'All of them in three cruel weeks': Reality star's heartbreaking link to the tragedy of JFK Jr and Carolyn Bessette
Updated . First published
The Kennedys have been thrown back into the spotlight, with the hit series Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette revisiting a tragic chapter in the family's history.
But while John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette have been the focus of the show, there's another tragedy that ran tandem to their deaths in 1999.
Carole Radziwill, who isn't mentioned in the new series but is famous from her stint on The Real Housewives of New York City, has her own tragic ties to the family.
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Carole and Anthony Radziwill married in 1994; he died of cancer just five years later in 1999. Instagram/@caroleradziwill
The journalist and author was married to the late Anthony Radziwill, a cousin of Kennedy Jr on his mother's side.
After marrying into the family she became close friends with Kennedy Jr. and Bessette, although she doesn't feature in Love Story.
Anthony, portrayed by Erich Bergen, is heavily featured in the Ryan Murphy-helmed series and seen as Kennedy Jr.'s right hand man; the cousins were said to be as close as brothers.
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JFK Jr and Anthony, pictured in 1976, were cousins but said to be more like brothers. Ron Galella Collection via Getty
Carole is famous in her own right, thanks to her role in the Real Housewives reality TV series. Getty
The Radziwills were married from 1994 until August 1999, when Anthony died from cancer.
The devastating news came just three weeks after the tragic plane crash that killed Kennedy Jr, Carolyn and her sister Lauren Bessette.
This meant that in a matter of days, Carole had lost not only her husband, but two of her best friends.
"Lives, and promise, cut short. All of them in three cruel weeks."
The former Real Housewives star detailed her marriage and Anthony's battle with cancer in her memoir What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship and Love.
The couple met in 1989 while they were both working at ABC News, and went on to tie the knot in 1994.
Anthony's first diagnosis, with sarcoma, came before the wedding.
In her book, Carole shared that her mother-in-law Lee Radziwill – Jackie Kennedy's sister – threw the couple "an unforgettable wedding."
Love Story has been widely criticised, and Carole herself weighed in and confirmed via a Substack blog post that she wouldn't be watching it.
But she did tell others to tune in to "fall in love with" Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn "the way we all did back then."
She did throw some shade at the series, adding, "And yet the story keeps being told. Reinvented. Embroidered. Filled with details no one could possibly know, by people who weren't there and don't care about the truth."
Carole pictured with her mother-in-law Lee Radziwill in 2014. Getty
She became close friends with JFK Jr and Carolyn Bessette, who died three weeks before Anthony. Getty
Love Story producer Brad Simpson recently explained Carole wasn't included in the series because the showrunners wanted to highlight Caroline's close relationship with her sister instead.
"There were tons of people in their lives that we weren't able to include, including some of John's closest friends, but we decided to make Lauren [Carolyn's] closest confidant, and then Anthony [John F. Kennedy Jr.'s] closest confidant," Simpson told TV Insider.
"You know, we're trying to pack a lot into 43 minutes.
"People's lives are full and rich. There's tons of people in them, and you have to make decisions."
While Carole didn't feature in the new series, her connection to the Kennedy family is something she has spoken about frequently.
The series is focused on JFK Jr and Bessette's love story, but Anthony is also depicted. AP
Through her memoir, interviews even her time on RHONY, she has shared intimate details from that time in her life.
In a blog post in 2019, on the 20th anniversary of their deaths, Carole reflected on how that loss changed her and her final conversation with Carolyn.
"Nothing has changed and everything has. I left a career to start a new one, and then another," she said.
"I found new friends, lost others, moved across the country, across the ocean, had crushes, love, and petty feuds.
"They still hold court in a nostalgic back room where they haven't seen any of it. No milestones, no soft jokes about the inevitable slights of age."
In their final conversarion, Carole and Carolyn discussed what they'd be having for an upcoming dinner together. Getty
Carole said her last conversation with Carolyn was about their upcoming Sunday dinner.
"Frozen in mid-conversation, we had the luxury, the last time we spoke, of talking about what we might have for dinner Sunday," she wrote.
"It was a quick call. John was preparing to take off from a small private airport. Anthony and I would see them, in their house on the Vineyard where we were staying, in 48 hours. The plan, for July 18, was grilled steaks and peach pie.
"Lives, and promise, cut short. All of them in three cruel weeks. Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, Jr., Lauren Bessette. And my husband, Anthony Stanislas Albert Radziwill.
"For all the time I'd had to brace myself, prepare for it, Anthony's death, too, still seemed so abrupt and unfair, just like the others. Because... we just weren't done."
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