Martha Stewart shared some insight into her history with John F. Kennedy Jr. during the season 16 premiere of The Real Housewives of New York City.
“I was with John-John — this is JFK Jr. — I was with him the Monday before the Friday when they died. Did you know that?” Martha, 85, told makeup artist and RHONY newbie Daisy Toye during the Tuesday, September 8, episode after revealing she was watching the FX series Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette.
Martha continued, “I was running Martha Stewart Living magazine, and he called me and he said he’s in trouble and could he please talk to me about what to do with George, the magazine that he had started. And I said, ‘Of course, anything you want.’”
According to Martha, the pair “had a very nice dinner” before John F. Kennedy‘s son mentioned that he was going to a wedding in Martha’s Vineyard that weekend with his wife, Carolyn, and sister-in-law Lauren.
“I said, ‘Well, who’s flying?’” Martha claimed. “And he said, ‘I’m flying.’ I said, ‘You have a copilot, right?’ And he said, ‘No, I don’t need a copilot.’”
John F. Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy at the White House Chris Kleponis/AFP via Getty Images
Daisy — who has worked with Martha for more than a decade — was shocked by the revelation.
“I’ve thought about that so many times, that I told him to get a copilot,” Martha said.
JFK Jr. and Carolyn were killed in a plane crash off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard in July 1999, along with her sister Lauren. The late couple’s romance — and the aftermath of their tragic deaths — was explored in Ryan Murphy‘s Love Story, which debuted in February.
While viewers fell head over heels for the dramatized version of JFK Jr. and Carolyn’s relationship, those who knew the couple had their fair share of criticism for the series.
FX’s scripted series about John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette features many star-studded mentions and familiar faces, so why is Real Housewives of New York City‘s Carole Radziwill notably absent from Love Story? For context, Carole, 62, was previously married to Anthony Radziwill, who was the late JFK Jr.’s cousin and Jacqueline Kennedy‘s nephew. […]
Former RHONY star Carole Radziwill — who was married to JFK Jr.’s late cousin Anthony Radziwill — makes her highly anticipated return to the Bravo universe this season, but she wasn’t involved in any part of Love Story.
“I signed on [for RHONY], and it just so happened that Love Story premiered in the same weeks that I started filming,” Carole, 63, told USA Today in an interview published on Tuesday. “It was a very emotional time for me. That show, really, it was like a body slam. I didn’t watch it, but you couldn’t get away from it. Martha Stewart watched it. The other women on the cast watched it and were curious about this and that. It was very hard.”
Carole noted that she wrote all that she “had to say about that time in my life” in her book What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love, which her new costar Daisy revealed in the RHONY premiere that she was reading.
“The emotions all came back [when Love Story aired],” Carole continued, teasing what’s to come for Bravo fans. “It’s a little grief that I felt, almost the whole time I was filming … You’ll see the arc of that story throughout, I think, the whole season [of RHONY]. Certainly in the beginning, and then it comes up really big at the end, and that was completely unplanned.”
The Real Housewives of New York City airs on Bravo Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
