To the public, they were the face of happiness but behind the scenes, John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette struggled to make their marriage work, a new book reveals.
In his book "The Kennedy Heirs," author J. Randy Taraborrelli takes a closer look at the couple's relationship and the obstacles they encountered.
"John and Carolyn loved each other but their struggles were much more real than people realize," Taraborrelli writes, according to People.
It was love at first sight, or so John thought when he first met Bessette in the mid-90s. Their relationship was intense and dramatic from the start and, while they loved each other fiercely, other issues crept in.
"John wanted her to know him as other than the son of the president," notes Taraborrelli, but Bessette struggled to fit in. She also struggled to deal with the paparazzi.
"She couldn’t take it. She wasn’t brought up with it. John was, Carolyn wasn’t," Jackie Kennedy's personal assistant Kathy McKeon previously said, according to Town and Country Magazine. "She said, 'I’m terrified of them.'"
Soon other issues began to creep into their marriage. Recreational drug use and jealously put further strain to the couple. Taraborrelli pointed to an incident in 1998, when Bessette reconnected with an old friend who tried to kiss her. She told John, who decided to confront the unamed friend at his apartment at 2 a.m.
"He opened the door to find John Kennedy, his face twisted in anger," Taraborrelli writes. "John swung a punch. 'Stay away from my goddamn wife.'"
The couple eventually found themselves in counselling and were working on their relationship at the time they died in a plane crash on July 16, 1999. Taraborrelli says they thought they had all the time in the world to figure things out.
"They really did love each other, he writes. "Their love for each other was undeniable, but was it enough considering everything that was working against them."