It’s been 27 years since his tragic death, but all of a sudden everyone’s talking about John F. Kennedy, Jr again.
The late son of John F. and Jackie Kennedy has been thrust back into the spotlight by a new Ryan Murphy-helmed TV series reliving his romance with Carolyn Bessette.
Watch the video above.
The couple, alongside the Calvin Klein publicist’s sister Lauren Bessette, were killed in a plane crash in 1999.
John F. Kennedy, Jr and Carolyn Bessette are back in the spotlight thanks to a new TV series, Love Story. (WireImage)
Love Story: John F. Kennedy, Jr and Carolyn Bessette is focused on the titular couple, but it also touches on one of Kennedy’s famous exes: actress Daryl Hannah, portrayed by Dree Hemingway.
Before he met Bessette, JFK Jr was linked to a number of famous women, from Madonna to Sarah Jessica Parker.
However, it was his romance with Hannah – which ended not long before he and Bessette became serious – that drew particular tabloid interest.
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The Kennedy heir’s romance with actress Daryl Hannah is also featured in the Ryan Murphy-helmed show. (Getty)
Let’s take a look back at the late magazine publisher and attorney’s dating history before he said “I do”.
The student years
During his student days, JFK Jr had two major relationships.
As a high schooler at Phillips Academy in Andover, he struck up a romance with classmate Jenny Christian.
John F. Kennedy Jr. with Jenny Christian) at his graduation from Phillips Academy in 1979. (Ron Galella Collection via Getty)
A friend of Kennedy once described Christian as “the first love of his life, no doubt.”
Later, at Brown University, he dated fellow student Sally Munro for six years.
Christina Haag
In 1985 he began dating actress Christina Haag, who has appeared in TV series including Law and Order, Criminal Minds and Heroes.
Kennedy began dating actress Christina Haag in 1985; they’re pictured here in 1988. (Getty)
The pair had met as teenagers and both attended Brown University, even living together in a group house, but they were dating other people at the time.
Things finally turned romantic when they starred in a play together in their mid-20s, and the relationship lasted five years.
Haag wrote about her relationship with Kennedy in her 2011 book Come to the Edge; when discussing why it ended, she said, “We were young.”
Madonna
It’s been reported Kennedy and pop icon Madonna dated for six months in the late ’80s, but other reports suggest it was merely a flirtation and nothing more.
“They would try to get together but it was hard because she was on tour and he was working,” a friend of Kennedy’s told People.
“They saw each other a few times and they had a flirty and friendly banter but it wasn’t a ‘relationship.'”
Madonna, pictured in 1989, was romantically linked to Kennedy in the late ’80s. (WireImage)Sarah Jessica Parker
JFK Jr dated Sarah Jessica Parker for six months in 1991-92, a period the actress later referred to as “the Kennedy fiasco”.
The Sex and the City star said the relationship invited a level of public attention she’d never before experienced.
“I never had any idea what real fame was until I met John,” she told the New York Times.
Sarah Jessica Parker called her six-month romance with the magazine published “the Kennedy fiasco”. (Getty)
“He’s a nice man, but for God’s sake, I feel like I should apologise for dating him. It has become the defining factor in the person I am.
“When I die, they are going to say, ‘Oh, yeah, Sarah once dated John Kennedy.'”
Daryl Hannah
Kennedy’s most significant celebrity love interest was actress Daryl Hannah, with whom he had an on-and-off relationship for five years starting in the late ’80s.
Kennedy dated actress Daryl Hannah on and off for five years. (NY Daily News via Getty Images)
According to JFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biography, theirs was a “volatile” relationship that began when they were in relationships with other people.
They ultimately broke up in 1994, not long after the death of Jackie Kennedy Onassis – and shortly before Kennedy and Bessette’s love story began.
Love Story echoes the claim a final nail in the coffin for the couple was the accidental death of Hannah’s dog while Kennedy was walking it in New York in 1994.
Kennedy family tree: A who’s who of the influential family
The book claimed the actress tasked Kennedy with transporting the ashes to LA for the funeral.
At the time, his mother’s health was taking a turn in New York, and she died days later.
“He was deeply resentful that Daryl dragged him out there to attend a funeral for her dog when his mother was dying of cancer,” a friend of Kennedy was quoted as saying.
There are also claims of a strained relationship between the Hollywood star and Kennedy Onassis, though this has also been refuted.
Carolyn Bessette
During his relationship with Hannah, Kennedy met the woman who’d one day be his wife.
He reportedly encountered Carolyn Bessette for the first time in 1992 in the VIP fitting room at Calvin Klein, where she was assisting VIP customers. Both were dating other people at the time.
Kennedy married Carolyn Bessette, whom he’d met through her work at Calvin Klein, in 1996. (Getty)
They began dating in 1994, and despite the rampant media interest in the romance, the couple managed to marry in secret in 1996.
Their story was cut cruelly short in July 1999 when they were flying to Martha’s Vineyard for a family wedding with Bessette Kennedy’s sister, Lauren Bessette.
Piloting the single-engine aircraft, Kennedy departed New Jersey at 8:38pm but lost control of the plane over the Atlantic Ocean an hour later. All three died in the crash.
Big-name stars who’ve dated members of the Kennedy family
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