Real story behind JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette ‘Love Story’ show: ‘Passion for danger’

An original “it” couple. 

The life and death of John F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, are dramatized in the new FX series, “Love Story.” Their relationship was famously volatile, with rumors of infidelity and impending divorce before their lives were cut short in a 1999 plane crash. JFK Jr.’s friend and biographer is now weighing in.

“I spoke to the doctor that removed John’s cast earlier that day, when he flew,” Steven Gillon told Page Six, referring to how Kennedy had broken his ankle in a paragliding accident about six weeks before his death. 

Gillon, who wrote the book “America’s Reluctant Prince: The Life of John F. Kennedy Jr,” said the doctor told him that he put John and Carolyn in a room together. “And when he walked in on them, they were having sex on the table,” he claimed. “They were being incredibly affectionate and touchy. And that was the day [they] died.”

Gillon met Kennedy around 1981, he recalled, when President Kennedy’s son was attending Brown University. Gillon was his TA in a modern American political history class. 

“One of the things I like about John is that he was very careful not to be an intimidating presence in the classroom,” Gillon said. “His father came up a number of times [in class]. If he ever mentioned his father, he referred to him as ‘President Kennedy.’ Never like, ‘My dad.’”

The author remembered Kennedy as being “reasonably bright” with “moments of excellence,” but he also had a “short attention span.”

President John F. Kennedy’s son died at 38 in a 1999 plane crash, along with his wife Carolyn, who was 33, and her sister Lauren, who was 34. Kennedy was piloting the plane. 

Onscreen in the show, they’re played by Paul Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon. Premiering Thurs. Feb. 12 (9 p.m.) on FX and Hulu, “Love Story” is produced by Ryan Murphy, as an offshoot of his “American Crime Story” franchise (which included the Emmy-winning 2016 series “The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story”). 

After working as an assistant district attorney, John was publishing the magazine “George” at the time of his death. Carolyn was a former fashion publicist who worked for Calvin Klein. She notoriously struggled with the media scrutiny that came with marrying Kennedy, and rumors flew about affairs. They were photographed getting into a fight in Washington Square Park in 1996.

John “had a lot of things on his plate,” Gillon told Page Six. “The magazine was failing. His best friend and his cousin, Anthony Radziwiłł, was dying [of cancer]. And his marriage was on the rocks.”

Gillon cautioned anyone against making predictions about their volatile relationship, however.

“Whether they would have found a way out of it and stayed together or whether they would have divorced, I just don’t know,” he said.

While he was writing his book and interviewing John’s other friends, Gillon spoke to a source close to the couple who told him, “‘If you interview someone and they tell you they know how their relationship was going to turn out, they’re lying.’” 

Carolyn’s former flame, model Michael Bergin, alleged that he had an affair with her in his 2004 book, “The Other Man: John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette, and Me.”

“I doubt that John was involved with anyone else or having an affair. He used to say that he did not want to treat his wife the way his dad treated his mom,” said Gillon. 

President Kennedy famously stepped out on his marriage to Jackie Kennedy – allegedly with Marilyn Monroe, among others. 

“He was very much aware of his father’s infidelity, and he was not going to make that same mistake for the damage that it did to his mom,” said Gillon, who is also a History professor at the University of Oklahoma. 

“So I think that John, even more than most men, was determined to try to make the marriage work and not to have affairs.”

As far as the allegation that Carolyn had an affair with Bergin, Gillon said that after the model’s book came out, “I talked to people who are close to John….they pulled out calendars and they were trying to compare notes to see where Carolyn was on the dates where [Bergin] said they were together.”

He noted that the dates lined up, “in terms of being in Los Angeles at this point, or New York at that point. I tend to believe that story is true.”

But, he added, “I have no independent verification of it.” 

The historian and author said he doesn’t believe in the idea of a “Kennedy curse,” that claimed the lives of so many – including JFK. Jr, his father, JFK, and his uncle RFK. Rather, he said that they like “risk” and putting themselves in “dangerous” situations. 

“I’ve driven in cars with him. He did not abide by traditional traffic laws. I think John had a passion for danger, and I think that’s what led him to go on a plane ride without having an instructor….He should not have been flying that night.”