Getty JFK Jr. and his wife, Carolyn Bessette, did not have children.
Did JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette have children before they died together, along with Carolyn’s sister, Lauren, in a tragic plane crash in 1999?
An ABC documentary, airing on January 3, 2019, is bringing renewed attention to the doomed couple almost 10 years after they perished in the murky waters near Martha’s Vineyard. The documentary is called Last Days of JFK Jr. and it contains interviews and video of Kennedy and his wife. (You can see more photos of the couple here.)
The answer to the question is that, no, JFK Jr. and his wife, Carolyn, did not have kids before they died. However, JFK Jr. does have a nephew, the son of his sister Caroline, who is almost his doppelganger. His name is John too – John Schlossberg.
“Biography: JFK Jr—The Final Year” will run on Tuesday, July 16, 2019 at 9 p.m. ET on A&E Network. “July 16, 2019 marks the 20-year anniversary of John F. Kennedy Jr.’s death. This two-hour documentary special, airing on the anniversary, reframes the last year of his life in an entirely new way,” A&E wrote in a statement.
Here’s what you need to know:
The Couple Had Only Been Married Three Years
Keeping JFK Jr.’s wedding a total secret: Former assistant RoseMarie Terenzio says keeping the plans for his marriage to Carolyn Bessette hush-hush “was the most nerve-wracking three months of my entire life!”
“The Last Days” airs tomorrow at 9|8c on @ABC t.co/ch8EGMulwk
The wedding of JFK Jr. and the former Calvin Klein publicist was a storybook one shrouded in secrecy and surprise. However, the sad truth is that the fallen president’s son and his new wife didn’t have much time to have children before they died, and, in the short time they were married, the union was propelled repeatedly into tabloid headlines that trumpeted rumors of great strife.
This 01 May, 1999, file shows John F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife Carolyn Bissette as they leave at the end of the White House Correspondent’s annual dinner in Washington, DC, 01 May.
The couple was married three years before the plane crash, in 1996, on tiny Cumberland Island in Georgia.
The wedding photo released to the press quickly became iconic:
Exclusive! JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s wedding photographer remembers this iconic moment: t.co/ls1M9XSblY
According to Southern Living, the ceremony was held in the “tiny First African Baptist Church, filling the church’s eight pews with family and friends and no media. They held the reception at the historic Greyfield Inn, the lone hotel on the secluded island, some 20 miles off the coast of Georgia.” No one knew outside those invited until after the wedding was over.
Vanity Fair Magazine reported, though, that the marriage was troubled, alleging, “The hidden chapter was the gradual unraveling of their marriage as it slid from wedding-day hysterics into a spiral of depression, drugs, and violence. In an excerpt from his new book, Edward Klein explores the conflicts—over starting a family.”
The magazine alleged that JFK Jr. had said, “I want to have kids, but whenever I raise the subject with Carolyn, she turns away and refuses to have sex with me.”
Caroline Kennedy’s Son Looks a Lot Like John F. Kennedy Jr.
Jack Schlossberg introduces the former US president Bill Clinton at the first international symposium on President Kennedy.
Although JFK Jr. didn’t live long enough to become a father, his sister, Caroline, is the mother to three children – two girls and a boy.
The boy has grown into a man, and John Schlossberg looks a lot like his famous uncle, right down to the shock of thick black hair. He is the son of Caroline Kennedy and her husband, Edwin Schlossberg. According to Town and Country, the younger John “graduated from Yale in 2015 and is the only grandson of JFK.”
Barack Obama shakes Jack Schlossberg’s hand. (Getty)
Might John Schlossberg have the future in politics that his uncle never did? He got political in 2016 in an essay chastising Republican Senator Ted Cruz for arguing that JFK, if he were alive today, would be a Republican. “Were my grandfather alive today, he’d be excited about how far we have come as a nation since 1963, he would feel a sense of urgency about the challenges that lie ahead and he most certainly would not be a Republican,” wrote Schlossberg.
Caroline’s other two children are named Tatiana and Rose. Incidentally, Rose bears a remarkable resemblance to another famous Kennedy: Jackie. Check it out:
Meet Jackie O’s lookalike granddaughter, Rose Schlossberg: t.co/mGPgrpiGfu
Looking at photos of Caroline’s kids, now grown, reminds one of the children that JFK Jr. and Carolyn might have had were fate to deal them a better hand.