r/JohnAndCarolyn

I came across this Instagram page for a store called “Bessette.” It seems pretty obvious to me that they’re using Carolyn’s image and maiden name to market and sell luxury fashion. The collage in the post above includes an AI-generated image of Carolyn, along with a few other images. They’ve also apparently been featured in Vogue and Marie Claire.

Their website claims that the name “Bessette” comes from the Scandinavian term “BESAT,” meaning “obsessed.” They also describe the “Bessette Girl” as someone who likes to invest in herself and her wardrobe, someone who appreciates luxury but is considered in her choices and prioritizes quality pieces that transcend trends and seasons.

Does anyone else think they might be deliberately using Carolyn’s image and name to sell their products? I honestly wish her family would do something about this. Last year, when Timex used an image of John wearing their watch on Instagram, Jack Schlossberg commented that his family was going to take legal action, and the post was quickly taken down.

I feel like so many brands are using Carolyn’s image and association with her name to promote and profit from their products. What do you guys think?

I like this photo because judging from the small smirk on her face it seems like Carolyn is pretending not to be pleased with how much John loves her but she’s secretly really happy about it

Event: The Kennedy Center 25th Anniversary Celebration

Date: April 27, 1996

Location: Washington, D.C.

Sen. Ted Kennedy attended with his wife, Victoria Reggie, while Caroline was there with Edwin. John, however, attended alone, without Carolyn. They were seated in the presidential box. The event began with a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, followed by a reception for several hundred guests, including members of the Kennedy family and Hollywood stars.

We know Carolyn was with John because, the following day, Sunday, April 28, 1996, John visited Mount Vernon in Virginia with his uncle, and Carolyn accompanied them as they toured the estate (second photo).

Why wasn’t Carolyn with John at the Kennedy Center gala, if she was with him the following day at Mount Vernon? She was his fiancée at the time, so it seems unusual that she didn’t attend, especially since she was clearly with him the following day. I wonder if her absence was her own choice, or if she simply wasn’t invited.

Simply Carolyn

I’ve heard it’s Miu Miu but have never been able to confirm that.

Does anyone know if that’s correct, and any other specific details about this dress (name of style, year)?

Thank you!

Here are some clips I found on TikTok (source: jessemvalentine) shared by a VHS tape collector. Maybe one of you sent him that tape? 😏😅

I think she looks absolutely gorgeous in this photo.

From the Greenwich News, August 16, 1984. Carolyn worked at Athletic Attic and modeled clothing for the store in this back-to-school newspaper advertisement.

The clipping said: "SHE'S CUTE, WHO IS SHE? Carolyn Bessette from the Athletic Attic. She wears Danskin parachute pants with a Cotton Colours t-shirt accompanied by Adidas Stan Smith tennis sneakers. All this and the best of athletic footwear and clothing at ATHLETIC ATTIC, 17 East Putnam Avenue, Greenwich.”

Photo by Robin Fellows.

Written during his 1974 eighth-grade school year at Collegiate School in Manhattan.

I think my life up to this point has been a farce.

It all began when I was born. It just so happened that I was not given the gift of incredible coordination. What I’m trying to say is that I’m accident prone. I cant really tell you all the accidents this has caused me; from falling off a cliff to falling out of trees.

It all started out seven years ago on a campout, I was walking backwards talking to someone. I tripped on some stones on a still-burning fire and was burned like hell on my rear end and hand. I have the scars to prove it. At eight years old while sitting on the back of a bicycle going down a steep hill absentmindedly put my foot into the spokes and ripped my foot up. I also have the scars to prove this.

Just this year I had the worst accident I’ve ever had and I hope to have. Fortunately I escaped major injuries with just a few scrapes. It happened when I was rock climbing and I saw a foothold wich painfully obviously wasn’t there, I put my foot in this non existant foot hole and fell backwards down the side of a cliff for about forty feet.

But I fortunately fell in a four foot long 5 inch deep puddle which broke my fall, six inches farther out and I would have gotten smashed.

I could go on for days about accidents and sheer clutziness but I’ll spare the reader the agony or ecstasy. I just hope the seriousness of this little ailment doesn’t grow with me or I shall be put away quite soon.

Excerpt from Staten Island Advance by Maureen Seaberg 7/23/1999:

The world knows that John F. Kennedy Jr.'s love of the sea was forged during family holidays at the waterfront Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port. Mass. But most people don't know that his wife's family also loved the ocean, and spent their summers on Staten Island.

Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's mother, Ann Freeman, was once Ann Marie Messina, a young girl from the Benson-hurst section of Brooklyn who summered on Staten Island with her cousins, according to neighbors who knew her then. Island beaches were vacation destinations in those days, even drawing the young singer Bobby Darin from his Bronx home during the summers. Mrs. Freeman came to Midland Beach for many years before moving to White Plains and marrying William Bessette. She eventually divorced, remarried and settled in Connecticut.

Her mother, Jean Messina, known by those close to her as "Jenny," stayed a New Yorker and still lives in Ossining in Westchester County. She would often bring her family for visits here to see her brother, who lived here year-round. Mrs. Freeman's cousins still live on Staten Island and may attend the invitation-only memorial in Greenwich, Conn. for the Bessette sisters.

Carolyn Bessette Kennedy mentioned her Island relatives fondly in conversations with Dr. Gil Lederman and his staff in recent weeks while a Kennedy cousin was being treated at Staten Island University Hospital. Dr. Lederman and his staff are mourning the loss of both the personal and professional relationships they had forged in recent months with Carolyn Bessette Kennedy while she accompanied her husband's cousin for radiosurgery treatments.

The young woman was hands-on and very interested in the procedure, which was having a positive effect on the un-named Kennedy's health, according to the doctor. Seeing the results, she referred a Ralph Lauren executive to Staten Island University Hospital as well as an unnamed woman in the fashion industry she described as "my best friend."

Lederman said he had planned to ask Carolyn Bessette Kennedy to do some charitable work for the hospital given how pleased she seemed with his department. "I had just spoken to the president of the hospital about it, he told the Advance. Had there been such a gala evening here, Staten Islanders might have gotten to meet the ill-fated young princess of Camelot, who in fact, had more in common with Staten Islanders than many knew.

Photo: Carolyn with her uncle Jack Messina and grandmother Jenny Messina. Jenny, who was married to Carl Messina, passed away in February 2004; Carl died in 1978. Carolyn’s uncle Jack owns a winery in California and, in an interview, recalled that his first encounter with wine came when he walked into his grandfather “Nonno’s” little 4-by-6-foot winemaking room at the back of their home in Staten Island, N.Y.