In fact, in 1988, he was named the “Sexiest Man Alive” by People.
You may even remember thatepisode of “Seinfeld"when Elaine almost got a date with the famous bachelor.
The pair met in 1992 and tied the knot in 1996.
They quickly became one of the tabloids' favorite couples and they were hounded by paparazzi throughout their marriage.
According toVanity Fair, some believe they locked eyes while jogging in Central Park.
Either way, friends say it was practically love at first sight.
As for JFK Jr., he was allegedly still dating actress Daryl Hannah when he first met Bessette.
In the early days of their relationship, it wasn’t always smooth sailing.
“Early on, he would be frustrated,” said Steel (viaYahoo!).
“He would say, ‘I called her and she hasn’t called me back.’
And John did not like that.”
“He couldn’t believe she turned him down.
It had never happened before.”
JFK Jr. allegedly persevered by coming to visit Bessette at work to prove her wrong.
He allegedly asked her to marry him in July 1995.
“He said, ‘I want you to be my partner.'”
As Terenzio wrote in her book, “Fairy Tale Interrupted” (via Yahoo!
), Bessette “worried marriage would change everything” especially when it came to her privacy.
“She understood that the formality meant something, especially to John and his lifestyle,” wrote Terenzio.
Around three weeks after his romantic proposal, she finally accepted and the pair became secretly engaged.
Unfortunately, this meant that private moments between the couple became public.
In 1996, the pair were filmed by paparazzi having a massive argument in Central Park (viaYouTube).
Another friend, Ariel Paredes, described them as “fiery.”
That night there was a wedding one of the best-kept secrets of modern time.
It was the most famous wedding of the year, the decade.
… And no one but the thirty-two close friends and family who arrived, knew.”
Bessette wore a dress by designer, Narciso Rodriguez, along with her famous red lipstick.
The couple couldn’t have been happier.
“They wanted something that really felt real to them,” she said (viaYouTube).
“It was really beautiful, ‘cause they just wanted to dance together.
It wasn’t an exhibition, it was something that really had, you know, meaning.”
It would be greatly appreciated."
He then reappeared with his new wife.
The couple then stepped into their waiting car and drove off.
It’s wipe the pair knew that the press would be more invasive than ever after the wedding.
But even though JFK Jr. made a touching appeal on behalf of Bessette, things only got worse.
They began following them everywhere they went.
For Bessette, the attention became more and more intrusive.
What made things worse was the fact that the couple didn’t have their own security detail.
As RoseMarie Terenzio told People, this had been JFK Jr.’s idea.
Apparently, their lack of protection made Bessette even more “uneasy.”
“It offended her that her privacy was being intruded on that level.”
As Stephen M. Gillon toldTown & Country, the media scrutiny changed Bessette.
“The paparazzi treated her horribly.
… She went from being this vivacious and energetic person, and now she feels captive.”
In addition to the press scrutiny, they were also dealing with personal tragedies.
Anthony and his wife Carole had become extremely close with Kennedy and Bessette.
By 1999, it became clear that his illness was terminal.
“Carolyn was the glue who kept people together,” she wrote.
“Specifically, that summer, the four of us in a difficult time.”
They spent most of their time living a quiet, normal life in New York City.
The pair shared an apartment in Tribeca and were frequently spotted out and about walking their dog.
According toTown & Country,JFK Jr. wanted to be seen as a normal New Yorker.
Of course, because of the paparazzi, the couple also stayed inside a lot.
“We would order foods from Bubby’s on the corner.
Who wanted to leave and have to go walk through that?
That was, like, every day of her life for the first year or more.”
According to a number of reports, one of their biggest disagreements centered around children.
As for Bessette, she allegedly told a friend: “I hate living in a fishbowl.
John may be comfortable living like this, but I’m not.
How could I bring a child into this kind of world?”
According to one friend, the slight age gap between the pair might have contributed to their disagreements.
In 1999, as the arguments escalated, the pair decided to see a marriage counselor.
According to some reports, the couple occasionally turned to drugs when things got hard to handle.
It was also simply a way to let loose.
“This was the nineties when young people, like John and Carolyn, sometimes partied.
They had experiences the way people often do.
For JFK Jr., drugs offered “a way of experiencing life differently.”
Apparently, one friend saw the pair doing cocaine.
“Do you think this is the first time I’ve done drugs?
According to another friend, Bessette’s drug use did begin to become problematic.
“She and I went to dinner one night when John was sick at home with the flu.
After the kiss, she allegedly “pulled away and said, ‘No, what am I doing?
I can’t be here right now,’ and quickly left.”
JFK Jr., on the other hand, reportedly never cheated on Bessette, even after her kiss.
He confessed to friends, ‘I wish I could cheat on her’” (viaYouTube).
However, JFK Jr. was apparently wary of following in his father’s footsteps.
Although he usually flew with an instructor, he decided to fly alone on this occasion.
It was a pilot negligent mistake in which he died and two people died with him.”
