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Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy
The life and legacy of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, wife of John F. Kennedy Jr., are reexamined in this captivating and effervescent biography that is perfect for fans of My Travels with Mrs. Kennedy, What Remains, and Fairy Tale Interrupted.A quarter of a century after the plane crash that claimed the lives of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn, and sister-in-law Lauren, the magnitude of this tragedy remains fresh. Yet, Carolyn is still an enigmatic figure, a woman whose short life in the spotlight was besieged with misogyny and cruelty. Amidst today’s cultural reckoning about the way our media treats women, Elizabeth Beller explores the real person behind the tabloid headlines and media frenzy. When she began dating America’s prince, Carolyn was increasingly thrust into an overwhelming spotlight filled with relentless paparazzi who reacted to her reserve with a campaign of harassment and vilification. To this day, she is still depicted as a privileged princess—icy, vapid, and drug-addicted. She has even been accused of being responsible for their untimely death, allegedly delaying take-off until she finished her pedicure. But now, she is revealed as never before. A fiercely independent woman devoted to her adopted city and career, Carolyn relied on her impeccable eye and drive to fly up the ranks at Calvin Klein in the glossy, high-stakes fashion world of the 1990s. When Carolyn met her future husband, John was immediately drawn to her strong-willed personality, effortless charm, and high intelligence. Their relationship would change her life and catapult her to dizzying fame, but it was her vibrant life before their marriage and then hidden afterwards, that is truly fascinating. Based on in-depth research and exclusive interviews with friends, family members, teachers, roommates, and colleagues, this comprehensive biography reveals a multi-faceted woman worthy of our attention regardless of her husband and untimely death.
348 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 21, 2024
1,096 people are currently reading
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 552 reviews
May 28, 2024
This is not a great book - nor even really a good book. It leads with a strange tone that you must already hate CBK and this book is serving to clear her name - not that you might want to read a possibly more accurate biography of a famous woman who died tragically. I wish it had had greater nuance on the person she was - which according to this book seems to be relatively perfect. Bumps in the marriage or deeper issues in her life are smoothed over without further depth or exploration. Not a huge amount of depth or insight across the board.
All that being said, I really did love reading it - it's a great summer read and I loved learning about this tragically iconic woman. I sped through it - just ultimately wish there had been more going on.
All that being said, I really did love reading it - it's a great summer read and I loved learning about this tragically iconic woman. I sped through it - just ultimately wish there had been more going on.
July 13, 2024
I don’t know a lot about the Kennedys, collectively, and enjoyed learning more about Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy in Once Upon a Time. Before joining the Kennedy family, Carolyn was described as a fiercely loyal and caring friend, had a creative eye, became a style icon, was often the life of a party, and got along well with children. �
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Carolyn worked for Calvin Klein, rising in the ranks and eventually managing the brand’s fashion shows. Her relationship with John F. Kennedy Jr. was not instant, it had some ups and downs, though she eventually left the brand � As their future together grew more serious, it became clear she wouldn’t be able to do both, largely due to the frequent public spotlight. John and Carolyn even had to plan and host their wedding secretly. �
�
Over time, Carolyn became more withdrawn publicly due to invasive paparazzi. What the Kennedys had to deal with in the 1990s was intense, and this was of course, before social media. You can’t help but wonder what Carolyn and John’s futures would look like, had their lives not ended so early and tragically. �
�
Reading this book also made me want to revisit What Remains, by Carole Radziwill � It’s an excellent book and one of my favorite memoirs. Carolyn and Carole became friends as John’s cousin was Anthony Radziwill, Carole’s husband. �
�
Once Upon a Time is an informative read, painting a more thorough picture of Carolyn, beyond wife of JFK Jr., and I enjoyed it.
�
Carolyn worked for Calvin Klein, rising in the ranks and eventually managing the brand’s fashion shows. Her relationship with John F. Kennedy Jr. was not instant, it had some ups and downs, though she eventually left the brand � As their future together grew more serious, it became clear she wouldn’t be able to do both, largely due to the frequent public spotlight. John and Carolyn even had to plan and host their wedding secretly. �
�
Over time, Carolyn became more withdrawn publicly due to invasive paparazzi. What the Kennedys had to deal with in the 1990s was intense, and this was of course, before social media. You can’t help but wonder what Carolyn and John’s futures would look like, had their lives not ended so early and tragically. �
�
Reading this book also made me want to revisit What Remains, by Carole Radziwill � It’s an excellent book and one of my favorite memoirs. Carolyn and Carole became friends as John’s cousin was Anthony Radziwill, Carole’s husband. �
�
Once Upon a Time is an informative read, painting a more thorough picture of Carolyn, beyond wife of JFK Jr., and I enjoyed it.
March 7, 2024
A compelling bio that sheds new feminist light on Carolyn, wife of JFK Jr. She was brilliant, beautiful, a fabulous wit, ultra successful in the fashion world, with so much emotional intelligence that everyone wanted to be her friend.
But when she came into John-John's realm and married him in that gorgeous white slip dress designed by friend Narciso Rodriguez, her life changed radically. She could go nowhere without the paparazzi on her heel, which left her stunned and afraid to go out of the house. Reminiscent of the hunting of Princess Diana.
Carolyn had had a bad feeling about her husband's plan to fly her and her sister in his small plane to a family wedding. Had she stuck to her decision not to go, she might still be alive today. Instead, all three died in that horrendous crash into the Atlantic in 1999.
I am still haunted by this mezmerizing, meticulously researched, beautifully written, and ultimately tragic story, and left pondering, "Did they really have to die so young?" Brava, Elizabeth Beller!
Thanks to the author, Gallery Books, and Edelweiss by Above the Treeline for the ARC. Opinions are mine.
#onceuponatime
#captivatinglifeofcarolynbessettekennedy
#elizabethbeller
#GalleryBooks #carolynbessettekennedybio
#wifeofjfkjr #kennedyfamily #20thcenturybio #feministbio #bookstagramcommunity
But when she came into John-John's realm and married him in that gorgeous white slip dress designed by friend Narciso Rodriguez, her life changed radically. She could go nowhere without the paparazzi on her heel, which left her stunned and afraid to go out of the house. Reminiscent of the hunting of Princess Diana.
Carolyn had had a bad feeling about her husband's plan to fly her and her sister in his small plane to a family wedding. Had she stuck to her decision not to go, she might still be alive today. Instead, all three died in that horrendous crash into the Atlantic in 1999.
I am still haunted by this mezmerizing, meticulously researched, beautifully written, and ultimately tragic story, and left pondering, "Did they really have to die so young?" Brava, Elizabeth Beller!
Thanks to the author, Gallery Books, and Edelweiss by Above the Treeline for the ARC. Opinions are mine.
#onceuponatime
#captivatinglifeofcarolynbessettekennedy
#elizabethbeller
#GalleryBooks #carolynbessettekennedybio
#wifeofjfkjr #kennedyfamily #20thcenturybio #feministbio #bookstagramcommunity
June 3, 2024
I read this book to learn a bit about Carolyn Bissette. I honestly feel as if one of Carolyn's best friends wrote this and is trying to defend her and make you like her (I didn't 'Not' like her before).
The writing is awkward, and the "Carolyn is so awesome" stories lirerally heap praise for everyday things like, "Carolyn was so incredibly thoughtful to turn on the heat." These constant anecdotes are trite and tiresome.
The writer tries so hard but does not succeed in endearing you to Carolyn or JFK Jr., and certainly not their relationship. She actually succeeds in painting them as angry and petulant.
I'm really confused by all the 5 star ratings, but maybe I'm missing something.
The writing is awkward, and the "Carolyn is so awesome" stories lirerally heap praise for everyday things like, "Carolyn was so incredibly thoughtful to turn on the heat." These constant anecdotes are trite and tiresome.
The writer tries so hard but does not succeed in endearing you to Carolyn or JFK Jr., and certainly not their relationship. She actually succeeds in painting them as angry and petulant.
I'm really confused by all the 5 star ratings, but maybe I'm missing something.
July 5, 2024
I was a little kid when Carolyn Bessette Kennedy died with her big sister Lauren and her husband John F Kennedy Jr. I do remember that my usual Saturday morning programing wasn't on, instead it was wall to wall coverage of the search for the plane. I didn't know who these people were and remember my mom turning the channel and saying that they were dead. I'm sure it was a big deal to people my parents age and today I would be glued to my screen if something like that happened.
As you all know I'm very interested in the Kennedys but I've never been interested in Jr or Caroline.. no offense but they seemed rather bland. I like the messy Kennedys. But I have read some books about that generation and Carolyn Bessette was often an afterthought. She was always described as a cold, coke addicted gold digger. I had no opinion of her at all. But a couple years ago I started seeing lots of style content about Carolyn. She was getting compared to Meghan Markle and Sophia Richie. She was a very stylish woman and she did seem sad in all her photos.
Once Upon A Time is the first of probably many biographies of Carolyn to come out just as we near the 25th anniversary of her death. It's wild that I'm currently older than she was when she died. The author of his this book makes it clear that she wrote this book to rehabilitate Carolyn's image. In her lifetime she was public enemy #1, because she married "America's Prince" and for some reason the public decided she wasn't good enough for him. According to this book that only intensified after her death. A bunch of MEN wrote books and documentaries that thrashed Carolyn as a person.
What did Carolyn do wrong?
She was depressed. People seemed to think that she didn't have the right to be depressed because she was married to JFK Jr. The 1990s was a long time ago so it's obvious that people didn't have a proper understanding of mental health. Carolyn was an extremely private person and she was terrorized by the press. And to make matters worse her husband was not helpful. The JFK Jr depicted in this book was a giant kid who seemed to struggle with other people's emotions. He left his wife dangling and basically told her to just ignore the press. Carolyn and Jr seemed to have been really in love but I feel like her mother was right in advise her not to marry him. Her mother even made it known the night before the wedding that this marriage was a mistake. Had she listened to her mother she and her sister Lauren would be alive.
Overall this book made me really like Carolyn. She seemed like a cool ass person. She was kind and caring to the people she loved. She didn't put up with Jr's shit. After reading this book I want to read the only 2 books that were nice about her. What Remains by Carol Radziwell( of New York Housewives fame) and Fairy Tale Interrupted by Rosemarie Terenzio.
There is another book on Kennedy adjacent women coming out later this summer and I plan on reading that too.
I'm happy that finally Carolyn is getting her story told because she led a very interesting life before she ever met Jr. Women often get blamed for everything that happens in a marriage but marriage takes 2 and if Carolyn was such a terrible person than why did Jr chase for years before marrying her and fight to save his marriage when it hit some rough spots.
Moral of the story...Always listen to your mother!
As you all know I'm very interested in the Kennedys but I've never been interested in Jr or Caroline.. no offense but they seemed rather bland. I like the messy Kennedys. But I have read some books about that generation and Carolyn Bessette was often an afterthought. She was always described as a cold, coke addicted gold digger. I had no opinion of her at all. But a couple years ago I started seeing lots of style content about Carolyn. She was getting compared to Meghan Markle and Sophia Richie. She was a very stylish woman and she did seem sad in all her photos.
Once Upon A Time is the first of probably many biographies of Carolyn to come out just as we near the 25th anniversary of her death. It's wild that I'm currently older than she was when she died. The author of his this book makes it clear that she wrote this book to rehabilitate Carolyn's image. In her lifetime she was public enemy #1, because she married "America's Prince" and for some reason the public decided she wasn't good enough for him. According to this book that only intensified after her death. A bunch of MEN wrote books and documentaries that thrashed Carolyn as a person.
What did Carolyn do wrong?
She was depressed. People seemed to think that she didn't have the right to be depressed because she was married to JFK Jr. The 1990s was a long time ago so it's obvious that people didn't have a proper understanding of mental health. Carolyn was an extremely private person and she was terrorized by the press. And to make matters worse her husband was not helpful. The JFK Jr depicted in this book was a giant kid who seemed to struggle with other people's emotions. He left his wife dangling and basically told her to just ignore the press. Carolyn and Jr seemed to have been really in love but I feel like her mother was right in advise her not to marry him. Her mother even made it known the night before the wedding that this marriage was a mistake. Had she listened to her mother she and her sister Lauren would be alive.
Overall this book made me really like Carolyn. She seemed like a cool ass person. She was kind and caring to the people she loved. She didn't put up with Jr's shit. After reading this book I want to read the only 2 books that were nice about her. What Remains by Carol Radziwell( of New York Housewives fame) and Fairy Tale Interrupted by Rosemarie Terenzio.
There is another book on Kennedy adjacent women coming out later this summer and I plan on reading that too.
I'm happy that finally Carolyn is getting her story told because she led a very interesting life before she ever met Jr. Women often get blamed for everything that happens in a marriage but marriage takes 2 and if Carolyn was such a terrible person than why did Jr chase for years before marrying her and fight to save his marriage when it hit some rough spots.
Moral of the story...Always listen to your mother!
July 12, 2024
This is my second book on the Kennedy women this month…weird. So, this is a nice, nuanced take on a woman people know of but little really about. The author is clearly trying to make the case that Bessette-Kennedy never got a fair shake, and I think that’s probably largely true…and very typical of women who marry into the Kennedy family.
According to those closest to Carolyn she was a good, thoughtful, loving person. And she wasn’t afraid to call John out on his shit which is probably both why he lived her and why she frustrated him.
I think people forget how very young she was when they first got together, twenty six, maybe? And she had already worked her way into a fairly prestigious position at Calvin Klein. Now, to be fair, part of that is down to her looks…a store representative chased her down in the street to hire her because she fit the look, but, still, she ultimately had a fair amount of responsibility that I have to assume she wouldn’t have been given were she not good at what she did. And did I mention she wasn’t even thirty?
And then, JFK, Jr. Don’t misunderstand, once the relationship was a possibility she wanted it, but she also made him work hard for her hand; she was no pushover. However, she had often said she wanted to live a big life, but it seemed that perhaps she didn’t realize that with a big life there’s a price to be paid? Perhaps she would have grown into the role. Or maybe the marriage wouldn’t have survived. Either way, this is an interesting story of what happens when you get what you think you want. Recommended if you are interested, but note that the author goes easy on both CBK and JFK, Jr., which was fine for me, but if it’s dirt you want that’s not what this is.
According to those closest to Carolyn she was a good, thoughtful, loving person. And she wasn’t afraid to call John out on his shit which is probably both why he lived her and why she frustrated him.
I think people forget how very young she was when they first got together, twenty six, maybe? And she had already worked her way into a fairly prestigious position at Calvin Klein. Now, to be fair, part of that is down to her looks…a store representative chased her down in the street to hire her because she fit the look, but, still, she ultimately had a fair amount of responsibility that I have to assume she wouldn’t have been given were she not good at what she did. And did I mention she wasn’t even thirty?
And then, JFK, Jr. Don’t misunderstand, once the relationship was a possibility she wanted it, but she also made him work hard for her hand; she was no pushover. However, she had often said she wanted to live a big life, but it seemed that perhaps she didn’t realize that with a big life there’s a price to be paid? Perhaps she would have grown into the role. Or maybe the marriage wouldn’t have survived. Either way, this is an interesting story of what happens when you get what you think you want. Recommended if you are interested, but note that the author goes easy on both CBK and JFK, Jr., which was fine for me, but if it’s dirt you want that’s not what this is.
September 11, 2024
Two wrongs don’t make a right. It’s rather a trite saying these days; nonetheless, I thought of it often while reading this book.
Half by accident, I’ve read two books lately about Kennedy family-affiliated women and the misfortunes and woes of being such. While I thought both books were important and worthwhile in terms of the information covered, I had major issues with both authors� processes of so doing.
As far as this book goes, it’s the “two wrongs…� problem. As grossly and grotesquely as Carolyn Bessette Kennedy was maligned during her life without regard for the truth, the problem with this book is that although it’s meant to redeem her, it errs way, way too far in the other direction. To read this book is to read a litany of how perfect and exceptional Carolyn was in every regard, flawless and beyond compare, her toes needed never to touch the ground as she walked on a cloud of angel butterflies.
Carolyn very well may have been an extremely cool, smart, talented, kind, fun person, obviously gorgeous and stylish too, who had vast potential that she was never able to realize due to her tragic and untimely death in a plane crash (piloted by her risk-taking, thrill-seeking, inadequately prepared for night flying spouse) and her unfortunate decision to wed a Kennedy that left her depressed and paralyzed under a mercilessly ruthless and searing media and public lens.
However, nobody is that perfect, nor need they be to be respected, valued, and appreciated. (Women, especially, deserve no further reminders of our required perfection, please and thank you.) The sad consequence of the author’s decision to overcompensate and go completely overboard in praising and idealizing Carolyn, and for that matter, her spouse - like fully walk the plank, full fathom five my father lies, Davy Jones� locker, 20,000 leagues under the sea overboard - is that the book seems unreliable and literally incredible, reads distractingly repetitive and in need of an editor, and has the unfortunate effect of making the reader feel somewhat annoyed with Carolyn as a character even though this is obviously no fault of Carolyn’s and is just the result of a different form of objectification and victimization that she has suffered here.
(Ironically, reading this book does give one the impression that Carolyn herself actually would not have approved of such a sugar-coated portrayal!)
This book is also chock-full of euphemism, with many people’s clear personal and behavioral shortcomings described as merely adorable quirks; a selective use of positive references and minimization/rationalization of any negative references included; and lots of infantilizing/apologizing for/sanitizing around the (by then middle-aged) JFK Jr. himself: as just one example, sure, he may have had a fling in a hotel with an ex after a fight with his wife, but what was else he supposed to do when he had broken his ankle and had no other physical or athletic outlet for his big feelings?!?
I also hope that author contributes some royalties to Carole Radziwill, whose memoir What Remains seems like a superior book and from which this author quotes/lifts immensely - along with many (mostly) other secondary sources. (Radziwill is one of few people truly qualified to write about the rather private and reclusive subject and convey some sense of what she was actually like, since she and her spouse/Kennedy cousin Anthony, who sadly died of cancer not long after the plane crash, were very close to Carolyn and JFK Jr., and indeed were the first approached and notified when the couple went mysteriously missing during their ill-fated and ill-advised flight.)
While this review is harsh, you’ll see I gave the book a perfectly respectable three stars. This is because I do believe Carolyn was very cruelly, unfairly treated in her life as a sort of weird punishment for daring to marry an inexplicably worshipped Kennedy, and she thus deserves some sort of feminist reexamination and redemption. However, I simply regret the way this redemptive portrait was executed, as well-deserved a project as it was.
Half by accident, I’ve read two books lately about Kennedy family-affiliated women and the misfortunes and woes of being such. While I thought both books were important and worthwhile in terms of the information covered, I had major issues with both authors� processes of so doing.
As far as this book goes, it’s the “two wrongs…� problem. As grossly and grotesquely as Carolyn Bessette Kennedy was maligned during her life without regard for the truth, the problem with this book is that although it’s meant to redeem her, it errs way, way too far in the other direction. To read this book is to read a litany of how perfect and exceptional Carolyn was in every regard, flawless and beyond compare, her toes needed never to touch the ground as she walked on a cloud of angel butterflies.
Carolyn very well may have been an extremely cool, smart, talented, kind, fun person, obviously gorgeous and stylish too, who had vast potential that she was never able to realize due to her tragic and untimely death in a plane crash (piloted by her risk-taking, thrill-seeking, inadequately prepared for night flying spouse) and her unfortunate decision to wed a Kennedy that left her depressed and paralyzed under a mercilessly ruthless and searing media and public lens.
However, nobody is that perfect, nor need they be to be respected, valued, and appreciated. (Women, especially, deserve no further reminders of our required perfection, please and thank you.) The sad consequence of the author’s decision to overcompensate and go completely overboard in praising and idealizing Carolyn, and for that matter, her spouse - like fully walk the plank, full fathom five my father lies, Davy Jones� locker, 20,000 leagues under the sea overboard - is that the book seems unreliable and literally incredible, reads distractingly repetitive and in need of an editor, and has the unfortunate effect of making the reader feel somewhat annoyed with Carolyn as a character even though this is obviously no fault of Carolyn’s and is just the result of a different form of objectification and victimization that she has suffered here.
(Ironically, reading this book does give one the impression that Carolyn herself actually would not have approved of such a sugar-coated portrayal!)
This book is also chock-full of euphemism, with many people’s clear personal and behavioral shortcomings described as merely adorable quirks; a selective use of positive references and minimization/rationalization of any negative references included; and lots of infantilizing/apologizing for/sanitizing around the (by then middle-aged) JFK Jr. himself: as just one example, sure, he may have had a fling in a hotel with an ex after a fight with his wife, but what was else he supposed to do when he had broken his ankle and had no other physical or athletic outlet for his big feelings?!?
I also hope that author contributes some royalties to Carole Radziwill, whose memoir What Remains seems like a superior book and from which this author quotes/lifts immensely - along with many (mostly) other secondary sources. (Radziwill is one of few people truly qualified to write about the rather private and reclusive subject and convey some sense of what she was actually like, since she and her spouse/Kennedy cousin Anthony, who sadly died of cancer not long after the plane crash, were very close to Carolyn and JFK Jr., and indeed were the first approached and notified when the couple went mysteriously missing during their ill-fated and ill-advised flight.)
While this review is harsh, you’ll see I gave the book a perfectly respectable three stars. This is because I do believe Carolyn was very cruelly, unfairly treated in her life as a sort of weird punishment for daring to marry an inexplicably worshipped Kennedy, and she thus deserves some sort of feminist reexamination and redemption. However, I simply regret the way this redemptive portrait was executed, as well-deserved a project as it was.
June 1, 2024
Okay. I get it. The author wants to redeem Carolyn Bessette's reputation. But the book is so fawning and repetitive, that it's almost impossible to listen to. Plus, I don't need to know the address of the salon she visited or the brand of makeup she used. Those details felt like product placements. It annoyed me how many of the names were mispronounced and how many times do we need to hear that she loved children, was kind and a wonderful friend, that she had grown up in a different mileu and found it difficult to deal with the spotlight? I got each of those points the first time. Yes, she was beautiful, but there was no need to say it hundreds of times.
There was no depth, no insights. I'd hoped to learn more about Ms. Bessette-Kennedy but I couldn't bear to finish the book (note: I listened to 3/4 of the book so I felt like I gave it a chance). Every potential flaw or outburst is explained away. In the author's opinion, she could do no wrong. She must have been a more complex character than she appears here. In comparison, I listened to Demi Moore's autobiography recently and found that despite her flaws, she was very likable. Her story and the challenge of her life were compelling. I wish this book had been as good.
There was no depth, no insights. I'd hoped to learn more about Ms. Bessette-Kennedy but I couldn't bear to finish the book (note: I listened to 3/4 of the book so I felt like I gave it a chance). Every potential flaw or outburst is explained away. In the author's opinion, she could do no wrong. She must have been a more complex character than she appears here. In comparison, I listened to Demi Moore's autobiography recently and found that despite her flaws, she was very likable. Her story and the challenge of her life were compelling. I wish this book had been as good.
October 7, 2024
3.5⭐️ Until pretty recently, I didn’t know too much about Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s life, aside from her relationship and her status as an It Girl/Style Icon. OUAT offered a really nice look at the woman before and after she met JFK Jr. and I think the author did a great job of showing readers that there was a lot more to her than what the tabloids reported.
I think this was an interesting book to read in 2024. When she rose to fame, Carolyn was, not surprisingly, treated terribly by the media. There was a lot of negative press about her strong-willed and “icy� personality and I think today we are a little better at recognizing that the media only shows us a small part of a person’s story. As the author eloquently put it, “Carolyn was a multi-faceted woman worthy of our attention regardless of her husband and untimely death.�
As someone who wanted to learn more about Carolyn I found this an interesting book, but it’s far from the greatest thing I’ve ever read. At times it felt a bit like a high schoolers� report on a celebrity with a lot of unnecessary tidbits (“Carolyn was beautiful�, “I remember her always being very nice�) from random people that may have met the woman once. I learned a lot, but there were a few instances where I think the author was a little heavy handed with her attempts to paint Carolyn in an overly positive light.
I think this was an interesting book to read in 2024. When she rose to fame, Carolyn was, not surprisingly, treated terribly by the media. There was a lot of negative press about her strong-willed and “icy� personality and I think today we are a little better at recognizing that the media only shows us a small part of a person’s story. As the author eloquently put it, “Carolyn was a multi-faceted woman worthy of our attention regardless of her husband and untimely death.�
As someone who wanted to learn more about Carolyn I found this an interesting book, but it’s far from the greatest thing I’ve ever read. At times it felt a bit like a high schoolers� report on a celebrity with a lot of unnecessary tidbits (“Carolyn was beautiful�, “I remember her always being very nice�) from random people that may have met the woman once. I learned a lot, but there were a few instances where I think the author was a little heavy handed with her attempts to paint Carolyn in an overly positive light.
June 25, 2024
3.5*. Reading this book ended up being a rather intense and personal experience so my review will reflect that and will probably be long, since I want to write down some thoughts I don't want to forget. And even though this is non-fiction, if you prefer to go into this one blind, then be warned, there will be "spoilers" ahead. My notes on CBK's perfume are at the end.
Firstly, it's a good book, but it's not a great book, with the audiobook being preferable to text. It has a lot of information, and the author pulled together bits and pieces from many sources, and compiled them into a timeline. With some exceptions noted below, she seemed to stay *mostly* objective in her presentation of these facts, and I ended up being surprised by how much this book drew me in and sent me down various informational rabbit holes. There really isn't much out there about Carolyn that isn't just a regurgitation of the same sparse facts and the misinformation in the bitter and twisted press coverage of her.
I knew very little about Carolyn (CBK) or JFK Jr going in - I was a teenager when they died, and had only just moved to an English speaking country, so the drama surrounding their lives passed me by, but in recent years references to CBK began popping up here and there. I listened to a podcast episode about them a couple of years ago, which was based on contemporary media coverage and which portrayed her as an unhinged cokehead, manipulative, unstable. This didn't really ring true to me, given her pre-JFK background and success at Calvin Klein.
The other popular view of CBK was that of a grasping, mercenary, manipulative gold-digger who snared the poor little helpless rich boy JFK Jr. Which also didn't seem to entirely fit and after reading the book, I am confident about dismissing the latter view, and largely dismissing the former. Of the two of them, CBK was the one consistently making more level-headed, forward-looking and rational decisions, as well as dodging his phone calls for a year after he first blew up at her and stormed off even going as far as changing her number, and after they eventually got back together, she was the one who put the brakes on their engagement, not accepting his proposal for a year, and expressing her reservations about marrying him to her friends. She was definitely not chomping at the bit to marry a Kennedy. And her mother didn't want her to either - she didn't like him.
THE FLAWS
So, the book. It suffers from a few flaws. One, given the widespread negative media coverage of CBK during her life and after, the author went in with guns blazing, prepared to singlehandedly defend CBK's reputation, and she went overboard, at times portraying Carolyn as a Mary Sue of sorts, almost a saint, loved and admired by all, friend to many, preternaturally beautiful, extremely kind, etc. Look, if you can get past the first third of the book, it gets better, as the author gets more into the facts and events of their lives. But the first third - you've got to be prepared for your eyes to roll a lot.
Two, this reads like a lit review - a lot of facts gathered, not all important or relevant, but lacking in analysis to connect the dots in bad need of connecting, and in dire need of some commentary to tie the facts together. E.g. she tells us how the media/tabloids lied or misrepresented every occurrence, and she makes more of it than I think even Carolyn did, who cared about (hated!) being harassed, stalked and abused by the paparazzi IRL, which is substantiated by many people, but not her caring about what nonsense they published, so was it really necessary to list *all* that? It got tiresome. Every now and again, there would be conflicting accounts from different people, and the author just dumps both and moves on. I feel like this book would've benefited from the author being able to walk away from the draft for 6 months to re-gain some much needed mental distance before applying more structure to shape a narrative.
Three, possibly related to two, there are a lot of people, the author seemingly included, who are/were really invested in the idea of the CBK & JFK Jr "fairy tale". Soul mates, deeply in love, passionately in love, etc, etc. But if you coldly look at the facts the author herself has presented, a somewhat different picture emerges. She seems to be particularly reluctant to criticize JFK Jr - perhaps for sound, legal reasons - but if you have one working eye to look between the lines with, you'll see that the portrait of him that emerges is not pretty. But, I am not a real American... as the author herself pointed out, Americans grew up forever seeing JFK Jr as "the boy who cried at his father's funeral", which usually worked for him (his fuck ups were largely treated as a good natured joke by the public) and sometimes against him (he was treated as a child, people didn't take him seriously in his own right).
JFK JR
Let's take the plane crash itself. I was amazed to find out that *Carolyn* was blamed for it, with tabloids reporting that she took too long at a nail salon, resulting in a late departure, which wasn't even true, but even if it was... there was only one person to blame for that crash, and that's the person who was piloting the plane, her husband, JFK Jr. The person who, knowingly, made a navigational choice he was not qualified to make. He was only qualified to fly in daylight, relying on visual cues, whereas nighttime flying requires relying on instruments and you have to qualify for that separately with many more flying hours and experience than what he had. I know because this was one of the first things I was told when taking flying lessons. So, knowing that he had two passengers on board, this privileged selfish... man... made the choice equivalent to highway driving at night with headlights off. Little of this is in the book, actually, the author skips the ins and outs of the crash and the subsequent investigation entirely.
I went from knowing almost nothing about the man and having zero opinions to having a very negative view of him, in the context of his relationship with and marriage to CBK but also more generally. He was emotionally immature, struggled to regulate his own emotions and navigate various relationships in his life resulting in professional as well as personal problems, he was a coward when it came to other people's opinion of him, he was impulsive, he was dismissive of Carolyn's needs, he failed to protect her by prioritizing his own ambitions, he needed mothering... The impression I got that he wanted to possess Carolyn and place her into his life without changing anything to acknowledge or accommodate her own preferences. I believe that other people in her life felt similarly, based on some interviews in another CBK book I'm reading, by Sunita Kamir Nair.
Who, I ask you, proposes to someone who dislikes fishing, on a fishing trip, with a fishing metaphor? JFK Jr, that's who. And with a ring modeled on his mother's that wasn't even Carolyn's style and which she rarely wore afterwards. The Cartier watch he gave her, if not the exact one Jackie owned, was the same model. Mommy issues, anybody?
Pretty much all of Carolyn's depression, emotional upheavals and her role in marriage problems the author blames on the hounding by the press. They were relentless. But as someone she quoted said, CBK and JFK Jr should have had security and they should have moved away from where they lived. Why didn't they? Why didn't he protect her? The answers are pretty easy to extract, and again, he doesn't come off looking rosy.
There was also compelling evidence of him having cheated on Carolyn with his ex shortly before they died and the author proceeds to make excuses for him, what?! A broken ankle. Yep. That's the excuse. This... man... broke his ankle in a paraglider crash (foreshadowing?! a sign from the universe?! not for the willfully blind!) earlier and was in a cast for 6 weeks so couldn't partake in his usual sports, and apparently Carolyn no longer wanted to have sex with him, so... naturally, to blow off steam, he called his ex. At midnight. To the hotel he was staying at. Uh huh. Poor JohnJohn, what a difficult moral dilemma for him, and how great that the author is so understanding! Puh-lease.
Look, the man is dead (his own fault!) and she is dead (he killed her and her sister through reckless negligence!), so I'm going to restrain myself from trashing him further (or at least I will try!), but suffice to say that these were two people who were strongly attracted to each other, physically, and based on each other's emotional trauma, but who were deeply unsuited. He needed mothering and she had a strong need to mother, but that kind of dynamic does not for a successful marriage make. I went into this book wondering what their marriage was like and if they would have stayed together had they lived, and now I have a strong opinion on that matter, though the author is much more ambivalent on that count and even seems to promote the view that their love would've conquered all in the end. As if that's ever enough for a marriage to work.
PARALLELS
The author repeatedly draws parallels between Princess Diana and CBK, especially in the way they were treated by the press, but the parallels that kept coming to my mind were those with Wallis Simpson & Prince Edward, and Meghan Markle & Prince Harry.
In both instances, the socially successful but "ordinary" women were swept off their feet by the charm, fun and glamor of the social position of the "prince" without fully understanding the price they would have to pay, and how little those princes were capable of protecting them or even how little they were used to thinking beyond their own wishes. I don't have a particularly high opinion of Prince Harry, but props to him, he has actually done the most to protect his wife from the negative consequences his social position had on her - he chose to pay the price himself. In all three instances, I can't help thinking that the women were worse off for having married their princes who proceeded to destroy their lives forever in one way or another.
Exception: Princess Mary of Denmark, maybe. Perhaps because Denmark doesn't have the same celebrity-obsessed culture.
NOTES ON FRAGRANCE
As a dedicated fraghead, I was fascinated to learn from this book that CBK's preferred perfume was the Abdul Kareem Egyptian musk oil, which she got for $17 on the streets of NYC. I immediately jumped on ebay and got myself some, paying $27... inflation! When I smelled it, it immediately brought back memories of the extremely popular Narciso Rodriguez's For Her perfume, which I used to own. It's a very specific, soft type of musk smell, not at all sharp or metallic, as many are. Incidentally, NR was a very close friend of CBK from when they both worked at Calvin Klein and lived in the same building, and she had even asked NR to design her wedding dress.
Coincidence?! I started digging. Carolyn died in 1999, NR released his first perfume, For Her, in 2003, four years later, which is what it would probably take to bring a perfume idea to fruition.
Like the wedding dress he designed for Carolyn, the perfume broke the conventions of the time and reshaped the trends of the future. Before Carolyn's wedding picture showing her in a slinky, silky, minimalistic white slip dress, the conventional wedding dress was something resembling the monstrosity that Princess Diana had to wear (the ugliest wedding dress in history and you can't convince me otherwise). Carolyn broke all the rules in her Narciso dress. Similarly, in 2003, Narciso broke away from the 70s/80s powerhouse perfumes a la Dior Poison and YSL Opium, and from the aquatic freshies of the 90s a la CK One and Issey Miyake L'eau d'Issey, to bring out something completely different - a soft, feminine musk with a floral overlay and a barely-there Amber/Patchouli base. It wasn't until 2009 that Guerlain, a power player of the frag world, came out with its own version in Idylle, by which point For Her was firmly entrenched as a crowd favorite. Even now, supposedly one bottle of For Her sells every 15 seconds worldwide.
So, the question in my mind was, is For Her not just a generalized perfume name in the vein of "Ralph Lauren Woman" and "Rochas Femme", but was it be taken literally... for Her, for a very specific Her, for Carolyn? Did NR design his first fragrance as a way to commemorate Carolyn?
Yes. I think he did. He never said it outright, but here is a quote from a Harpers Bazaar article (
Your Honor, I rest my case.
P.S. I bought myself a small bottle of For Her and it's still great.
Firstly, it's a good book, but it's not a great book, with the audiobook being preferable to text. It has a lot of information, and the author pulled together bits and pieces from many sources, and compiled them into a timeline. With some exceptions noted below, she seemed to stay *mostly* objective in her presentation of these facts, and I ended up being surprised by how much this book drew me in and sent me down various informational rabbit holes. There really isn't much out there about Carolyn that isn't just a regurgitation of the same sparse facts and the misinformation in the bitter and twisted press coverage of her.
I knew very little about Carolyn (CBK) or JFK Jr going in - I was a teenager when they died, and had only just moved to an English speaking country, so the drama surrounding their lives passed me by, but in recent years references to CBK began popping up here and there. I listened to a podcast episode about them a couple of years ago, which was based on contemporary media coverage and which portrayed her as an unhinged cokehead, manipulative, unstable. This didn't really ring true to me, given her pre-JFK background and success at Calvin Klein.
The other popular view of CBK was that of a grasping, mercenary, manipulative gold-digger who snared the poor little helpless rich boy JFK Jr. Which also didn't seem to entirely fit and after reading the book, I am confident about dismissing the latter view, and largely dismissing the former. Of the two of them, CBK was the one consistently making more level-headed, forward-looking and rational decisions, as well as dodging his phone calls for a year after he first blew up at her and stormed off even going as far as changing her number, and after they eventually got back together, she was the one who put the brakes on their engagement, not accepting his proposal for a year, and expressing her reservations about marrying him to her friends. She was definitely not chomping at the bit to marry a Kennedy. And her mother didn't want her to either - she didn't like him.
THE FLAWS
So, the book. It suffers from a few flaws. One, given the widespread negative media coverage of CBK during her life and after, the author went in with guns blazing, prepared to singlehandedly defend CBK's reputation, and she went overboard, at times portraying Carolyn as a Mary Sue of sorts, almost a saint, loved and admired by all, friend to many, preternaturally beautiful, extremely kind, etc. Look, if you can get past the first third of the book, it gets better, as the author gets more into the facts and events of their lives. But the first third - you've got to be prepared for your eyes to roll a lot.
Two, this reads like a lit review - a lot of facts gathered, not all important or relevant, but lacking in analysis to connect the dots in bad need of connecting, and in dire need of some commentary to tie the facts together. E.g. she tells us how the media/tabloids lied or misrepresented every occurrence, and she makes more of it than I think even Carolyn did, who cared about (hated!) being harassed, stalked and abused by the paparazzi IRL, which is substantiated by many people, but not her caring about what nonsense they published, so was it really necessary to list *all* that? It got tiresome. Every now and again, there would be conflicting accounts from different people, and the author just dumps both and moves on. I feel like this book would've benefited from the author being able to walk away from the draft for 6 months to re-gain some much needed mental distance before applying more structure to shape a narrative.
Three, possibly related to two, there are a lot of people, the author seemingly included, who are/were really invested in the idea of the CBK & JFK Jr "fairy tale". Soul mates, deeply in love, passionately in love, etc, etc. But if you coldly look at the facts the author herself has presented, a somewhat different picture emerges. She seems to be particularly reluctant to criticize JFK Jr - perhaps for sound, legal reasons - but if you have one working eye to look between the lines with, you'll see that the portrait of him that emerges is not pretty. But, I am not a real American... as the author herself pointed out, Americans grew up forever seeing JFK Jr as "the boy who cried at his father's funeral", which usually worked for him (his fuck ups were largely treated as a good natured joke by the public) and sometimes against him (he was treated as a child, people didn't take him seriously in his own right).
JFK JR
Let's take the plane crash itself. I was amazed to find out that *Carolyn* was blamed for it, with tabloids reporting that she took too long at a nail salon, resulting in a late departure, which wasn't even true, but even if it was... there was only one person to blame for that crash, and that's the person who was piloting the plane, her husband, JFK Jr. The person who, knowingly, made a navigational choice he was not qualified to make. He was only qualified to fly in daylight, relying on visual cues, whereas nighttime flying requires relying on instruments and you have to qualify for that separately with many more flying hours and experience than what he had. I know because this was one of the first things I was told when taking flying lessons. So, knowing that he had two passengers on board, this privileged selfish... man... made the choice equivalent to highway driving at night with headlights off. Little of this is in the book, actually, the author skips the ins and outs of the crash and the subsequent investigation entirely.
I went from knowing almost nothing about the man and having zero opinions to having a very negative view of him, in the context of his relationship with and marriage to CBK but also more generally. He was emotionally immature, struggled to regulate his own emotions and navigate various relationships in his life resulting in professional as well as personal problems, he was a coward when it came to other people's opinion of him, he was impulsive, he was dismissive of Carolyn's needs, he failed to protect her by prioritizing his own ambitions, he needed mothering... The impression I got that he wanted to possess Carolyn and place her into his life without changing anything to acknowledge or accommodate her own preferences. I believe that other people in her life felt similarly, based on some interviews in another CBK book I'm reading, by Sunita Kamir Nair.
Who, I ask you, proposes to someone who dislikes fishing, on a fishing trip, with a fishing metaphor? JFK Jr, that's who. And with a ring modeled on his mother's that wasn't even Carolyn's style and which she rarely wore afterwards. The Cartier watch he gave her, if not the exact one Jackie owned, was the same model. Mommy issues, anybody?
Pretty much all of Carolyn's depression, emotional upheavals and her role in marriage problems the author blames on the hounding by the press. They were relentless. But as someone she quoted said, CBK and JFK Jr should have had security and they should have moved away from where they lived. Why didn't they? Why didn't he protect her? The answers are pretty easy to extract, and again, he doesn't come off looking rosy.
There was also compelling evidence of him having cheated on Carolyn with his ex shortly before they died and the author proceeds to make excuses for him, what?! A broken ankle. Yep. That's the excuse. This... man... broke his ankle in a paraglider crash (foreshadowing?! a sign from the universe?! not for the willfully blind!) earlier and was in a cast for 6 weeks so couldn't partake in his usual sports, and apparently Carolyn no longer wanted to have sex with him, so... naturally, to blow off steam, he called his ex. At midnight. To the hotel he was staying at. Uh huh. Poor JohnJohn, what a difficult moral dilemma for him, and how great that the author is so understanding! Puh-lease.
Look, the man is dead (his own fault!) and she is dead (he killed her and her sister through reckless negligence!), so I'm going to restrain myself from trashing him further (or at least I will try!), but suffice to say that these were two people who were strongly attracted to each other, physically, and based on each other's emotional trauma, but who were deeply unsuited. He needed mothering and she had a strong need to mother, but that kind of dynamic does not for a successful marriage make. I went into this book wondering what their marriage was like and if they would have stayed together had they lived, and now I have a strong opinion on that matter, though the author is much more ambivalent on that count and even seems to promote the view that their love would've conquered all in the end. As if that's ever enough for a marriage to work.
PARALLELS
The author repeatedly draws parallels between Princess Diana and CBK, especially in the way they were treated by the press, but the parallels that kept coming to my mind were those with Wallis Simpson & Prince Edward, and Meghan Markle & Prince Harry.
In both instances, the socially successful but "ordinary" women were swept off their feet by the charm, fun and glamor of the social position of the "prince" without fully understanding the price they would have to pay, and how little those princes were capable of protecting them or even how little they were used to thinking beyond their own wishes. I don't have a particularly high opinion of Prince Harry, but props to him, he has actually done the most to protect his wife from the negative consequences his social position had on her - he chose to pay the price himself. In all three instances, I can't help thinking that the women were worse off for having married their princes who proceeded to destroy their lives forever in one way or another.
Exception: Princess Mary of Denmark, maybe. Perhaps because Denmark doesn't have the same celebrity-obsessed culture.
NOTES ON FRAGRANCE
As a dedicated fraghead, I was fascinated to learn from this book that CBK's preferred perfume was the Abdul Kareem Egyptian musk oil, which she got for $17 on the streets of NYC. I immediately jumped on ebay and got myself some, paying $27... inflation! When I smelled it, it immediately brought back memories of the extremely popular Narciso Rodriguez's For Her perfume, which I used to own. It's a very specific, soft type of musk smell, not at all sharp or metallic, as many are. Incidentally, NR was a very close friend of CBK from when they both worked at Calvin Klein and lived in the same building, and she had even asked NR to design her wedding dress.
Coincidence?! I started digging. Carolyn died in 1999, NR released his first perfume, For Her, in 2003, four years later, which is what it would probably take to bring a perfume idea to fruition.
Like the wedding dress he designed for Carolyn, the perfume broke the conventions of the time and reshaped the trends of the future. Before Carolyn's wedding picture showing her in a slinky, silky, minimalistic white slip dress, the conventional wedding dress was something resembling the monstrosity that Princess Diana had to wear (the ugliest wedding dress in history and you can't convince me otherwise). Carolyn broke all the rules in her Narciso dress. Similarly, in 2003, Narciso broke away from the 70s/80s powerhouse perfumes a la Dior Poison and YSL Opium, and from the aquatic freshies of the 90s a la CK One and Issey Miyake L'eau d'Issey, to bring out something completely different - a soft, feminine musk with a floral overlay and a barely-there Amber/Patchouli base. It wasn't until 2009 that Guerlain, a power player of the frag world, came out with its own version in Idylle, by which point For Her was firmly entrenched as a crowd favorite. Even now, supposedly one bottle of For Her sells every 15 seconds worldwide.
So, the question in my mind was, is For Her not just a generalized perfume name in the vein of "Ralph Lauren Woman" and "Rochas Femme", but was it be taken literally... for Her, for a very specific Her, for Carolyn? Did NR design his first fragrance as a way to commemorate Carolyn?
Yes. I think he did. He never said it outright, but here is a quote from a Harpers Bazaar article (
The American designer, whose architectural, feminine clothes have been seen on A-listers from Michelle Obama to Kate Winslet and Sarah Jessica Parker, tells us that the initial inspiration for the scent came to him instantly, citing his muse as a mystery woman who was very significant in his life. "Her personal fragrance was a certain musk oil that I recognised from the first day I met her and even then, I was intrigued by it," he says. "It was so unusual � and it stayed with me. I couldn’t get it out of my head, so I began to wear it myself as both a lucky charm and a remembrance of her. The idea was to capture this ineffable sense of mystery, immediacy, intimacy and sensuality."
Your Honor, I rest my case.
P.S. I bought myself a small bottle of For Her and it's still great.
May 23, 2024
This magnificent book by Elizabeth Beller is a state of art biography, an all-encompassing account of the life and career of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. Despite some reviewers protesting about the book being a bit too benevolent, I wonder if they had heard an unbiased account until this book arrived? The answer is a resounding NO. All the previous accounts about this extremely accomplished trailblazer woman referred to a soulless mannequin and were surrounded by sexist toxicity. It was about time some writer, and in this case Eizabeth Beller is unrivaled, expounded another different side of this fashion icon, a young woman who had daddy issues and mood swings, she was a perfectionist and she could be stubborn, she became increasingly paranoid due to her harrassment by a voyeuristic press, but guess what? She was actually a nice woman who in the early 90s stumbled upon the beloved John Kennedy Jr and she fell in love with him (not the public persona, his real self). Beller summes it up best: "The assumptions were from the pictures that she was icy, that she was cold. What I quickly learned was that she was warm and effervescent. She was joyful and loved to laugh.� A splendid biography totally worth your time. Highly recommended.
May 9, 2025
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I'm on the fence with this book. Since all previous knowledge of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy of mine comes through the lens of the tabloids or through biographies of her husband, I couldn't wait to read all about Carolyn herself. The author posits that most of the unflattering portraits of Carolyn are because of misogynistic writers. However, this book seems to veer too far the other way, almost making Bessette Kennedy a saint-like figure. I believe she was like most people: a funny, happy person who could also be bitchy, someone who craved privacy yet didn't turn away from the most visible person in the United States besides the president. Other books claim Carolyn was heavily into cocaine, while this book refutes it vehemently. What I do know is that it couldn't have been easy living with a man who publicly lost his S*** and was caught on camera doing so with a variety of girlfriends. Heavens knows what he was like behind closed doors.
I'm on the fence with this book. Since all previous knowledge of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy of mine comes through the lens of the tabloids or through biographies of her husband, I couldn't wait to read all about Carolyn herself. The author posits that most of the unflattering portraits of Carolyn are because of misogynistic writers. However, this book seems to veer too far the other way, almost making Bessette Kennedy a saint-like figure. I believe she was like most people: a funny, happy person who could also be bitchy, someone who craved privacy yet didn't turn away from the most visible person in the United States besides the president. Other books claim Carolyn was heavily into cocaine, while this book refutes it vehemently. What I do know is that it couldn't have been easy living with a man who publicly lost his S*** and was caught on camera doing so with a variety of girlfriends. Heavens knows what he was like behind closed doors.
September 20, 2024
This is a biography on the life of Carolyn Besette-Kennedy. Its told through anecdotes from friends and family but all through a modern feminist lens. It really made you think about how the media portrays women and the tabloid culture of the late 90s. She felt hunted in the way Princess Diana did, but no one really talks about that. It made me reflect on how we view her now as a style icon, and really introduced you to who she really was. The media portrayed her as an ice queen but people who knew her say she was the exact opposite. I really enjoyed this.
May 23, 2024
Even though we all know the tragic ending, I couldn't put this book down. As I was reading it, I realized I knew next to nothing about CBK and her life before JFK Jr, other than her stint at Calvin Klein. She was a fascinating woman in her own right and probably would have ended up as some kind of Anna Wintour figure eventually.
June 22, 2024
Jack Schlossberg’s digital foot print sent me down a rabbit hole
Want to read
January 12, 2024I am going to be soooooo annoying when this comes out
October 6, 2024
Pretty good read, didnt care for all the fashion info. The paparazzi were horrible.
August 20, 2024
I think the author is clearly a fan-girl, a wannabe. I had such high hopes for this biography. It made it seem like Carolyn was a perfect cardboard cut-out with zero nuance. Everyone loved her, she was great at everything and she was soooooooooooo beautiful! Vomit. This was not a real biography. Did her family pay the author to write it?
July 8, 2024
This was an interesting read, but I do think it was sugar coated quite a bit. I have read just about every book about every Kennedy subject and it was about time we got to know more about Carolyn than just the fact she married JFK Jr.
When I say it seemed sugar coated I mean about both Carolyn and John. I think the author was trying to put them both into a bright light and not bog us down with the same dismal stories about their relationship. John was no saint and neither was Carolyn. I do see that John was a bit more selfish and really put himself first before the feelings of his wife.
I’m not sure why Carolyn, who hated the attention brought on by the paparazzi ever married John. She saw what her future would be like and she was not up to the monumental task of being married to “America’s Prince.� The paps wanted to portray her in the worst light possible because that sells stories and most of what you read in magazines are not the truth. It was all about the money they could make off of a picture.
By accounts in this book Carolyn was a very empathetic person and I believe this to be true. She genuinely cared about other people and wanted to know about their lives. She basically had to give up who she was to become Mrs. JFK Jr and it drove her to the brink of madness. She had no privacy and was stalked everywhere she went and unlike Princess Diana, who knew how to work the press in her favor, Carolyn chose to lock herself away and even went so far as to spit in one of their faces. I’m pretty sure Jackie O would never have approved of that.
Carolyn wanted John to introduce her to his Mom and he wouldn’t do it. It made Carolyn wonder if he felt that Jackie would not approve of her. I think Jackie would have been a great help to her and I think she would have been thrilled to have someone to take the place of Darrel Hannah, who Jackie really did not like.
This book basically gives you a quick glimpse into Carolyn’s younger years and then takes you through her whole relationship with John from start to very sad finish.
If Carolyn had been left to stick with her gut feelings about not going to that wedding and not been bullied into it by John’s bulldog assistant RoseMarie Terrenzio who told her she was screwing up John’s future if she didn’t go to the wedding then I think Carolyn and her sister would still be alive today. She was guilted into going when she had a really bad feeling about going.
I would have liked to have met CBK. I think she would have been an easy person to call a friend.
I’m just sorry she set her sights on JFK JR. They say the Kennedy Curse is not a real thing�.. but I wish she had not tempted fate.
When I say it seemed sugar coated I mean about both Carolyn and John. I think the author was trying to put them both into a bright light and not bog us down with the same dismal stories about their relationship. John was no saint and neither was Carolyn. I do see that John was a bit more selfish and really put himself first before the feelings of his wife.
I’m not sure why Carolyn, who hated the attention brought on by the paparazzi ever married John. She saw what her future would be like and she was not up to the monumental task of being married to “America’s Prince.� The paps wanted to portray her in the worst light possible because that sells stories and most of what you read in magazines are not the truth. It was all about the money they could make off of a picture.
By accounts in this book Carolyn was a very empathetic person and I believe this to be true. She genuinely cared about other people and wanted to know about their lives. She basically had to give up who she was to become Mrs. JFK Jr and it drove her to the brink of madness. She had no privacy and was stalked everywhere she went and unlike Princess Diana, who knew how to work the press in her favor, Carolyn chose to lock herself away and even went so far as to spit in one of their faces. I’m pretty sure Jackie O would never have approved of that.
Carolyn wanted John to introduce her to his Mom and he wouldn’t do it. It made Carolyn wonder if he felt that Jackie would not approve of her. I think Jackie would have been a great help to her and I think she would have been thrilled to have someone to take the place of Darrel Hannah, who Jackie really did not like.
This book basically gives you a quick glimpse into Carolyn’s younger years and then takes you through her whole relationship with John from start to very sad finish.
If Carolyn had been left to stick with her gut feelings about not going to that wedding and not been bullied into it by John’s bulldog assistant RoseMarie Terrenzio who told her she was screwing up John’s future if she didn’t go to the wedding then I think Carolyn and her sister would still be alive today. She was guilted into going when she had a really bad feeling about going.
I would have liked to have met CBK. I think she would have been an easy person to call a friend.
I’m just sorry she set her sights on JFK JR. They say the Kennedy Curse is not a real thing�.. but I wish she had not tempted fate.
June 19, 2024
Thank you Gallery Books for the free book!
𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: 𝐎𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐔𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐲𝐧 𝐁𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞-𝐊𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐝𝐲
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: 𝐄𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐡 𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫
𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟏, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒
This book was truly captivating! That’s the best way to describe it. I read this book very slowly over the course of a few weeks, which is not how I typically read a book. I guess you could say I wanted to savor this one and really take it all in. I love how this book is structured and I feel like the amount of research that went into this book is unmatched. There has been so much media attention behind Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and Beller explores the real person behind all of the tabloids in this book. I found the exclusive interviews with family members, teachers, roommates, and colleagues so interesting, and it really helped to paint a better picture of Carolyn and her life. I also really enjoyed the photographs that were included within the book.
This is a must read for anyone interested in the Kennedy family, and is the perfect summer read. While I did not listen to this one on audio, I definitely think this would be great as an audiobook with Emily Tremaine as the narrator.
𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: 𝐎𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐔𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐲𝐧 𝐁𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞-𝐊𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐝𝐲
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: 𝐄𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐡 𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫
𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟏, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒
This book was truly captivating! That’s the best way to describe it. I read this book very slowly over the course of a few weeks, which is not how I typically read a book. I guess you could say I wanted to savor this one and really take it all in. I love how this book is structured and I feel like the amount of research that went into this book is unmatched. There has been so much media attention behind Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and Beller explores the real person behind all of the tabloids in this book. I found the exclusive interviews with family members, teachers, roommates, and colleagues so interesting, and it really helped to paint a better picture of Carolyn and her life. I also really enjoyed the photographs that were included within the book.
This is a must read for anyone interested in the Kennedy family, and is the perfect summer read. While I did not listen to this one on audio, I definitely think this would be great as an audiobook with Emily Tremaine as the narrator.
December 27, 2024
This is a must-read for anyone interested Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. It's objectively an enjoyable biography and fascinating to learn more about the tragically short life of CBK. But I also don't know how to feel about the fact that it's just one author's perspective, although researched, and probably only Carolyn herself knew the intricate and intimate details of her life and relationship. Given how private she was, I have to assume that she probably wouldn't want anyone else writing about her, even though Beller's perspective was so positive and respectful. The same thing could be said about many biographies - it's certainly not a fault of the author or this book, just a feeling I couldn't shake while reading.
June 25, 2024
as if i needed to be more obsessed with CBK !! a truly captivating, beautiful, heart-breaking life story written by Beller. brb, going to look up CBK outfit inspo on pinterest�.!!!
June 26, 2024
3.5 stars. The author of this book does a good job describing what Carolyn Bessette Kennedy was really like. I came away with the feeling that she probably was misunderstood when she married John, and was a much more empathetic, kind person. However, the book could have easily been cut as much as 100 pages and still gotten the point across.
July 4, 2024
Not sure I’m going to be able to finish this. The author is hell-bent on sanitizing Bessette as much as possible, and it’s annoying. A book determined to use its subject to support a feminist agenda is just as unreliable as one with a misogynist agenda.
I began to mistrust the author around the time Michael Bergin came up. While I’m not sure I believe everything in his book, mainly Bessette running to him after her marriage, Beller is very quick to dismiss him as nothing more than a fling, despite acknowledging that Bessette took him home to meet her mother. I felt that this was so she could throw out anything negative that surfaced in his book without having to consider it. I would have respected an analysis of his claims and an explanation of why they weren’t true, but all I got was, “He’s just a liar. St. Carolyn wouldn’t have dated someone like him seriously.�
The fact that Bergin published a book about his ex does damage his credibility, but frankly, his portrayal of her personality is much more convincing. Once Upon a Time describes a perfect person who occasionally does something bad that is just totally out of character! Bergin shows how the light and the dark coexisted and her charm made people look past some of her flaws. Even while reading some of the new negative information in Once Upon a Time, such as how Bessette would flirt with her friends� boyfriends or the time she threw a glass of wine in Kennedy’s face when he was late for a date (which Beller describes as her standing up to him, not as an act of violence), reminded me much more of Bergin’s Carolyn than Beller’s.
I don’t like abandoning books halfway, but there’s nothing compelling about this cardboard cut-out version of Carolyn. Idolizing a person is just as dehumanizing as dragging them through the mud. Carolyn doesn’t have to be whitewashed to be deserving of empathy and affection.
I began to mistrust the author around the time Michael Bergin came up. While I’m not sure I believe everything in his book, mainly Bessette running to him after her marriage, Beller is very quick to dismiss him as nothing more than a fling, despite acknowledging that Bessette took him home to meet her mother. I felt that this was so she could throw out anything negative that surfaced in his book without having to consider it. I would have respected an analysis of his claims and an explanation of why they weren’t true, but all I got was, “He’s just a liar. St. Carolyn wouldn’t have dated someone like him seriously.�
The fact that Bergin published a book about his ex does damage his credibility, but frankly, his portrayal of her personality is much more convincing. Once Upon a Time describes a perfect person who occasionally does something bad that is just totally out of character! Bergin shows how the light and the dark coexisted and her charm made people look past some of her flaws. Even while reading some of the new negative information in Once Upon a Time, such as how Bessette would flirt with her friends� boyfriends or the time she threw a glass of wine in Kennedy’s face when he was late for a date (which Beller describes as her standing up to him, not as an act of violence), reminded me much more of Bergin’s Carolyn than Beller’s.
I don’t like abandoning books halfway, but there’s nothing compelling about this cardboard cut-out version of Carolyn. Idolizing a person is just as dehumanizing as dragging them through the mud. Carolyn doesn’t have to be whitewashed to be deserving of empathy and affection.
June 1, 2024
The intro says the book’s purpose is to reexamine our views on Carolyn Bessette Kennedy through today’s more understanding, compassionate lens. We certainly have more compassionate views today on people going through depression and/or taking prescription antidepressants. But I was hoping for more than reexamining views; I was hoping for more information. I didn’t walk away knowing if she cheated on JFK Jr. I didn’t find out if she took drugs other than her prescriptions. There wasn’t really anything new here. Yes, she hated the paparazzi. Yes, she was a nice person in private. I just didn’t find the book very captivating.
July 6, 2024
CBK is 100% this authors Roman Empire and would have been very parasocial had the internet existed in its current form when CBK was alive. This didn’t read like journalistic research, but the writings of super fan. The only thing I got out of this book, is that I’d rather read Carole Radziwell’s book about her friend.
July 28, 2024
On the fence about this one. Definitely reads like a biography with a TON of citations and footnotes. The author is extremely repetitive (you get the same info at least 3x about multiple things). Overall enjoyed learning more about Carolyn and the Kennedys and you really start to feel for CBK
May 9, 2025
I love rich people problems stories, I love Kennedy Clan drama, and this had the potential to captivate me. Unfortunately Beller’s biography of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy swung too far in its attempt to dispel some media unkindness so I found the tone so overly glowing, fawning, and congratulatory. Ultimately detracted from a story that could have had interesting things to say, but instead dwelt in minute details and recollections that often felt exaggerated. A healthy edit for length and tone needed.
June 8, 2024
In the afternoon of July 17, 1999, I checked into hotel a few miles from Heathrow Airport outside London. A friend and I had been driving around England and we were at the hotel for a night before flying home to the U.S.
I was unpacking in my room and half listening to the news on the television, which was mounted over the door. (The odd things we remember�). The news, was it the BBC or CNNinternational?, reported the prime news story, which was the disappearance of a small plane the night before off Martha’s Vineyard, carrying John Kennedy, his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her older sister, Lauren Bessette.
My reaction, evidently one echoed around the world, was “Thank God Jackie’s dead. This would have killed her.�
While John Kennedy was known to us all, who were the Bessette sisters? Well, Carolyn had been seen in the preceding six or so years, first as John’s main squeeze and then as his wife. Lauren was a year older than Carolyn and had a twin, Lisa, who mercifully wasn’t on the plane that night.
Author Elizabeth Beller introduces the readers to Carolyn Bessette in her biography, “Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy�. I have to say I’ve never read a bio where the author has tried to only write positive things about her subject. Beller sometimes bends and twists her writing to try to make a bad action into one that might be considered “questionable�. But there are reasons for this.
Carolyn Bessette didn’t enjoy good press when she appeared in John Kennedy’s life. Whether it was jealousy over her beauty or over her position in Kennedy’s life and heart, the American press was merciless in their coverage of her.
THIS REVIEW IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
I was unpacking in my room and half listening to the news on the television, which was mounted over the door. (The odd things we remember�). The news, was it the BBC or CNNinternational?, reported the prime news story, which was the disappearance of a small plane the night before off Martha’s Vineyard, carrying John Kennedy, his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her older sister, Lauren Bessette.
My reaction, evidently one echoed around the world, was “Thank God Jackie’s dead. This would have killed her.�
While John Kennedy was known to us all, who were the Bessette sisters? Well, Carolyn had been seen in the preceding six or so years, first as John’s main squeeze and then as his wife. Lauren was a year older than Carolyn and had a twin, Lisa, who mercifully wasn’t on the plane that night.
Author Elizabeth Beller introduces the readers to Carolyn Bessette in her biography, “Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy�. I have to say I’ve never read a bio where the author has tried to only write positive things about her subject. Beller sometimes bends and twists her writing to try to make a bad action into one that might be considered “questionable�. But there are reasons for this.
Carolyn Bessette didn’t enjoy good press when she appeared in John Kennedy’s life. Whether it was jealousy over her beauty or over her position in Kennedy’s life and heart, the American press was merciless in their coverage of her.
THIS REVIEW IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
August 16, 2024
Take me back...
I remember distinctly where I was when I heard about the attempts to find John Kennedy Jr's plane. It was at my family reunion in 1999.
Kennedys have been one of my go-to history reads for decades, so, when I saw this audiobook was available right now, I jumped at the opportunity.
After listening, my thoughts are along the line of "at last Carolyn can find peace." She really had no idea what she was getting into with the press when she started dating JFK, Jr, and she was even, erroneously, counseled that the attention would alleviate when they got married. WRONG!
Seemed to be very well researched, not on-sided (IMHO).
I remember distinctly where I was when I heard about the attempts to find John Kennedy Jr's plane. It was at my family reunion in 1999.
Kennedys have been one of my go-to history reads for decades, so, when I saw this audiobook was available right now, I jumped at the opportunity.
After listening, my thoughts are along the line of "at last Carolyn can find peace." She really had no idea what she was getting into with the press when she started dating JFK, Jr, and she was even, erroneously, counseled that the attention would alleviate when they got married. WRONG!
Seemed to be very well researched, not on-sided (IMHO).
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