EXCLUSIVE: JFK Jr.'s Love Child Shocker — How Tragic Camelot Heir Feared He'd Fathered Baby in Europe… Over Frustration at Sexless Marriage to Carolyn Bessette
JFK Jr. went to his grave fearing he fathered a love child.
Feb. 16 2026, Published 6:20 p.m. ET
John F. Kennedy Jr. was reportedly sweating over fears he fathered a child with an Italian socialite when he died in a plane crash along with his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The political scion met the woman during his European travels promoting his magazine, George, amid John's deeply volatile, troubled marriage to Carolyn. The duo died along with her sister in July 1999 when the small plane he was piloting crashed into the murky nighttime waters off Martha's Vineyard.
JFK Jr. 'Lived in Dread' Over Love Child 'Leaks'
JFK Jr. was the world's most eligible bachelor before he got married in 1996.
"Right up to the time of the tragic plane crash, John secretly lived in dread of word ever leaking out that he could be father to an Italian child," a source close to the magazine publisher spilled about the possible love child.
"This woman broke the news to JFK Jr. that she was expecting, and she wanted to have his child. She was a high-society Italian beauty."
"That threw him into a panic. He’d been warned from his youth by his mother, Jackie, that women would want to trap him. She said that if he desired them, he should make sure they were taking precautions, and if not, he should wear a condom," the insider continued, referring to his late mother, Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis.
"But John was like other men – a little too much wine, a moonlit night – and he was carried away by the moment into unprotected s--," the spy said about how JFK Jr. and the woman ended up in bed.
Fears of an 'Accidental' Love Child
The woman reportedly vowed to not publicly reveal the father of the child if it was JFK Jr.'s baby.
A source close to John said the Italian beauty told him she was pregnant after the pair had an intimate romp in 1998.
"John feared he may have accidentally fathered a child in Italy – even though the mother initially swore she’d never expose his offspring to the public spotlight if she confirmed he was the father," a Kennedy insider dished.
They added, "Somewhere in Italy, a mother holds the answer to the mystery of whether John is really the father of her baby."
JFK Jr. and Carolyn's marriage went south fast after they tied the knot in September 1996.
As a result, the man once known as the "World's Most Eligible Bachelor" had plenty of women interested in getting together with him when the former Calvin Klein publicist stopped being intimate with him.
"No one could blame him. He was one of the best-looking men in the world, yet his own wife refused to sleep with him," the friend revealed.
'His Marriage Was in Big Trouble'
JFK Jr. reportedly had affairs while traveling abroad in Europe and Asia.
"John tried to be a good Catholic, and he felt bad about his cheating, even asking a family member if he could be s--addicted," the insider explained.
The friend continued, "John admitted to me he couldn’t help himself. With a completely straight face, he told me he feared he’d become a s-- addict."
The pal said the late President John F. Kennedy's son carried on intimate liaisons during trips to Italy, Scandinavia, Canada, Ireland, Vietnam, India, and Cuba.
“His marriage was in big trouble, and traveling was a way of avoiding the hell that had become his home life," the pal noted about his overseas romps.
"John was instantly recognizable the world over, but he figured that while foreign women might brag to their friends, they probably wouldn’t sell him out publicly. They were wealthy or on business trips themselves."
New Miniseries Renews Interest in Late Couple
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JFK Jr. and Bessette were reportedly on the verge of a divorce when they died.
There is renewed interest in John and Carolyn's troubled marriage thanks to Ryan Murphy's new FX romantic anthology series, Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette.
The duo was reportedly on the verge of pulling the plug on their marriage after less than three years when they died on their way to his cousin's wedding at the family's Hyannis Port estate in Cape Cod, with a planned stop first in Martha's Vineyard to drop off her sister, Lauren. The plane crash left no survivors.
