Episode 9 of 'Love Story: JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette' chronicles the tragic plane crash that killed JFK Jr., Carolyn Bessette and her sister Lauren Bessette
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NEED TO KNOW
- John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette and Lauren Bessette died on July 16, 1999
- A plane — which John was piloting — crashed into the Atlantic Ocean
- There was a widespread theory that Carolyn’s pedicure made her late to the flight, and as a result, led John to have to fly later than planned after the sun had set
John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette and Lauren Bessette's deaths rocked the nation and led many people to wonder what had led up to the tragic event.
The political heir, the former Calvin Klein associate and her sister Lauren all perished on July 16, 1999, when a plane that John was flying crashed into the Atlantic Ocean shortly before 10 p.m. A report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) later determined that the crash was caused by pilot error, with JFK Jr. likely experiencing "spatial disorientation" as a result of the dark night and thick fog off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.
FX's Love Story: JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette chronicles the couple's real-life romance, opening its first episode with a foreshadowing scene that calls out to their tragic end in the finale.
In episode 1, "Pilot," Carolyn (Sarah Pidgeon) gets a manicure prior to meeting John (Paul Anthony Kelly) and Lauren (Sydney Lemmon) to board the plane. When Carolyn arrives, John is frustrated with Carolyn for being late and expresses they were supposed to leave "an hour ago." (The couple were headed to John's cousin Rory Kennedy's wedding and planned to drop Lauren off on Martha's Vineyard on the way.)
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Following the fatal crash in episode 9, "Search and Recovery," the Bessette sisters' mom, Ann Freeman, and John's sister, Caroline Kennedy (Grace Gummer), have a heart-wrenching conversation about their losses.
Freeman also expresses anger at the media's reaction to the tragedy, saying that there are reports that the plane crashed "because Carolyn was getting her nails done" and "delayed their take off," rather than because Caroline's brother was not "equipped to fly at night" and took off anyway.
In 2003, Vanity Fair published an excerpt from Ed Klein's book, The Kennedy Curse: Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years, that said Carolyn was "delayed" arriving to the plane. Manhattan hair colorist Colin Lively told Klein that he sat next to Carolyn at the salon that day and spoke to the outlet about the series of events prior to her leaving for the airport.
"Her cell phone kept ringing, and she kept answering it," he recalled. "'What?' she said impatiently into the phone. 'I told you—I'm getting a pedicure.' "
Lively told Klein that Carolyn made the technician redo her nails three times, and when the phone rang again, she allegedly said to the person on the other line, "The more times you call me, the longer it's going to take!"
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Tabloids began putting out an alleged timeline of the day in which Carolyn's lingering at the salon made her late to the airport, per Elizabeth Beller's 2024 book Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy.
However, Lively later clarified the day to PEOPLE in 2003, saying that Carolyn left the salon no later than 5 p.m., but felt that Klein made it seem as though "her pedicure held up the plane, and that's why it crashed."
Lively added, "But if the plane took off after 8, Carolyn was somewhere else, doing something else, for a good three hours."
He also clarified that Carolyn asked the technician to only redo one of her big toes, "not the whole medicure."
"She wasn't rude, just extremely focused," Lively said.
There are mixed reports as to when the three of them were initially supposed to leave for the airport.
According to William D. Cohan's 2019 book, Four Friends: Promising Lives Cut Short, JFK Jr. had called an employee from the Essex County Airport and told them that he planned to arrive to the airport between 5:30 and 6 p.m. In Beller's book, though, she writes that they all thought they'd arrive by 7:15 p.m. and takeoff at 7:30 p.m., with plenty of time to land before it got dark at 8:40 p.m.
Regardless, John, Carolyn and Lauren were all delayed as they were stuck in traffic on the way to the airport, per Beller.
As a result of the traffic, they didn't make it to the airport until after 8 p.m., according to Cohan.
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