CAROLYN BESSETTE & JFK JR.THE TRUTH About Their Marriage

A NEW BIOGRAPHY SEEKS TO SHINE A LIGHT ON THE WOMAN WHO CAPTURED JOHN'S HEART

- Katie Bruno

Upon returning from their two-week honeymoon in Turkey, John F. Kennedy Jr. and his bride, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, found photographers staking out their NYC loft. “Getting married is a big adjustment for us,” John chivalrously told them. “And for a private citizen like Carolyn even more so. I ask you to give her all the privacy and room you can.”

In the late 1990s, the union of the Kennedy scion and the stylish former fashion publicist made headlines around the world. Unfortunately, the public interest in the couple never waned, and the attention put tremendous stress on their marriage, and especially on Carolyn.

“There is no way anybody could have predicted the frenzy and viciousness that the tabloids would have toward her,” Elizabeth Beller, author of Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, tells Closer. Whenever she left home, photographers “surrounded her and made her feel physically unsafe. It was like being hunted.”