Original subtitles

♪

Radziwill: It was a very simple wedding, you know?

It wasn't -- it wasn't fancy at all.

It's like buckets of roses on the table

With some votive candles.

Rather: John f. Kennedy jr. Confirmed

That he indeed married carolyn bessette

Over the weekend.

The couple managed to outfox and evade the entire tabloid press.

Like, he was pretty much the most famous guy

In the world.

As a couple, they were sought after.

They got married on a tiny island.

There was not a single photographer,

Except for the wedding photographer, there.

The wedding was kept a secret from the public

And indeed from many of their family members, as well.

Radziwill: Just wanted to keep it a little private

For a little bit longer --

Just a little bit.

That's the church.

Look there.

There's pig shit and horse manure everywhere.

She came from fashion,

And he was passionate about magazines.

It's funny 'cause his sister got them a t-shirt

For their wedding, and it said --

It was so cute --

"politics plus fashion equals passion."

And that's what they were.

♪

South: I think physically, they complemented each other.

She made john more attractive,

And john made her more attractive,

And given how attractive they both were to begin with,

That's a tall order.

Ginsberg: She's beautiful.

She's charming, incredibly loving.

You'd look at her and you'd say, "yeah,

Who wouldn't want to marry carolyn bessette?"

Radziwill: Carolyn

Was definitely not a "yes" person to john.

She did not want john to be used in this, like,

Dog-and-pony-show way.

She made him feel he could be his own person.

He didn't have to follow

What people expected of him.

Carolyn's mother really loved john,

But when she made a toast,

I'll never forget the end of it.

She said, "I hope my daughter has the strength for this."

Everyone just sort of stopped for a moment.

♪

I think even carolyn, in her way,

Underestimated the impact of marrying john

And marrying into the family.

But her mom understood it in a way that all of us

Would then come to understand it later.

♪

♪

♪

I don't even think that the pictures circulating around

Really do her justice.

She had a presence.

They were matched 'cause he was super charming,

Really funny.

[ indistinct conversations ]

Well, everybody was interested in john's relationship

With anybody he might be dating.

Back then it was sarah jessica parker

And then daryl hannah, of course,

So that was a big deal,

And then carolyn bessette.

But you really, over the course of his time,

Didn't see him with a lot of different young women.

So, with carolyn, everybody was really interested

Because it just seemed like it was going somewhere.

♪

Radziwill: Carolyn never met jackie,

But they shared an irreverent sense of humor about things.

Jackie was kind of not naughty,

But, like, she loved to gossip a little.

She wasn't, like, super serious all the time.

[ laughter ]

There was a really, like, fun side,

And I know that also because she would write anthony letters,

And they would always be so charming and funny

And, "oh, did you hear this and that?"

And, in that way, I think carolyn was very similar.

She would love to get down and go through magazines

And talk about that person or that person.

She could read a room like nobody I've ever met,

And jackie had that quality, too, having had to do that.

I'm sure they would have gotten along.

And she wasn't an actress.

It's a big family, and like all big families,

There's a lot of politics and quirks

That you just have to learn --

Maybe john's family more than other families.

There was a higher expectation, and she didn't play the game.

She didn't, like, suck up to anyone --

No one in his family.

She was just like, "hi." [ laughs ] you know?

Carolyn and I came from a very similar background.

I grew up very humble beginnings,

Like, working-class upstate new york.

Her mom was a single mom raising three daughters

In a very working-class neighborhood.

I think we felt like a real sisterhood because of it.

We were like the ultimate outsiders.

[ indistinct conversations ]

South: It's funny. So many people

Felt like they got to know them

Through black tie

Or going into kind of fancy things

Where there were photographers,

But their life really was not fancy.

Where they lived was definitely not fancy.

The more basic things could be, the better.

[ dog pants, barks ]

They were not a particularly domestic couple.

They had this guy named efi who worked for them,

And sometimes efi would cook,

But if he didn't and carolyn was making a big effort,

She would make her chicken.

Their going out was always from point "a" to point "b."

There wasn't a lot of wandering around

Because it could turn into such a mess quickly.

Photographer: John, can we get a picture of you

Real quick before you leave?

Oprah: Do you think that you have that -- that right?

Kennedy: A right to privacy?

Mm-hmm.

I understand that there's interest,

And, certainly, that interest has --

It's not interest. It's obsession, john.

Well, is that what it is?

Yeah.

Anthony: I would say that john kennedy jr. Was at the top,

Especially here in new york city.

He was john kennedy jr. [ laughs ]

Who wouldn't be interested in him?

Man: How you doing, john?

Kennedy: Good. How are you?

Pretty good.

Ginsberg: And john would give them little bits of it.

We always knew the paparazzi were hanging out

Wherever we were,

But he wouldn't, you know, hide himself.

Anthony: But carolyn bessette became a target.

Please don't get so close to me.

Radziwill: You know, they also lived in an apartment

With no doorman, no security.

Like, I think celebrities now --

They travel with a lot of security.

They didn't ever have security.

There was no one.

The way john grew up,

He wanted to be as normal as possible.

♪

Glass: The last thing you want to do

Is have a blowout with your girlfriend in public,

But that is exactly what happened

Between john and his girlfriend, carolyn bessette.

I remember when carolyn bessette and kennedy

Had a fight outside my dorm.

Anthony: It was on the cover of every newspaper

And on every tabloid

Because there's always somebody photographing them.

It started out verbally, but it got physical.

You know, whatever he said just really pissed her off,

And there was no holding back.

She didn't care that she was in the middle of a park.

This is obviously a lady who just doesn't take anything

That the prince of camelot hands out.

♪

Radziwill: She also was very confident

And very strong-willed,

And I think when carolyn came into his life,

It ruffled some feathers.

Like any fiancée, then wife,

You come with a different perspective,

And I think she weeded his social garden a little bit.

She was very fiercely protective.

She knew immediately if somebody was bad news.

He didn't want to see that.

He wanted to see the good in people.

Carolyn had all the guile that he lacked --

Guile in a good way.

Many titles have been bestowed on john f. Kennedy jr. --

Sexiest man alive,

Most eligible bachelor.

Radziwill: The times when I did go out with john

In more public events, we were mobbed.

It was a circus.

[ paparazzi clamoring ]

He was like the number-one pinup of the world,

And I guess only princess diana comes close

In terms of the star power that he carried around with him.

♪

Princess diana: I seem to be on the front of a newspaper

Every single day, which is isolating experience,

And the higher the media place you

Is the bigger the drop.

Brown: I remember when I had lunch with princess diana,

She said, "I'm hoping that william

Can turn out to be as smart about the press

As john kennedy jr."

Diana understood

That there was no shucking off of this celebrity.

They were the most famous people in the world,

So they were very much parallel.

He was a nepo baby before there was such a thing.

[ cheers and applause ] thank you. Thank you.

He had to do something substantive

That people could point to and say, "yeah,

That guy deserves it."

Soren: The handful of times

That I was in a social situation with john f. Kennedy jr.,

When he walked in, the room went to a hush.

He could sense that they were uncomfortable

Because he was such a famous person,

But it was also a little awkward

Because until george magazine,

He wasn't famous for actually having done anything.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet george.

♪

♪

Ginsberg: So, federal hall is where george washington

Was first inaugurated.

It was the perfect place to launch

George magazine.

Ladies and gentlemen, john kennedy.

[ applause ]

Kennedy: I don't think that I've seen as many of you in one place

Since they announced the results of my first bar exam,

So it's nice to see you all again.

This was before the era of social media.

You know, magazines drove culture.

We want our readers to be on a first-name basis

With the people and the powers that drive american politics.

Ginsberg: Who's gonna be on the cover of vogue, vanity fair?

Who was on the cover, what was inside

Was something that people talked about.

Magazines were what social media is today.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet george.

[ applause ]

Me as george washington on the cover --

I think that was really refreshing.

It was such a new idea.

But seeing john kennedy jr.

Turn that cover around like that, I think,

Is the thing that sticks in people's mind

More than just the cover.

We'll talk about fashion, television, and art

All as they relate to the political process.

Kennedy was harnessing his celebrity

Into something meaningful,

And most people don't bother to do that.

Politics is much too important

To be left only to the politicians.

Thank you.

[ applause ]

De niro: He was a young, good-looking kid,

And, being from that world,

Obviously, he had some thoughts about it.

It would seem logical that he would want to do

Something like that with the magazine.

♪

But it is also an understanding

That his popularity

And his celebrity

Is incredibly important

To his success.

He needs that.

Oh, hi. I'm murphy brown. You must be my new secretary.

Oh, murphy, hi! [ audience cheers wildly ]

It was one of those moments, I say,

Like, when 1 plus 1 plus 1 equals 1,000.

Everything amplified each other.

[ kennedy chuckles ]

"murphy": What the hell is this?

Kennedy: It's a copy of george.

It's the new political magazine I'm editing.

I had the, uh, guys in the art department

Mock up a cover with you on it.

It's pretty great, huh?

Brown: There was a kind of gusto to it that I liked.

I mean, he went full on to try to do this vision that he had,

And I think where he was clever

Was he did understand the melding that had begun

Between politics and entertainment.

Walters: Half a million copies of this hip political magazine

Flew off newsstands nationwide in just four days,

Making it the most successful debut in magazine history.

Kennedy: You have to catch people's attention,

And what we wanted to do is george washington is an icon

And he's an american icon,

And we wanted to use other american icons

To kind of play with that iconography.

The first cover was very iconic

In that it was a very clever idea,

And it sort of said in one image

It was not to be the new republic or the nation.

He wanted to popularize political discourse,

And I thought that one cover went a long ways towards that.

Radziwill: Make it entertaining. Make it pop culture.

That was unheard of in politics in the '90s.

Like, cindy crawford

Dressed up as george washington

On the cover of a glossy magazine --

That was, like, scandalous.

Woman: Do you remember that it was carolyn's idea?

Radziwill: It was her idea to do cindy.

I will say that I think a lot of the covers were carolyn's ideas.

South: She was friends with herb ritts, the photographer.

She had worked around herb quite a bit because of calvin.

In order for a startup magazine to get somebody like herb ritts,

There would had to have been the relationship,

And the relationship was very much carolyn, for sure.

He photographs women the way they want to look.

It may be one of the most iconic images of me

Because it wasn't just, like,

A beautiful picture of me in a swimsuit.

I've never done a shoot like that before,

And I have never done a shoot like that afterwards.

I believe my midriff's showing.

There was a lot of discussion

About "should we stuff the pants?"

At one point, I had a sock in my pants.

It's funny -- like, a "supermodel"

As a sexy george washington.

Carter: Arie kopelman, who was head of chanel --

He thought john was gonna eat our lunch at vanity fair,

And I thought, "well, okay. We'll see how that goes."

♪

I mean, that's what we really aspired to be,

Was the vanity fair of politics.

Some pundits once said my grandfather was a great ad man.

They said that he sold my father like a box of soap flakes.

[ laughter ]

My grandfather took great offense,

Claimed it wasn't true.

He said, "no! I sold jack like a cadillac.

Nixon was the box of soap flakes."

[ laughter ]

John's grandfather joseph p. Kennedy

Was determined to have one of his children

Become president of the united states.

It was originally joe jr.,

Who was killed in a tragic mission during world war ii,

And then once joe was gone, he transferred all that

To john's dad.

He runs for president in 1960,

And television is born on the first debate

Between kennedy and nixon.

Kennedy, in that first debate,

Held his own with nixon,

And kennedy came across as dynamic

And energetic and charismatic,

And, you know, the public loved him.

Only you can decide what you want,

What you want this country to be.

Ginsberg: He was fascinated by that debate,

And it was this moment in time

That ultimately is what george aspired to create,

Which is that convergence of politics and popular culture.

We strive to produce a magazine

Uncolored by a single partisan perspective, even mine.

Please welcome john kennedy!

Andersen: So it was mythically perfect

That junior would begin a magazine

About fun celebrities

Who were interested in politics!

Do you think that you being who you are

Is the reason why george is now so successful?

Readers might have bought the first one

And maybe even the second one.

But, you know, we're now doing our seventh issue.

And I don't think people would stick with us

If we weren't somehow delivering what --

What do you keep looking at?

I'm looking at the...

If you look at who is reading political magazines,

It was 98% white males.

So he said, "I'm gonna just break it up.

I'm gonna be a disrupter.

I want this readership to be half women.

I want people not just on the coasts to read this magazine.

I want people in the middle of the country to read it."

And so that was the magazine that he envisioned.

He needs a broad base of women

To be invested in his love life.

He needs a broad swath of men saying,

"how do I become cool like this guy?"

King: John f. Kennedy jr. -- He is the mastermind

Of this extraordinary magazine, george, which is a hoot.

How's it selling?

It's selling very well.

Yeah?

Yeah.

There are so many people who wanted john to fail.

You know, george -- it's an entertainment magazine.

I mean, it's not highbrow -- highbrow journalism.

Who are these guardians of political purity

And what political journalism should be?

And we were a real threat to that.

It's a magazine that started with a theory

That there was a way of covering politics

Largely as women's magazines cover the world of fashion.

It indulges in gossip.

I don't think it has a great deal of depth right now.

I think the media never really took george seriously,

But I think it had a kind of gaiety to it in the old sense

That I find rather appealing.

You know, people were, "ugh. John kennedy's magazine."

I think there was a lot of jealousy in the business,

And there was a lot of "who does he think he is?"

♪

♪

Mr. President, marilyn monroe!

[ applause ]

♪ happy birthday ♪

♪ mr. President ♪

Ginsberg: I think biz mitchell, an editor at the time,

Went to john and said,

"it's bill clinton's 50th birthday."

And I think that gave john the idea

Of having somebody dress up like marilyn monroe.

That was just john's mischievousness,

For good or for bad.

♪

Brown: When he did the marilyn monroe cover

With drew barrymore, that was an intake of breath

Where you thought, "wait a minute," you know?

"she was having an affair with your father.

Are we now going there? Is this is what we're gonna do?"

Carmody: David pecker, being the dealmaker that he is --

One thing he agreed to,

Which I think he maybe later came to regret,

Is that he gave john complete editorial control.

We're already seeing an immediate return.

George has captured the imaginations of advertisers

Like no other magazine launch in the history of publishing.

No one editor has complete editorial control --

Even anna wintour.

Winfrey: Can we talk about that current cover

With drew barrymore?

I'm wondering how the rest of the family reacted to that.

I think in the grand scheme of things,

It probably didn't register too high on the --

On the richter scale.

Yeah?

Depaulo: Keep in mind,

He also once wanted to do a cover of his mother,

And he asked his ex-girlfriend madonna to do it,

And she said,

"johnny boy, I'm not gonna play mommy"

Or something like that.

♪

Radziwill: John is always pushing the boundaries

And he's testing the limits.

It must have been hard for him to grow up with a father

Who was mythical.

The only things he remembered from his father

Were the memories that people told him.

He has none of his own memories.

His dad was a trailblazer --

The first catholic president of the united states.

He was pushing boundaries all over the place,

So I think of john as having a little of that.

[ crowd cheering ]

Ginsberg: I think part of the desire

To do a political magazine

Was to be able to learn about his father's presidency

In the first person

And understand it on his own terms.

♪

His search was "in search of my father, finding myself,"

And george gave him the material or the tools

To further engage that search in a different way.

Ginsberg: So part of that exploration in our first issue

Was going down to alabama to meet george wallace,

Who had physically stood in the doorway

Of the university of alabama

To prevent students from desegregating.

John's father went on national tv...

We face, therefore, a moral crisis

As a country and a people.

Ginsberg: ...And, for the first time,

Committed to passing a civil rights bill,

Which ultimately became the civil rights bill of 1964.

So, john wanted to understand that moment in time,

But a secondary purpose was that in the late '70s,

George wallace decided

That he was no longer gonna be a racist,

And he embraced integration.

Man [british accent]: Governor, may we have a few words

For british television, sir?

Yes, sir. What you want to ask?

Tell me. You are still remembered in britain, sir,

As a segregationalist. Has that all changed?

Oh, that's been 20 years ago. That's not an issue.

I don't even talk about it.

Ginsberg: There was something that appealed to john

About people who were flexible enough

To reconsider hardened views,

And I think he looked at somebody like george wallace

And saw a lot of political courage

In being able to see the sins of his past and repent for it.

John's always having this ongoing dialogue with his family

And his relationship with his father,

So he wants to go back and interview these people

Who had been his father's adversaries,

So he goes to cuba

To interview fidel castro.

Man: In cuba, 300,000 militiamen have been mobilized.

The invasion was successful in its early hours,

With castro, of course, blaming the u.S.

Gillon: One of the biggest blunders

Of president kennedy's administration --

When he launched the bay of pigs invasion

To try to overthrow castro.

But castro's army was waiting on the beaches,

Which leads to the famous cuban missile crisis,

And we're in the verge of nuclear holocaust.

So, castro seemed like an odd person for john to interview,

But john goes to cuba, and they wait for the word

When they're gonna have the interview,

And it goes on for day after day.

John was about to leave cuba

Because castro kept delaying the meeting,

And carolyn told him, "get on that phone

And say you're john kennedy

And you're not leaving till you get an interview."

Carmody: They waited three days to see castro,

Who was supposedly a jerk.

They finally had this dinner that lasted well into the night,

And the one thing that john hated

Was dinners that went on and on and on.

You know, john had a really short attention span,

So castro gets his knife

And he puts it in a shrimp,

And he goes on for two hours.

He was, like, going like this

And then pointing the shrimp at john.

John said to me, "all I could think is,

'eat the fucking shrimp!'"

[ laughs ]

And castro leaned in to him and said,

"I could never have allowed oswald to go back to cuba."

What he was telling john was he had nothing to do

With his father's assassination.

No one else could have had that conversation with john.

Depaulo: I think he definitely wanted to know more

About his dad.

He was interviewing castro -- okay? --

Who a lot of people think killed his father.

I think castro maybe saddened and frustrated and angered john,

And he was an editor,

And he decided in that moment not to write about that.

Carmody: He came back, and he's like, "we're not running it."

And I had sold advertising against it

'cause it was gonna be this historical thing

On the anniversary of the bay of pigs.

It was sort of this renewed enthusiasm,

And it was like, "no. We're not doing that."

♪

So, the advertisers were putting pressure

On michael berman to reveal more of john.

Hachette always wanted george to be

Essentially a celebrity fan club

With john as the main celebrity.

He should have had a great number two who would say,

"no, this is not the best idea" or "this is a good idea,"

'cause he was probably just too much in charge.

You want people around you

Who will fold their arms and come into your office

And say, "this is a terrible idea,"

And then you realize, "okay, it's a bad idea."

♪

♪

[ helicopter blades whirring ]

Ginsberg: I remember he went to do an interview

With oliver stone.

That was a big deal -- right? --

'cause he had done the movie about his dad,

About the assassination.

He had gone out with all these wild conspiracy theories.

There was a small conspiracy.

It could involved 5 to 10 people, maybe 11, 12,

To kill the president.

Oliver stone had a big movie coming out about richard nixon,

Which was right in their wheelhouse, right?

I mean, it's a president,

And it's gonna be a big hollywood production.

And john said, "I'm gonna go do this dinner with him,

Gonna ask him to do the magazine --

You know, participate --

But he can't bring up the assassination."

Gillon: Stone promised he wouldn't say anything to john

About his father's assassination.

Of course, they sit down, and not long into the conversation,

He brings it up,

And john gets up, and he -- he leaves on -- on cue.

♪

John was so furious that stone would do that,

Especially after he was told not to and had agreed not to,

That he cut the whole stone feature.

And, again, we had the cover shot and everything else.

Came back -- "we're not doing the story."

♪

Michael berman was -- he actually believed this,

But he was also channeling some of the complaints

He was getting from hachette themselves,

Who just were constantly pushing john to do more.

There was something very personal about it for him, too.

Gillon: He said, "I don't understand

Why people are so fascinated by my father's death."

He mentioned something about the oliver stone movie,

And he, like, paused, and he was like, "yeah,

Bobby knew everything."

Ginsberg: He said it to me, too.

He said, "the only person who really knows what happened

With my father's assassination

Was my uncle bobby."

I was eager to try something different,

To see another part of life.

Carmody: If this was a normal magazine,

The issue doesn't just disappear

Because somebody is personally offended by it.

He had the power to do it

Because hachette gave john complete editorial control.

That is unheard of in a magazine company.

It was -- it was a problem...

For michael.

The experts early on advised us of just one other key point --

Never go into business with a friend.

♪

Man: Ladies and gentlemen,

The president of the united states,

William jefferson clinton.

[ cheers and applause ]

My fellow americans, thank you for your nomination.

I don't know if I can find a fancy way to say this, but...

I accept.

[ cheers and applause ]

[ los del rio's "macarena" plays ]

Rigueur: The thing that symbolizes, to me,

The celebrity moment of the '96 democratic national convention

Is the moment that the entire room is doing the macarena.

[ song continues ]

It is the most popular song in america.

It involves line dancing.

And we see all of these delegations

Break out in a round robin of macarena,

Including hillary clinton and al gore.

Very famously, al gore is very stiff.

[ cheers and applause ]

Would you like to see it again?

Rigueur: It's like this cultural moment where it's like,

These are people that are cool,

That have their pulse on the nation,

And we have the president

Who is one with the american people.

Celebrities -- they're just like us.

The president -- he's just like us.

But the other part of it is you have the reign

Of the kennedy family,

And it is all of the kennedys.

They are basking in, essentially,

Their political dynasty.

Ginsberg: In 1996,

When I was in chicago with john,

Tom brokaw invited him to be on prime time.

Brokaw: You have, whether you're in politics or not,

One of the most public lives anywhere in the world.

You can't go anywhere --

Kennedy: Seems that way, yeah.

Brokaw: You can't go anywhere without being noticed.

Is that part of the resistance

To get involved in elective politics?

No. I mean, one of them doesn't really have

A lot to do with the other,

But I think, certainly in politics,

Once you begin,

You better be in it for the long haul.

Um, and for me, you know,

It's important to have a few life experiences

Before you do that.

That's what john adams thought politicians should do,

And maybe it's, you know, what will happen to me.

In the lead-up to the launch of george magazine,

There is an intense amount of scrutiny around

What is john f. Kennedy jr.'s thing going to be?

Is he going to go into politics and policy

Like the rest of his family?

Is he going to be a lawyer?

Is he going to be a failure?

And so it moves from a conversation

Around "what is he gonna do?"

To "this is his big crowning achievement."

When we walked out -- I'm not exaggerating --

There were probably 2,000 screaming democratic delegates

Who thought that jesus christ was walking out of that box.

They were grabbing him. They chased us to the car.

♪

Repoorter: I gotta ask you about the party tonight.

Kennedy: Yes. I hope you'll come.

[ chuckles ] well, who's gonna be there?

I don't know.

How exciting is this going to be?

It's gonna be very exciting.

I'm not sure who's gonna be there,

But, apparently, a lot of folks.

[ cheers and applause ] woman: John! Cnn! John!

Rigueur: It's the 1996 convention

Where he throws a rager of a party.

It's the kind of party

That people are clamoring to get in on

On the guest list.

Man: John, a lot's being said this week

About the connection between entertainment

And politics.

Is that what this party is about?

Kennedy: Well, we'll see who shows up,

But, uh, hopefully

It makes for a good party, anyway.

Man: What is that connection?

Ginsberg: There was just one event

That everybody needed to get into,

And that was the george party,

And we held it at the largest venue we could.

They had to close it down

Because they had been so overwhelmed.

We had everybody from kevin costner

To maria shriver to who's who.

I mean, they were all there.

Soren: Movie critic roger ebert

And comedian chris rock.

Rock: Democrats have much more fun than republicans.

John f. Kennedy jr. Was really great

At figuring out the zeitgeist,

Wanting to be part of something new and exciting.

Rigueur: So, while you have the clintons,

It's also really about john, as well.

He can't step foot on the floor without being mobbed by people.

People are asking for his autograph.

This is a political convention. [ laughs ]

John had tremendous charisma and tremendous presence.

He was a natural.

Everybody just assumed that, one day,

He was gonna be in the running to be president.

♪

♪

[ cheers and applause ]

O'donnell: Pretty amazing.

Kennedy: I got married.

O'donnell: How'd you do it?

How did I, uh -- how did I do it?

You just literally didn't tell anyone?

It was important for us just to, uh, be able to do it

In a private and -- and personal way,

And it wouldn't have been able to --

We wouldn't have been able to do it had we --

Had we told everybody.

♪

Think about it. In the two years

After his mom died,

He started a magazine and he got married.

This was like -- sort of like a-a rebirth for him, in a way.

Of course, he had started working on the magazine

Years earlier.

♪

But it all came together after his mom passed away.

♪

The expectation when they went public was excruciating.

Carolyn and john wanted to stave that off, I think,

As long as possible.

And it also felt pretty good to be able to do it

And then leave and sort of know that --

That in about two hours,

There was gonna be --

A big bomb was gonna go off.

Right.

♪

Gillon: There was always this pressure on john

To reveal more of himself.

He would give a piece of himself here and there

Through his letters from the editor.

♪

Brown: The editor's letter is a way

To communicate with readers in a way that makes --

Tries to create a dialogue between you and them.

Well, here's a great example.

Sometimes the letters could reflect where his head was at.

The letter from a month after he got married

Certainly does that.

"it's true that political life can be a strain on a marriage.

The husband usually gets all the attention,

While the wife is expected not only to give up her career

But gaze adoringly during every photo opportunity."

"they have little privacy and even less time together.

But in another respect,

The crisis and isolation of a public life

Create a sense of shared burden that can bring a couple closer."

Really just in maybe a little bubble of friendship, family.

Like, we were just protected in a way that just disappeared

Once they officially were husband and wife.

♪

Ginsberg: John's sister, caroline,

Had a very big wedding in hyannis port,

And I don't think he wanted that wedding.

He wanted it super small and super private.

Radziwill: They decided cumberland island

'cause his friend gogo ferguson

Owned a bed and breakfast there.

♪

There were only like 10 people living there,

So they could keep it quiet for as long as possible.

♪

But no one believed that they could pull it off.

They are real talkers, those kennedys.

So john decided not to tell any of them

Until, like, the weekend before.

I think john ended up inviting like one cousin

From each arm of his family.

Like, it was one representative from each.

And then, of course, senator kennedy and his wife.

His wife's brother was a wedding photographer.

They were able to really keep it quiet.

They kept it so private and prayerful,

They didn't tell half of his family.

His cousin patrick kennedy told somebody,

Even though he was not invited to the wedding,

That his cousin john got married yesterday.

My cousin john did tie the knot yesterday.

[ applause ]

And that's how we found out they did get married.

♪

I think in her mind, she wanted to be able

To go on her honeymoon and still be private.

Everyone benefited from proximity with john,

Even his cousins.

I think she wasn't happy about that.

It's a sad day if it's true for all the women out there.

Anthony: Everyone just went crazy.

The media attention for john and carolyn

Got a lot worse when they got married

Because then everybody wanted to know,

"what about this chick that landed john kennedy jr.?"

Because then it wasn't just one person,

It was two people

That everybody was really interested in.

♪

[ horn honks ]

♪

Woman: 64 degrees. Beautiful day.

Sunny skies in new york.

Anthony: They went on a honeymoon,

But you're gonna have to see pictures of them

'cause they got to come back to new york and to tribeca,

Where they live, eventually.

Man: Hold it, please, for us. Look this way.

Ohh!

I can see, but we're not getting it.

No one knew that they were getting married.

They get married secretly.

They come back from their honeymoon,

And, suddenly, you know, they come home to an apartment

That's being staked out by 30 paparazzi

Whose livelihood depends upon getting a shot.

So, we're just asking any, you know, privacy...

Ginsberg: Guys, can you back up?

...And room you can give her as she makes that adjustment...

Ginsberg: Please. Back up.

...We'd really appreciate it.

Depaulo: There are stories that he would say to her,

"once we get married, this will stop."

♪

And it didn't stop.

It got worse.

Man: Come on, john.

Kennedy: She's on the beach alone,

And you start taking [bleep] photographs!

♪

♪

Man #1: We're not getting it... We're not getting it, john.

Man #2: Are there any little johns on the way?

Man #1: John, we're not getting it.

Can you look at the lens?

Back up and look this way, carolyn.

Carolyn, look this way.

John... John whoooaaa!

Rigueur: When they emerge as a couple

And their wedding photos

Are in every major magazine across the country,

Newspapers treat it as, like, front-page news

That little john has grown up and is getting married.

[ paparazzi chatter ]

There's a kind of frenzy around this

Because everybody wants to be in on the details.

They want to know the secrets.

Man: Kennedy confronted a pair of photographers.

In the end, they got no privacy.

They had a lot of hostile engagements with paparazzi,

But it was more her than him.

♪

And, you know, I wish that she would have handled that better

Because marrying john kennedy jr.,

They're gonna want your picture.

Ginsberg: John understood the role of the paparazzi,

Which was, I think, why it was so hard

When carolyn had such a visceral reaction to it.

He didn't like it, but he understood

It was part and parcel of being john kennedy.

Woman: John! John! John! Over here!

South: John had had a lifetime of training.

For carolyn, she worked in a p.R. Department,

And what she did was control the optics

Around the calvin klein brand.

And I think the struggle was

She realized she had absolutely no control over this

As it related to her,

And I think that was most difficult.

You guys got enough. Why don't you leave now?

There's certainly a gendered element to this.

They treat her poorly,

In part because she is a woman.

♪

Radziwill: Yeah, sure. She was an ice queen.

What? 'cause she didn't sit down and give interviews?

Too fuckin' bad.

She didn't want to.

That was her choice.

She's a grown woman.

♪

Here's carolyn bessette, who's like,

"I don't want to be a celebrity.

Therefore, I do not want to give you access,"

And so the press and the tabloids say,

"well, we have no choice but to provoke you."

Ma'am, please.

[ camera shutters clicking ]

Ginsberg: Princess diana was living that struggle

So publicly --

Her fights with the paparazzi during that period.

I'm sure carolyn was watching it

And feeling like she was the american version of it,

And it probably just heightened her sense

Of isolation and frustration.

♪

Brown: Diana and carolyn bessette

Lived very, very parallel paths.

The actual reality of living with that

Was something that had came with so much pressure

And so much ugliness.

♪

Ginsberg: And then diana dies,

Which really kind of set things off.

♪

Young: The people's princess is dead.

Across the country, across the world,

Millions are trying to come to terms

With the awful tragedy of diana's untimely death.

♪

Radziwill: I was in aspen when diana's car crashed,

And carolyn was in new york.

And I remember being on the phone with her

During the funeral.

I don't know. It was, like, very profound.

I mean, princess diana was --

You know, she was our age,

Pretty much.

♪

And the underlying way in which she died,

Which was being literally hounded to death by paparazzi.

And that lesson was definitely not lost on carolyn.

Depaulo: I just remember crying the whole way home,

Thinking of john,

Like, "please be safe.

Be safe."

The only time we've seen a mass mourning

In any way to touch diana

Really was the death of jfk.

[ drum beating rhythmically ]

It was a shock because now this is proof.

This is li-- like...

This is what could happen if things get out of hand.

I'm not, but you started it.

Radziwill: You know, they were --

They were looking for houses outside new york

Because they were talking about family and having kids,

And carolyn just couldn't see raising kids in the city,

And she wanted privacy.

♪

Princess diana was trying to get away from the paparazzi.

John was always trying to get away from the paparazzi,

And he -- you know...

That's why he loved to fly.

♪