On February 12th, Disney+ premiered its highly anticipated new series, Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette. Produced by Ryan Murphy, this original creation tells the tragic love story of John F. Kennedy Jr. – the son of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis – and Carolyn Bessette, formerly a public relations officer at Calvin Klein. The series has sparked great interest as it revisits the lives of the couple who met a tragic end three years after their marriage in a plane crash in 1999, alongside Lauren, Carolyn’s sister.
A premature loss that moved the whole world. But the public was not the only ones mourning. In private, Ann Freeman, the mother of the two young women on board, faced the most heartbreaking ordeal of her life: the loss of her own flesh and blood. A tragedy from which she would never recover.
Ann Freeman: inconsolable after Carolyn and Lauren Bessette’s loss
On July 16, 1999, Ann Freeman’s life was deeply shattered. In the middle of the night, Carolyn and Lauren Bessette’s mother learned that the plane piloted by her son-in-law, John F. Kennedy Jr., with her two daughters on board, had disappeared from the radars. A terrible news for this woman who never approved of the marriage.
Just like highlighted by Madame Figaro, the plane that took off from New York around 8:30 pm was supposed to make a stop on Martha’s Vineyard Island in Massachusetts. A peaceful evening was planned for the group, who intended to spend family time before attending John’s cousin Rory Kennedy’s wedding in Hyannis Port the next day. Unfortunately, the trio never made it to their destination…
A devastating plane crash that left her broken
The crash was due to bad weather conditions. A real blow for Ann Freeman who feared seeing John fly with her two daughters. According to RoseMarie Terenzio, the assistant to the son of the former US President, “She was panicked. She said something like: ‘I told him never to fly with my two daughters at the same time.’ She was very angry. She was crying. It was chaotic. It was incomprehensible…” she wrote in her book JFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biography, published in 2004.
Despite an intense search effort, Ann Freeman remained convinced that her daughters did not survive. Five days later, the verdict was out: the three passengers were found lifeless 40 meters deep in the Atlantic Ocean, alongside plane fragments. A heartbreak for Richard’s wife, her anchor in this nightmare.
The bitterness of Ann Freeman towards John
After bidding the final farewell on July 22, 1999, by scattering the ashes of Carolyn and Lauren in the ocean following the poignant reading of Henry Scott Holland’s poem “Death is nothing at all,” Ann Freeman could not move forward. In Greenwich, she decided to hold a private ceremony for her daughters, fearing that John’s shadow would overshadow them. “Since August 1999, Ann Freeman filed a petition against John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr.’s estate for ‘wrongful death’ and ‘conscious physical and mental suffering’, which she attributed to John’s negligence in piloting,” confirms Madame Figaro.
For her, John – whom she considers solely responsible for the tragedy – will never be John again, but rather “him.” A severe bitterness she never let go of. In 2001, with only Lisa – Lauren’s twin sister – left to warm her heart, she finally got her rights recognized by obtaining $15 million from her stepson’s estate. A sum that will never heal her wound but will allow her to live in peace. Passing away in 2007 at the age of 67, Ann Freeman fought all her life to honor her daughters’ memory. A battle that she carried until her last breath.
