I love you."

And I said, "I know."

Then by hung up.

It's just heartbreaking.

I mean, it just... you remember

the last thing you say to your

best friend.

The haze is really, really

thick.

And John is in the midst of

getting his instrument training.

So as it gets darker and

darker, that kind of sense of

vertigo starts to grow in the

plane.

And we all know what happens

after that.

It was midnight.

And the phone rang.

And it was John's friend.

He was at hyannis airport

waiting for them.

Just one of those moments where

the minute I heard his voice, I

just knew.

He didn't even have to say

anything.

I just thought, this doesn't

make sense, and I just started

making calls.

It was pretty late.

I said, "Carol, it's Rose,

what's going on?"

And she said, "they haven't

landed, they're not here,

something's wrong."

You know, I remember Brian

steel saying afterwards, you

know, "I knew right away.

John Kennedy's plane doesn't go

missing."

I knew he was dead.

I knew that John didn't

disappear.

For days, we didn't know.

I couldn't understand what

was going on.

And when I went up to

Connecticut, the mom was... she

had tried... cried so much, that

she couldn't sleep.

Abc news has learned that a

significant portion of the

wreckage of Jon f. Kennedy's

plane has been found in the

waters off Martha's vineyard,

and that John F. Kennedy's body

is in it.

It was earth-shattering.

It was unbelievable.

It was as if the earth had

cracked in half somehow.

And when you think about his

father, right, his father had an

unfinished life.

And then in a strange way, John

also had an unfinished life.

And so did Carolyn.

She was only 33 when she

passed away.

Because of the tragic way her

life ended, she'll never grow

old.

She'll never have to age.

Just this, like, frozen in time

image that people have.

Could they have a family?

Would he have been a good

president?

There's always going to be a

sense of what-if, I think, with

John and Carolyn.

I think that my greatest fear

would be to be faint of heart.

And feel that, you know, I

missed an opportunity, or you

could have taken a path less

traveled that would have ended

into something completely

wonderful and unexpected.

There really was never

anybody like them before or

since.

They had a glamor, they had

style, they had tragedy.

They are an unfinished story.