r/CarolynBessetteKnndy

I came across a 40-plus-part series on Instagram by an Italian woman who goes by Luvi_storytelling_perfumes ( https://www.instagram.com/luvi\_storytelling\_perfumes/ ). Throughout the series, she discusses John and Carolyn's relationship and claims to have inside sources.

According to her, the information came from her friend, Lavinia Pasanisi de Foscarini, who grew up in New York. She says Lavinia's Italian mother, who came from a prominent family, was very close to the Kennedy family and that Lavinia was John's goddaughter. She further claims that Lavinia received this information from Maria Shriver, who allegedly wanted these details to become public after Love Story ended and gave permission for her name to be used.

She also claims that Caroline Kennedy is aware this information will eventually be released and is comfortable with it. In addition, she frequently refers to two individuals identified only as "C" and "S," whom she says worked at George magazine and are close friends of the Kennedy family but did not want their identities revealed.

Because I don't understand Italian, I had to rely on translations. The following is what she shared. These are her words not mine!

1. Caroline found Carolyn in Jack’s playroom using cocaine, and a few paparazzi caught her while she was under the influence. She allegedly shoved one of the paparazzi, causing the photographer to fall and hit her head on the curb. Apparently, Ted Kennedy hushed up the incident.

2. In November 1996, Carolyn wanted to alter the prenuptial agreement, and the process dragged on for years. She did not succeed on her first attempt. The Kennedy legal team, led by Victoria Reggie Kennedy, refused to budge an inch on the matter. So Carolyn tipped off the press, and stories began appearing in the newspapers about her attempt to modify the prenup. Her intent was to sway public opinion in her favor because of the "unfair" treatment she claimed to be receiving from the Kennedy family.

3. Christmas 1996, Carolyn spent thousands of dollars on gifts for the George magazine staff without John's knowledge. Apparently, John "flew into a rage" when he saw the designer items Carolyn had bought for Rosemarie because he had never "authorized" the purchases. “C" and "S" were also given expensive handbags, which infuriated John even more, as he insisted it was his own money to spend however he pleased. The problem was that this fueled further friction between John and Michael, who were already at odds. Michael was focused on corporate gifts—specifically, making sure everyone received one—so this display of extravagance clearly upset him. The matter ended with John opening a separate account for Carolyn because her spending was spiraling out of control.

4. Due to the friction over the prenuptial agreement, John and Carolyn did not spend Christmas together. Apparently, Carolyn spent it with her family in Greenwich, while John spent it with Caroline, Ed, Ted Kennedy and his wife Victoria, Eunice Shriver, Maria Shriver, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

5. For New Year's, John went to Big Sky Resort in Montana with Maria, Arnold, Timothy, Anthony Shriver, and some of his friends. Carolyn joined him there and arrived wearing a turtleneck, tight jeans, and high-heeled boots. She had not packed a single thing suitable for the setting because she had no intention of leaving the hotel or learning to ski. The couple fought, trashed their hotel room, and John paid for the damages.

6. On New Year's Eve, Carolyn got into an argument with a waiter just minutes before midnight. She asked for vodka so she could make a toast, but since champagne had just been served to all the guests, the waiter simply asked her to wait until the countdown. Carolyn lost her patience and threw her glass at him.

7. Apparently, John spent a lot of time on the phone with Julie Baker and "C" during that trip.

8. John's friends and family mocked Carolyn's choice of high heels for the trip after she slipped on a patch of ice.

9. Carolyn complained that Maria's children were too noisy, disruptive, and ill-mannered. Apparently, Maria lost her patience when Carolyn began insulting and belittling John at every opportunity.

10. John spent most of the trip skiing with his friends and went on a few more ski trips that winter (early 1997) without Carolyn, including one to Colorado with Julie Baker.

11. Apparently, Carolyn could not stand Maria Shriver because, aside from being Caroline Kennedy's best friend, she was an accomplished, beautiful, intelligent, and respected journalist whom the press praised—unlike Carolyn.

12. Carolyn became irritated when she heard Maria and Arnold speaking German to each other while John was not around, convinced they were badmouthing her.

13. Apparently, Carolyn's aggression toward John escalated during the summer of 1997, and people close to him remembered him being constantly covered in bruises.

14. One morning, John and Carolyn had a fight, and she threw something at him that he could not dodge, striking him on the back of the head. Exhausted and running late for work, he moved to open the front door and leave. He did not see that Carolyn was moving a standard ladder used for changing lightbulbs, which crashed onto his head and sent him sprawling forward. He got back up and went to the office with a splitting headache. As the day went on, however, "C" and "S" noticed something odd about him. "C" saw blood in his hair. Upon closer inspection, beneath John's thick hair, a small cut was visible—one that was already beginning to heal.

15. John told his sister what had happened after he began feeling nauseous and dizzy. "C" took him to the hospital, where a CT scan revealed a concussion. He was kept under observation overnight, and the doctor insisted that he lay down and rest for at least five days. As a result, he stayed at Julie's apartment.

16. John loved Chanel No. 5, and for Carolyn's birthday, he came home with a large bottle of the perfume. She did not appreciate the gift. Instead, she simply told him that she hated it and would never wear it.

17. One evening, while John was working with "C"—he often brought George employees home in the evenings to work—Carolyn returned from an outing with friends after apparently having a wild night. Throwing things was always her first outlet. She was screaming that night, although we do not know what she was saying or why. We only know that she went into the bathroom, grabbed the bottle of Chanel No. 5, and hurled it directly at John. He was grazed by a few shards when it shattered against the wall. That wall of the loft reportedly smelled like Chanel No. 5 for years.

18. One evening, when Carolyn was "not in her right mind," she began striking John in every way possible and kicked him directly in the abdomen. Not satisfied with that, she grabbed a baseball bat and struck him in the same area. John ended up in the hospital with three cracked ribs, one of which had nearly punctured his lung. He had to wear a brace for three weeks.

….so throwing things wasn't exactly unheard of when it came to Carolyn, considering the way she treated Bergin. The prenup story also sounds plausible to me. What I have a harder time believing is the claim that John was constantly covered in bruises. He was photographed shirtless all the time, and it seems like the press or the public would have noticed something like that. I've also never seen any evidence that he wore a brace for broken ribs. And John & Carolyn went alone to the Big Sky Montana resort, and the owners of a diner they went to said she was wearing jeans, practical shoes and a shirt that said “Happily Ever After”. There was no mention of any other Kennedy there. So some of her claims don’t add up. She and Maria looked close at the 1998 Fire and Ice Ball..

This whole series is just so bizarre. There's a lot more, too. Should I make a Part 2?

A mere ten days before their wedding, John and Carolyn signed a prenuptial agreement. The prenup stipulated that Carolyn would receive $1 million if they divorced within the first three years of marriage, $2 million if they split between three and 10 years of marriage and $3 million if they split after 10 years of marriage.

Would Carolyn have left John the year before the crash if the $2 million payout started at anniversary #2, rather than anniversary #3?

The $2 million payout to Carolyn would have remained the same, regardless of whether Carolyn stuck around for anniversary #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, or #9. What was Carolyn's incentive to remain in an unhappy marriage beyond anniversary #3?

If you were unhappily married to John, under what conditions would you decide not to hang around another year for an additional $1 million payout at anniversary #3? Would cheating be the straw to break the camel's back?

Does $3 million maximum after 10-30 years of marriage sound reasonable given John had a $30-$100 million in personal assets?

Photo: John and Daryl Hannah at his farewell party after he resigned from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office in July 1993.

Before I get downvoted, hear me out.

John's close friend, John Perry Barlow, told one author that one of the reasons John and Daryl didn't remain in contact was because of Carolyn. According to Barlow, "It wasn't possible for him to have any contact with Daryl because Carolyn was rather controlling." Barlow was close to both John and Daryl and spent a lot of time around them while they were dating.

Personally, I don't think Carolyn was overly controlling in general. She didn't seem to have a problem with John staying friends with Julie Baker until Julie crossed boundaries that made Carolyn uncomfortable with how close she was to him, which is understandable.

What stands out to me is that Carolyn reportedly didn't want John to have any contact with Daryl at all, regardless of whether Daryl even wanted to stay in touch. To me, that suggests Carolyn viewed Daryl differently and may have felt threatened by the possibility of John maintaining any kind of friendship with her.

John had previously left Carolyn to reunite with Daryl more than once, so it's understandable that she may have felt insecure about that history. In fact, Carolyn's mother sent her a newspaper clipping of John and Daryl together in 1993 and encouraged her to move on, reminding her that John had left her for Daryl before. Another factor was that Carolyn never had the chance to meet Jackie because of Daryl. At that point, John was in a committed relationship with Daryl, so Carolyn never met her future mother-in-law before Jackie died in 1994. The last woman Jackie knew her son was dating was Daryl. That may have been disappointing for Carolyn and could have been a blow to her ego.

That's not to say John and Daryl had a perfect relationship—they had plenty of problems of their own. Like many of John's relationships, theirs also began with infidelity on both ends.

Maybe Carolyn feared that if John and Daryl maintained a friendship similar to the one he had with Julie Baker—meeting for lunch regularly, having Daryl visit his office, giving her his private number and being in regular contact, or inviting her to birthday parties—it could eventually lead to another reconciliation.

That's just my interpretation based on what's been said.

The secret diaries of Health Secretary RFK Jr. were leaked to NY Post reporter Isabel Vincent in 2013.

She is finally opening them to the public in her new biography of Kennedy.

This book club takes you inside RFK Jr.’s diaries. Much here on his parents, siblings, wives, politics, and more.

https://youtu.be/Re76sTUxTsU?si=fSg1sw1DoTaTPERA

"I first met Carolyn through John - with whom I went to college - last summer in Italy at Christiane Amanpour's wedding. My impression was that this was one of the great romances of all time. They made a spectacular entrance to the "rehearsal" barbecue in full black-tie (despite the invitation's instructions to dress casually) Carolyn looking almost preternaturally beautiful in full-length black taffeta and heels, her corn-blonde hair scraped unforgivingly into an Evita-like chignon. John didn't take his eyes off her all night. She, meanwhile, only seemed to have eyes for him, and sharply reprimanded Richard Holbrooke, the special envoy to the UN, when he sat in the chair she'd reserved for her husband - or
"Mouse" as she insisted on calling him all evening.
I also got the distinct feeling that her strength lay in her fragility.
At the seated post-wedding dinner, held in a magnificent fifteenth-century castle, she seemed ill at ease, continually throwing John help-me looks across the table. There was no need - everyone was perfectly friendly and interesting - but I could sense her relief when we all moved around for pudding and she got to sit next to him.
Once or twice she wandered out to the terrace, with John swiftly following to see if everything was all right. It made one wonder whether she was the sort of woman who made use of the occasional Victorian "turn", and whether John might be the kind of man who probably quite liked that. In college days he was always very laisser faire on the girlfriend front. With Carolyn he couldn't be more solicitous. It was, in other words, impossible to tell who had the upper hand in this relationship."

I think it’s also lovely to share how the people who knew them saw the love that existed between them.

Twenty-seven years have passed since John and Carolyn have been gone, yet time has never quite erased the space they left behind.

The world has changed in countless ways. Children who weren’t even born then are now adults with families of their own. Technology has transformed how we live, cities have grown, and history has continued to march forward. But some moments remain frozen, untouched by the years.

For those who knew them or simply admired them, they are remembered not only for who they were, but for the lives they were trying to build together.

John carried the weight of an extraordinary name with quiet determination, always searching for a life that felt as normal as possible despite the attention that followed him.

Carolyn never asked for that life. A private woman by nature, she found herself married into one of the most recognizable families in America, where every outing, every photograph, and every rumor became public conversation. By many accounts, that constant scrutiny placed enormous strain on her and on their marriage. She wasn’t trying to be an icon; she was trying to be a wife while living a life as a “Kennedy wife”.

When they were lost, the news rippled across the world. It was one of those moments when people could remember exactly where they were when they heard. The disbelief slowly gave way to grief, and grief eventually settled into remembrance.

Twenty-seven years later, their story is no longer just about how they died. It is about how they lived. It is found in old photographs that still bring smiles, in stories shared by friends and family, and in the memories that continue to be passed from one generation to the next.

Time has a way of softening pain, but it also has a way of preserving love. While the years continue to add distance from that heartbreaking day, they have not diminished the impact John and Carolyn had on those around them.

Some lives are measured by their length. Others are measured by the memories they leave behind.

John and Carolyn are still remembered, not because the calendar tells us to remember them, but because their lives continue to remind us how precious, unpredictable, and meaningful every moment can be.

Gone for twenty-seven years, but never truly forgotten.

Video & Collage edited by me, please leave respectful comments.

Some stories leave an imprint on history not only because of who they were, but because of the lives they lived and the love they shared.

July 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and Lauren Bessette lost their lives in a tragic plane crash off the coast near Martha’s Vineyard. Their passing was a heartbreaking, reminder of how fragile life can be, and it brought an untimely end to three lives filled with promise, love, and cherished memories.

Today, we remember them with compassion and respect—not for the tragedy that claimed them, but for the kindness, grace, and legacy they left behind. May they forever rest in peace, and may their memories continue to live on in the hearts of those who loved them and those who still remember them. 🤍🕊️

Today Kelly Klein shared an intimate IG post of Carolyn Bessette. Left hand corner is Carolyn Bessette in Paris inspo-shopping, and the lower right hand corner is another great Polaroid photo of Carolyn and Kelly trying on sample dresses. Circa 1995.

Here’s what she said:

“I didn't know today would have been the last day I saw you! If you only knew what was going on down here! You have influenced so many of our young generation in only the most positive ways!
Simple elegant minimal style! Just you and your natural being. Rest in peace Carolyn!
You are greatly missed! The first photo is a trip to Paris and the second was a fitting we were doing for ck!” - Kelly Klein

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It’s been so lovely to see more photographs of Carolyn Bessette before the world knew her as Carolyn Bessette Kennedy.

Before the headlines, before the flashbulbs, there was simply a young woman building a life of her own. She worked at Calvin Klein during one of fashion’s most exciting eras, surrounded by creativity, simplicity, and a quiet confidence that would become her signature style. She learned everything from working at Calvin Klein. She learned clean lines, simplicity, minimalism, and what we call know “quiet luxury”.

From working in the fashion industry, we all pick up and learn new ways how to mix and match high and low fashion pieces.

This is exactly what Carolyn learned from working at Calvin Klein and seeing what the women in the office were wearing in the design department and what Zack Carr was inspired by. Zack Carr was inspired by many women from the 50s and 60s when sketching & designing his fashion collections. It was through the design department that Carolyn Bessette heard about Yohji Yamamoto.

But Carolyn Bessette also grew close to Kelly Klein (Calvin’s wife/muse). Kelly came from Ralph Lauren and already had a great eye for vintage and modern fashion pieces. Of course Carolyn picked up on how to shop for vintage and how to dress very minimal and to keep a no-makeup look when she was at the office. All that was learned from working at Calvin Klein.

The Calvin Klein office employees was a playground of beautiful natural women that hardly ever wore makeup. They were all beautiful in their own way.

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collage edited by me. photos are original and unedited from Kelly Klein’s IG.
Not AI!