JFK Jr.’s Surprising Reason for Never Introducing Carolyn Bessette to His Mother Jackie Kennedy

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It’s hard to believe that Caroline Bessette never had the opportunity to meet his future mother-in-law, Jackie Kennedy, before her death on May 19, 1994. John F. Kennedy Jr. had his reasons for separating the two women, but it was something he regretted when he married Bessette in 1996.

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JFK Jr.’s decision not to allow Jackie to meet his future wife is chronicled in an upcoming book about Bessette’s legacy: Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy by Elizabeth Beller. The first problem for one of America’s most eligible bachelors was his love life – it was complicated. He saw Bessette casually, but his chronology with Kill Bill star Daryl Hannah also showed that in 1994 they were still together. Perhaps Bessette thought meeting the former first lady could seal her fate as JFK Jr.’s one and only girlfriend, since it was no secret that Jackie didn’t want her son to marry an actress.

“Carolyn was growing more and more upset that he wasn’t introducing her to her mother,” Beller wrote, via an excerpt obtained by People. “I took him to meet my mother,” Carolyn told a friend. » The author further elaborated on the hot topic with the media outlet, noting that JFK Jr. was also launching his magazine, George, at the time, which became his main goal. “I think it was hard for him to take anything other than his work too seriously at that point,” she explained. “If Carolyn met Jackie, I think he knew that it would somehow become a life of its own. And maybe he wasn’t quite ready for that.

It was a pretty major sticking point in their relationship and their on-again, off-again status “was sometimes wrong because (Bessette-Kennedy) was breaking up with him because he wasn’t introducing her to Jackie.” Bessette held on because she “wasn’t going to put up with something like that.” The truth is, Jackie probably would have loved Bessette, who was very different from Hannah and her Hollywood lifestyle as a Calvin Klein PR executive.

Singer Carly Simon also explored JFK Jr.’s mother’s distaste for Hannah in her 2019 memoir, Touched by the sun: my friendship with Jackie. “Jackie was very busy getting him on the right track,” she wrote, and “did not approve” of the actress. The former first lady even went so far as to move to another room to eat her meal if the Splash The star came to dinner. Ultimately, it was a major missed opportunity for JFK Jr. to introduce Jackie to a woman, who had probably checked off every box on his mother’s list. Bessette and Jackie would have loved each other.

Before you go, click here to see photos of JFK and Jackie O.’s adult grandchildren.

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