{"id":462313,"date":"2026-02-11T14:23:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T14:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/462313\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T14:23:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T14:23:12","slug":"american-love-story-recalls-jfk-jr-s-love-of-nyc-and-cameras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/462313\/","title":{"rendered":"‘American Love Story’ recalls JFK Jr.’s love of NYC \u2014\u00a0and cameras"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 25 years after their deaths<\/a>, John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette are once again getting their close up \u2014\u00a0and so is Manhattan.<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s tumultuous and ultimately tragic relationship is the subject of the new Ryan Murphy series \u201cAmerican Love Story<\/a>,\u201d premiering Thursday on FX.<\/p>\n

The show filmed all over New York City<\/a> last summer, stirring up d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu as it recreated the stylish duo\u2019s iconic looks and moments.<\/p>\n

We saw Kennedy (played by Paul Kelly) cycling in a suit and backwards hat and shirtless in Central Park, and his bride (played by Sarah Pidgeon) emerging from the subway in baggy jeans and flip-flops just like it was 1997 all over again.<\/p>\n

More than 25 years after their deaths, John F. Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette\u2019s tumultuous and ultimately tragic relationship is the subject of the new Ryan Murphy series \u201cAmerican Love Story,\u201d premiering February 12 on FX. Sygma via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The show filmed all over New York City last summer, stirring up d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu as it recreated the stylish duo\u2019s iconic looks and moments. GC Images<\/p>\n

Not to mention some of the pair\u2019s most dramatic public moments, like their infamous 1996 blow-up in Washington Square Park, when Bessette shoved her beau and he tried to take the engagement ring off her finger.<\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s almost impossible to explain how chronicled their lives were. There were even paparazzi peering into the windows when Kennedy took \u2014 and failed \u2014\u00a0the bar exam twice. (He finally passed on his third try.)<\/p>\n

That was unusual back then, when relative anonymity was a perk of city living for most celebs. Long before everyone carried phones in their pockets and turned oversharing into a commodity.<\/p>\n

But there was always a voracious appetite for the prince of Camelot.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he wasn\u2019t in the papers for a short period of time, I guarantee you, no matter what the weather he\u2019d be outside playing football with his shirt off,\u201d Steven Gillon, Kennedy\u2019s pal and the author of \u201cAmerica\u2019s Reluctant Prince,\u201d told The Post of JFK Jr. Sygma via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Paul Kelly plays Kennedy in \u201cAmerica Love Story.\u201d New York Newswire \/ BACKGRID<\/p>\n

The image of him as a 3-year-old saluting his father\u2019s casket turned him into America\u2019s son. Being dubbed Sexiest Man Alive in 1998 cemented him as America\u2019s hunk.<\/p>\n

The series depicts the couple complaining about the ever-present paparazzi. But, Kennedy\u2019s friend reveals, even as Bessette felt hounded, her husband not-so-secretly loved the camera.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he wasn\u2019t in the papers for a short period of time, I guarantee you, no matter what the weather he\u2019d be outside playing football with his shirt off,\u201d Steven Gillon, Kennedy\u2019s pal and the author of \u201cAmerica\u2019s Reluctant Prince<\/a>,\u201d told The Post. \u201cHe liked the attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was also a rite of passage to spot Kennedy on the streets of NYC.<\/p>\n

In \u201cJFK Jr: an Intimate Oral Biography<\/a>\u201d by Rosemarie Terenzio and Liz McNeil, hairstylist Frederic Fekkai recalled that people were \u201cglued\u201d to the windows when his famous client came into the salon. And though he didn\u2019t appear in the 1992 \u201cSeinfeld\u201d episode \u201cThe Contest,\u201d \u201cJohn John\u201d played a central role as a lovestruck Elaine Benes encountered him at the gym.<\/p>\n

Bessette (above, in 1997) was unprepared for the intensity of Kennedy\u2019s spotlight. Gillon said one of his friend\u2019s \u201cfailings\u201d was that he didn\u2019t understand just how difficult the transition would be for his wife. ZUMAPRESS.com<\/p>\n

In \u201cAmerican Love Story,\u201d we see Bessette (played by Sarah Pidgeon) emerging from the subway in baggy jeans and flip-flops just like it\u2019s 1997 all over again. GC Images<\/p>\n

Mike Pearl, the legendary Post reporter who covered Manhattan Criminal Court back then, told me how he met Kennedy in 1989 when the scion started working at the Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s office as an Assistant DA.<\/p>\n

Pearl recalled being at Forlini\u2019s<\/a>, the now-closed classic downtown restaurant, while Kennedy \u201cwas at the table with a few assistant DAs, and they called me over. The\u00a0first thing I did was I apologized to him. He said what for and I said, \u2018Nothing yet. But I am going to be a pest.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy took it in stride.<\/p>\n

After all, the George Magazine founder was an exhibitionist \u2014 cycling around the city and jogging shirtless.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was uninhibited in the way he explored the city,\u201d said Gillon. \u201cHe didn\u2019t want the media attention to change the way he lived his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was uninhibited in the way he explored the city,\u201d Steve Gillon said of his friend John F. Kennedy Jr. (above). \u201cHe didn\u2019t want the media attention to change the way he lived his life.\u201d Paul Adao\/INFphoto.com<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerican Love Story\u201d carefully re-created many images of Kennedy and Bessette\u2019s life in NYC. Paul Kelly portrays Kennedy above. Christopher Peterson \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

Just like us: Kennedy even left his key behind a radiator in his Tribeca lobby when he\u2019d go for a run.<\/p>\n

In 1994, the lothario \u2014 who had dated a string of beauties, including Daryl Hannah<\/a> and Madonna<\/a> \u2014\u00a0 began a serious relationship with Bessette, a publicist at Calvin Klein.<\/p>\n

The Greenwich, Conn., native didn\u2019t have a famous pedigree. But she was strikingly beautiful and had an effortless minimalist style that enchanted the fashion establishment.<\/p>\n

Author Edward Klein wrote in \u201cThe Kennedy Curse<\/a>\u201d how Vogue editor Anna Wintour wanted to make Bessette a cover girl while Ralph Lauren tried to hire her as his personal muse.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerican Love Story\u201d depicts some of Bessette and Kennedy\u2019s most dramatic public moments, like their infamous 1996 blow-up in Washington Square Park, when she shoved her beau and he tried to take the engagement ring off her finger. Christopher Peterson \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

The couple tied the knot in a private ceremony on Georgia\u2019s tiny Cumberland Island in 1996, with Bessette wearing a silk white slip dress designed by her friend Narciso Rodriguez. The gown put Rodriguez on the map and solidified Bessette as not only tastemaker, but a career maker \u2014 a proto influencer.<\/p>\n

But Bessette was unprepared for the intensity of Kennedy\u2019s spotlight<\/a>. Gillon said one of his friend\u2019s \u201cfailings\u201d was that he didn\u2019t understand just how difficult the transition would be for his wife.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Before Bessette,] the paparazzi kept a healthy distance, but it seemed to take a dark turn after he married Carolyn,\u201d said Gillon.<\/p>\n

The couple lived on North Moore Street in Tribeca which, at the time, was a quiet enclave for artists and a handful of celebrities. Their presence gave the then-desolate neighborhood a seal of understated coolness.<\/p>\n

It also gave the paparazzi more leeway.<\/p>\n

Kennedy and Bessette were often seen walking near their Tribeca home with dog Friday. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerican Love Story\u201d likewise cast a Friday the dog lookalike. Jose Perez \/ BACKGRID<\/p>\n

Gillon said he never understood why his friend didn\u2019t have a doorman and a private back entrance.<\/p>\n

Shutterbugs rented an apartment across the street. One tried to even slip down Kennedy and Bessette\u2019s chimney, according to Gillon. And they were terribly hostile to Bessette, goading her for a reaction.<\/p>\n

When the two died in a 1999 plane crash that also claimed the life of Bessette\u2019s sister, Lauren, a reckless Kennedy was behind the controls. (The NTSB determined the probable cause was pilot failure.)<\/p>\n

It was reported that he had recently moved into the Stanhope Hotel on the Upper East Side, not far from his childhood home, when he and Bessette couldn\u2019t agree about having a family in the spotlight\u2019s glare.<\/p>\n

As \u201cAmerican Love Story\u201d reminds us, we\u2019re left with the promise of what could have been. And a trove of photographs to fill in some blanks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 25 years after their deaths, John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette are once again getting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,91,88,26071,1999,2606,11494,1247,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-462313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-celebrity-news","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-john-f-kennedy-jr","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-paparazzi","14":"tag-ryan-murphy","15":"tag-society","16":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}