EXCLUSIVE: JFK Jr.'s Tumultuous Marriage with Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy Exposed... Including Cheating Allegations Before Couple's Tragic Plane Crash Deaths
John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's marriage wasn't as picture perfect as it seemed.
Nov. 25 2025, Published 6:00 p.m. ET
More than 25 years after they died in a 1999 plane crash, more details of the tumultuous marriage between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy have surfaced, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The late president's son and the fashion publicist dominated headlines as a power couple in the mid-'90s. From the outside, the pair projected an image of refined elegance and generational wealth, but behind closed doors, the marriage struggled amid drug addiction and infidelity rumors.
Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's 'Dream Man'
Carolyn's friend later claimed she had an 'obsession' with JFK Jr. before they dated.
Carolyn and JFK Jr. met while she was working as a personal stylist at Calvin Klein. At the time, she was dating Michael Bergin, a former Calvin Klein model, while JFK Jr. was dating Daryl Hannah.
A friend of Carolyn's named Grace previously told author Steven M. Gillon the fashion publicist developed a reputation as a "man-eater" at Boston University and made it known JFK Jr. was her dream man and she was "going to move to New York and I’m going to get him."
"That obsession was not the only disturbing revelation about Carolyn," Gillon wrote. "When Grace asked her what she wanted to do with her life, Carolyn stated, 'I want to be famous. Maybe if I hook up with the right guy, I will be famous.'"
Cheating Accusations
Insiders claimed JFK Jr. was convinced Carolyn was having an affair with her model ex-boyfriend.
While Carolyn's alleged dream of snagging JFK Jr. eventually came true, the marriage was unstable and ridden with hostility.
As RadarOnline.com reported, insiders close to JFK Jr. claimed he was convinced Carolyn was having an affair with Bergin and was wrecked by the thought of her cheating on him.
According to author Edward Klein's tell-all, The Kennedy Curse: Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years, Carolyn rekindled her relationship with Bergin, who detailed their relationship in his own book, The Other Man: John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette, and Me.
Carolyn's drug issues were also a point of contention in the marriage.
"Michael lived in a second-floor walk-up in Greenwich Village, and I was in his apartment one day ... when he was buzzed on the intercom from the apartment building front door," a friend of Bergin's said, according to Klein. "Michael asked me to leave immediately, and when I went out, I found Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy hiding under the staircase."
The author alleged Carolyn managed to keep the relationship under wraps until she let her secret slip to her husband during one of the couple's routine screaming matches.
Klein alleged JFK Jr. was mystified and in "his narcissistic self-absorption, he found it inconceivable that a woman would choose another man over him."
A Tragic End
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JFK Jr. moved out of their apartment and was living at a hotel when they died in a fatal plane crash in 1999.
As their marriage crumbled, JFK Jr. moved out of their apartment and checked into a $2,000-per night room at the Stanhope hotel on Fifth Avenue in New York City.
At the time, JFK Jr. was also said to be increasingly concerned about Carolyn's drug use, which he expressed to his sister Caroline in a phone call before his death.
JFK Jr. continued staying at the hotel until the day he, Carolyn, and her sister Lauren made the fateful decision to attend a Kennedy family wedding in Martha's Vineyard on July 16, 1999.
The trio would never make it to their destination as the plane JFK Jr. was piloting crashed over the Atlantic shortly after takeoff.
