{"id":541389,"date":"2026-03-24T01:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T01:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/541389\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T01:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T01:15:10","slug":"howard-stern-remembers-friendship-with-carolyn-bessette-jfk-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/541389\/","title":{"rendered":"Howard Stern Remembers Friendship With Carolyn Bessette, JFK Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tHoward Stern<\/a> returned from a spring hiatus Monday morning, and revealed to his Sirius\/XM audience that he\u2019s one of the millions of Americans watching Ryan Murphy\u2019s new season of Love Story, which chronicles the tragic saga of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. But unlike most viewers, Stern had a relationship with both of them.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI knew the real Carolyn Bessette,\u201d he said. \u201cI won\u2019t say I knew her well, but we had many, many conversations, more than casual conversations. She was very lovely. She was like a really nice woman \u2026 I don\u2019t want to go into how I knew her, but I knew her. I know enough to keep my mouth shut about that. Some stuff you do have to keep private \u2026 But she was very nice to me, very open and talkative. She didn\u2019t give me the nose-up-in-the air kind of thing. I don\u2019t have any juicy, gossipy story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe also spent time with John F. Kennedy Jr. when he agreed to pose for the April 1996 cover of his magazine George. \u201cHe actually showed up to the shoot,\u201d Stern said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the worst covers I ever did, and I did a lot of bad ones. They convinced me to be chopping down a cherry tree with a chainsaw dressed up in colonel garb. I guess I was supposed to be George Washington, but George Washington didn\u2019t wear this shit I was wearing. I looked like Paul Revere in drag.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the time, Stern was appearing on the cover of very few magazines. \u201cI would do Rolling Stone<\/a> and that was the only one,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when John Kennedy Jr. [asks], who is literally American royalty and the nicest guy in the world \u2026 he was a super nice guy. And there was the opportunity that perhaps he\u2019d come on the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotograph by Patrick Andersson<\/p>\n

\n\tKennedy indeed returned the favor, and granted Stern a very candid interview on his radio show. RoseMarie Terenzio, who served as Kennedy\u2019s personal assistant and key confidante, recalled the build-up to the appearance in her 2012 book Fairy Tale Interrupted: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Loss.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHachette\u2019s PR people and [publicist] Nancy Haberman were very distressed, but John told them he could handle it,\u201d Terenzio wrote. \u201cI was elated. The morning of the show, Carolyn called me at 6, when the program began, and we sat together on the phone listening to the radio. \u2018I\u2019m so nervous,\u2019 Carolyn said. \u2018So am I.\u2019 \u2018What? Don\u2019t say that! I thought you said you weren\u2019t nervous about him going on the show.\u2019 \u2018No, no. He\u2019ll be fine,\u2019 I said. I was really nervous. Howard had an unmatched ability to make people look stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tTerenzio told Kennedy to simply defer to Stern co-host Robin Quivers if things got uncomfortable. \u201cIf you listen to the interview, that\u2019s exactly what he does,\u201d writes Terenzio. \u201cHe says, \u2018Robin, I thought you were supposed to help me out here.\u2019 And what\u2019s funny is that she is so fucking head over heels, she goes crazy when he walks in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLooking back today, Stern focused on the George photo shoot. \u201cJohn and the photographer did that thing they do to supermodels,\u201d Stern said. They go. \u2018Gorgeous, you look great. This is the greatest cover.\u2019\u00a0 I\u2019m posing while the guy is clicking away, and I\u2019m posing like I\u2019m Cindy Crawford or one of the Hadid sisters. That was before I knew about photo approval. I guess I kind of look like Captain Hook or something.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tStern\u2019s only opposition to the miniseries is the portrayal of Daryl Hannah. He agreed with her fiery New York Times op-ed,<\/a> where she wrote, \u201cThe character \u2018Daryl Hannah\u2019 portrayed in the series is not even a remotely accurate representation of my life, my conduct or my relationship with John. The actions and behaviors attributed to me are untrue. I have never pressured anyone into marriage. I have never desecrated any family heirloom or intruded upon anyone\u2019s private memorial. I have never planted any story in the press. I never compared Jacqueline Onassis\u2019 death to a dog\u2019s. It\u2019s appalling to me that I even have to defend myself against a television show. These are not creative embellishments of personality. They are assertions about conduct \u2014 and they are false.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m on her side,\u201d Stern said during his show. \u201cShe\u2019s right. Her complaint is they\u2019re making her look like a douche. From everyone I know who knows Daryl Hannah, they say she\u2019s a great girl \u2026 All that aside, my wife and I love the TV show.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Howard Stern returned from a spring hiatus Monday morning, and revealed to his Sirius\/XM audience that he\u2019s one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88,46001,33503],"class_list":{"0":"post-541389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-howard-stern","11":"tag-jfk-jr"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541389","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=541389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}