John-John’s journey! John F. Kennedy Jr. achieved an awesome deal earlier than his life was tragically minimize brief.
The son of John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy was born in Washington, D.C., on November 25, 1960, two weeks after his father was elected the thirty fifth president of the US. The Kennedys, who additionally shared daughter Caroline Kennedy, moved into the White Home when JFK Jr. was solely 8 weeks outdated.
On account of his dad’s profession (and that of kinfolk together with uncles Robert F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy), John Jr. grew up within the highlight.
“There’s in all probability nobody who’s ever walked this earth that was the main target of such media consideration their whole life,” shut pal Steven M. Gillon wrote within the 2019 biography America’s Reluctant Prince: The Lifetime of John F. Kennedy Jr.
A lot of the curiosity within the political scion started after November 22, 1963, when JFK was assassinated in Dallas at age 46. Three days later, on John-John’s third birthday, the president’s son touched the nation when he saluted his father’s casket en path to Arlington Nationwide Cemetery in Virginia. The heartbreaking picture, taken by Stan Stearns, went on to turn into one of the vital iconic pictures in historical past.
After John Sr.’s assassination, Jackie, Caroline and JFK Jr. moved away from the U.S. capital and into an condominium in New York Metropolis. She later married Greek transport magnate Aristotle Onassis.
John Jr. attended non-public colleges in Manhattan earlier than finishing his highschool schooling at Phillips Academy in Massachusetts. He went on to check at Brown College and finally obtained his J.D. diploma from the New York College College of Legislation in Could 1989.
Within the midst of his authorized profession, JFK Jr. developed an curiosity in journalism and wrote for The New York Instances. He launched his personal month-to-month journal, George, in September 1995 with Michael J. Berman.
“JFK’s buddies would inform Junior that his dad all the time needed to be a writer, that he by no means needed to enter politics,” All of the Presidents’ Kids writer Doug Wead tells Us Weekly. “So JFK Jr.’s nice second was publishing {a magazine} due to his father’s dream.”
By way of the years, John-John’s attractiveness additionally attracted a lot consideration — and led to many high-profile relationships and flings. He was linked to actresses and fashions corresponding to Brooke Shields, Cindy Crawford and Sarah Jessica Parker earlier than courting Daryl Hannah from the late ‘80s to the early ‘90s. He finally settled down with Calvin Klein publicist Carolyn Bessette, whom he married on September 21, 1996.
Like his father, JFK Jr. met an early demise. Whereas flying to his cousin Rory Kennedy’s wedding ceremony on July 16, 1999, the 38-year-old lawyer’s airplane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean close to Martha’s Winery, Massachusetts, killing him, his spouse and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette.
“JFK Jr. was a sort and good man,” Denis Reggie, who photographed the Kennedy-Bessette wedding ceremony, tells Us. “He was charismatic and powerful and impacted each life that he got here into.”
Scroll all the way down to see JFK Jr.’s life in images.
