Episode 100! Love Story Lost At Sea: John Kennedy Jr, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and Lauren Bessette
- Anngelle Wood
- Mar 12
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 17
Episode 100! The Final Flight: The Tragedy of John F. Kennedy Jr, Carolyn, and Lauren Bessette, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
The Kennedy family embodied American royalty through the collision of power, privilege, politics, and faith. Theirs was a dynasty that coexisted in the shadow of tragedy.
Maybe the most tragic of all the losses came on a hazy July night in 1999,
when favorite son, John Kennedy Jr, set off for Hyannisport for a family celebration. His wife, Carolyn, and her sister Lauren boarded his six-seater Piper Saratoga for the last time. That night, over the Atlantic, their love story came to an end when their plane went down off the coast of Aquinnah. All three were lost at sea.
This episode explores the heartbreaking final chapter of John Jr’s life, and brings an end to this love story. But it wasn't just theirs. The love between sisters was the strongest bond, a sisterhood defined by fierce loyalty. Lauren volunteered to accompany them in some of the most difficult moments in John and Carolyn’s marriage. Lauren was already going to the Vineyard that weekend, but stepped in with quiet support of her sister. It is more than the tragedy of two families. It is about a legacy of love.
We could not talk about John Jr, and not talk about the enduring myth of the Kennedy curse, the grave misdeeds and bad behavior that is synonymous with America's royal family.
It is a reminder of the sorrow the nation faced when his father, President John F. Kennedy, was killed, and a 3-year-old John Jr. offered hope to fulfill his father’s dream.
Live Show, Thurs March 12 at Off Cabot, Beverly, Mass - Massachusetts Unsolved: Map of the Missing
Photos from Episode 100: The Book About Carolyn - "Once Upon A Time", First African Baptist Church and Greyfield Inn on Cumberland Island, Georgia, a Piper Saratoga small plane, photos of the Kennedy family, John Jr over the years, Lauren, Lauren's business card, a memorial in front of John and Carolyn's Tribeca apartment, headlines from that weekend,
SOURCES
updating
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