Carole Radziwill opened up about her “last summer” with close friends John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy in the gripping CNN docuseries American Prince.
The three-part series revolved around John’s lifelong struggle with his family’s legacy as well as his whirlwind courtship and marriage to Carolyn before they died in a 1999 plane crash near Martha’s Vineyard. (Carolyn’s sister Lauren Bessette was also killed in the crash).
As part of this unprecedented exploration of John’s life, Real Housewives of New York City alum Carole also looked back on her own marriage to John’s first cousin Anthony Radziwill, who died from cancer less than one month after John and the Bessette sisters were killed. (Anthony’s mother, Lee Radziwiłł, was Jackie Kennedy’s sister.)
“All I could think of [when John and Carolyn died] was, I’m going to be the only one [of us] left,” Carole said.
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American Prince premieres on CNN Saturday, August 9, at 9 p.m. ET. Keep scrolling for some of Carole’s most poignant revelations from the doc:
‘John John’
One longstanding Kennedy family myth was dismissed in the opening segment of American Prince’s debut episode, “The Boy Who Would Be King,” as Carole casually denied that anyone in John’s family ever called him “John John.” Although John was known to have disliked the nickname, Carole’s revelation was particularly surprising since her friend was referred to as “John John” in the media for his entire life.
“This whole ‘John John’ thing, I don’t know where it came from,” the RHONY star admitted. “I think it was a press thing. Something happened where people thought that maybe his family called him, ‘John John.’”
She then clarified, “Some people just started saying [‘John John’] to imply that they were close to him. I promise you, his sister didn’t call him ‘John John.’ His mother, no one in his extended family, even like the extended cousins, ever called him ‘John John.’”
‘Everyone Was Hooking Up’
Carole met her husband, Anthony, while they were both working at ABC News. While they eventually tied the knot in August 1994, Carole and Anthony were initially concerned about how their workplace relationship would be perceived.
“Anthony and I started dating eight months after I first met him in L.A.,” she remembered. “We were together, sort of casual[ly], because we were both at ABC News and we both felt like, ‘Let’s just keep this quiet.’ But, of course, it was the ‘90s. Everyone was hooking up at work!”
‘Girls’ Girl’
Carole recalled meeting Carolyn and forming an immediate bond with her very early in the former Calvin Klein PR agent’s relationship with John.
“She was so extraordinary in so many ways,” Carole said of her friend. “We were in our late 20s at the time and she was the first girl I ever knew who was, like, this much over-used expression, ‘girl’s girl.’ She was so beautiful.”
The What Remains author recognized that both she and Carolyn never quite fit in with the rest of the Kennedy clan.
“It’s a big family and like all big families, there’s a lot of politics and quirks that you just have to learn. Maybe John’s family more than other families,” Carole acknowledged in American Prince’s second episode. “There was a higher expectation and [Carolyn] didn’t play the game. She didn’t suck up to anyone, no one in his family.”
She continued, “Carolyn and I came from a very similar background. I grew up very from humble beginnings, like working class, upstate New York. Her mom was a single mom raising three daughters in a very working-class neighborhood. I think we felt like a real sisterhood because of it. We were like the ultimate outsiders.”
Two Cancer Battles
Anthony suffered a recurrence of testicular cancer shortly before his and Carole’s wedding, which coincided with his aunt Jackie Kennedy’s own diagnosis with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 1994. (Jackie died in May 1994 while Anthony succumbed to cancer in August 1999.)
“It was very traumatic because, at that point, my fiancé was battling cancer,” Carole said.
Carole recalled a wrenching phone conversation where Anthony and Jackie each tried to break the news to one another about their diagnoses.
“I remember him saying, ‘OK, you go first.’ Then, [Jackie] said, ‘I have bad news that I’ve been diagnosed with lymphoma,’” Carole said. “The end [for Jackie] came pretty quickly. I remember it was a Sunday when we all were together and [by] Thursday, she passed away.”
‘Pig S*** and Horse Manure Everywhere’
A significant portion of American Prince’s second episode explored how John and Carolyn pulled off a private wedding in Cumberland Island, Georgia in September 1996. Friends and family confirmed that the couple only invited a few representatives from each branch of the Kennedy clan to prevent the paparazzi from finding out.
“[John] was pretty much the most famous guy in the world. As a couple, they were sought after,” Carole pointed out. “They got married on a tiny island. There was not a single photographer … They just wanted to keep it a little private for a little bit longer.”
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As for the ceremony itself, Carole joked that the newlyweds went for a totally D.I.Y. approach without extravagancies that anyone would expect from a Kennedy wedding.
“[Outside] the church, there was pig s*** and horse manure everywhere,” Carole said with a chuckle. “[Carolyn] came from fashion, and he was passionate about magazines. It’s funny because his sister [Caroline Kennedy] got them a T-shirt for their wedding and it said … ‘Politics + Fashion = Fashion.’”
A Cryptic Wedding Toast
One unsettling moment at the wedding reception occurred when Carolyn’s mother, Ann Marie, delivered a toast that proved to be prophetic, according to Carole.
“Carolyn’s mother really loved John but when she made a toast, I’ll never forget, at the end of it, she said, ‘I hope my daughter has the strength for this,’” Carole disclosed. “Everyone, sort of, stopped for a moment. I think, even Carolyn in her way, underestimated the impact of marrying John and marrying into the family.”
The Difficult Final Year
Carolyn and John had a number of run-ins with the paparazzi in the final year of their lives. Carole recalled that John was usually able to shake off these dust-ups because he’d dealt with them his whole life, while Carolyn was much more rattled.
“John couldn’t understand, being a very privileged male, he had no sense of what the press would say about her,” Carole admitted.
Carolyn came up with a plan to wear the same bland outfit in public repeatedly in hopes of deterring photographers from following her — though even this clever idea failed to dampen media interest. One particularly poignant moment occurred when Carole was on the phone with Carolyn during Princess Diana’s funeral in August 1997. (Diana died as a result of injuries sustained in a car chase with the paparazzi in Paris.)
“It was very profound,” Carole said. “I mean, Princess Diana, she was our age, pretty much. The underlying way in which she died, which was being literally hounded to death by paparazzi. That lesson was definitely not lost on Carolyn.”
The Plane Crash
John piloted a private plane, with Carolyn and her sister Lauren on board, to attend his cousin Rory Kennedy’s wedding in Martha’s Vineyard in July 1999, only for the plane to crash shortly before it was due to land. All three were later confirmed dead as a result of the tragic accident.
American Prince’s third and final episode, “The Final Summer,” featured candid recollections from Carole and other friends about how they learned of the crash.
“It was just one of those calls that you dread. Immediately, you know [something is wrong],” Carole said. “It was 11 o’clock, close to midnight on Friday night, and John’s friend … was calling from [the] Hyannis airport, saying, ‘They’re not here. Are they there with you?’ Even like 25 years later, I still get this pit in my stomach.”
Carole relied on her background as a journalist to call every agency that could conceivably have information on her friends’ whereabouts.
“Every call I made, it was just more bad news,” she said. “I called Carolyn’s mom to tell her they hadn’t arrived, that the plane was kind of missing. How do you say that to a mother?”
Carole’s husband, Anthony — who was in the throes of terminal cancer by the time — eventually got up from bed and was amazed to see dozens of notes that his wife used to document her makeshift investigation.
“He just looked at it and it was like, the sadness,” she reflected. “I remember him just putting his head down in his hands and it was just like, he couldn’t even cry.”
‘Crazy F***ing Summer’
In the final moments of the docuseries, Carole admitted how painful it was to lose three of her closest loved ones within weeks of each other.
“It was so cruel for Anthony to have to watch [his cousin’s death],” she declared. “John and Anthony, they were real brothers. All I could think of was like, ‘I’m going to be the only one left.’”
Anthony died on August 10, 1999, less than one month after John and the Bessette sisters passed away on July 16.
