The love story of JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, controversial 26 years after their fatal accident

BarcelonaIn July, it will be 27 years since John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette died. These two style icons and absolute celebrities for an entire generation were already completely unknown to young people born after the year 2000. However, the series that Ryan Murphy has dedicated to them, Love story (Disney+), has resurrected them from the oblivion into which they had fallen. As often happens with celebrities who die prematurely and leave a beautiful corpse, there is always a latent fascination for them that makes social interest very easy to revive. The fact that they haven't had time to make mistakes and that aesthetically they are a fossil of an era places them in people's minds as shining icons, which enhances them being looked at with a certain extra dose of affection and interest. Obviously, if on top of that an omnipotent platform like Disney brings them back into the spotlight, the global impact is served.

But, of course, when a global impact arrives, it doesn't just arrive for good. In this case, the commiseration generated by the fact that he died at 38 and she at 33 in a plane crash – in which her sister also died – has not been enough for all the satellite characters of that "American love story" to stay at home with their mouths shut. While they saw a series talking about events they knew closely but without having given them a voice or vote, the temptation to come out and give their version of it all was insurmountable. And so it has been.

It was the ideal media moment to raise their voice and replicate the story that the series proclaims. Never before would they have found so many media outlets willing to echo any minimally informed opinion on the matter. The most flagrant case has been that of Daryl Hannah, an actress who had long been away from the spotlight but to whom the New York Times has given space to write an article to talk about her relationship with John John, with whom she dated before Bessette. Truly, the fiction depicts a bad Hannah with few nuances that is ideal for enlivening the drama, but which, in the opinion of the protagonist herself, does not resemble her at all. Determined that this supposedly fictional image of her not be imprinted as truth in the internet age, the actress has returned from her retreat to contradict everything she considers lies. "In the digital age, lies live online forever," she lamented.

"Irritating and egocentric"

In her text in this prestigious newspaper, the actress –65 years old and currently the wife of musician Neil Young– states that the decision to portray her "as irritating, egocentric, complaining, and out of place has not been accidental". Aware that "telling a story requires tension," she recalls that "a real person cannot become a narrative resource." Even less so, she claims, if there is a "gender dimension" in this context: "Popular culture has long exalted certain women and portrayed others as rivals. Isn't it a clear example of misogyny to belittle one woman to exalt another?"

The actress, who was America's son's girlfriend –intermittently...– between 1989 and 1994, says her character is not "a remotely accurate representation" of herself or her relationship. "I have never in my life consumed cocaine or organized cocaine-fueled parties. I have never pressured anyone to marry me. I have never desecrated any family relic or delved into anyone's private memories. I have never leaked any story to the press. I never compared Jacqueline Onassis's death to that of a dog. I find it appalling to have to defend myself against a television series. These are not creative embellishments of personality. They are statements about my conduct, and they are false," concludes the artist, who assures that she is speaking out in her defense because this projected image of her has already led her to receive "hostile and even threatening messages" from viewers of the format. She says she considered remaining silent, but feared that silence "would be mistaken for acceptance of lies".

Addictions?

Maureen Callahan, author of the book "Ask not: The Kennedys and the women they destroyed", has also benefited from the spotlight. She has published an article in the Daily Mail that does not portray Carolyn Bessette in as good a light as the series. "She was the one with cocaine problems. She was the one who pretended to have no interest in marriage while planning to enter JFK Jr.'s circle, meet him, and marry him," says Callahan, who presents the former Calvin Klein public relations executive as a very ambitious woman. The author also recounts the testimony of Calvin Klein model Michael Bergin, Bessette's ex and also a character in the series. Bergin explains that "Bessette had two miscarriages, both of her children" and that she lost "a third child while dating JFK Jr."

Media outlets that have not had new contributions have spent these days diving into archives from decades ago to resurrect information that does not align with the image presented by the series. One of the works that has become popular is JFK Jr: An intimate oral biography, by RoseMarie Terenzio and Liz McNeil. This volume includes statements from the artist Sasha Chermayeff, who claims that John Jr. used marijuana "every day", "from the age of 15 onwards". She also said that cocaine had been part of his life, which she describes as "an important part of John Kennedy that nobody wants to talk about".

The park fight

Also making a fortune these days is a book that talks about the type of relationship the couple maintained – together between 1994 and 1999, despite having met in 1992...–. In The Kennedy curse, by Edward Klein, the main misfortunes of this family are addressed. In one passage, the work explains that Bessette was regularly violent with Jackie and JFK's son and that their fights were common. In this regard, there is proof, as there is an extensive recording of a fight they had in a New York park in front of the paparazzi who used to follow them daily, just six months before getting married.

Questions like the good relationship she has in the series with designer Calvin Klein – who was her boss – have also been questioned by some sources, who point out that if they had been such good friends, she would not have asked Narciso Rodríguez to design her iconic wedding dress, which was read by the entire press as a betrayal. There are also many sources that have dedicated themselves to reconstructing the couple's 24 hours before the air accident that sank them forever off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, in the American state of Massachusetts. The texts try to discern at what point the most photographed marriage of the late nineties in the United States was before dying in such a tragic way. Their secrets, however, no one knows. Neither the series that has resurrected them nor all those who have come out to bask in their radiance.