Carolyn Bessette Saw JFK Jr. as a Bridge to William and Harry After Princess Diana's Death, Book Claims
Following Princess Diana's death in a 1997 Paris car crash, Carolyn Bessette urged husband John F. Kennedy Jr. to call her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, a new book claims.
Because Kennedy faced his own trauma dealing with the deaths of his parents in the public eye, Bessette felt he might be uniquely qualified to rise to the occasion and be there as a support to the young princes, then 15 and 12.
"That dissonance in grief was something John understood-and when Carolyn heard the news of Diana's death, she urged him to call William and Harry to offer his condolences," Caroline Hallemann wrote in her new book, The Kennedys and the Windsors: The Story of Two Dynasties, One Born, One Made via Entertainment Weekly.
Adding, "John was one of the few people who could truly empathize with what Diana's sons were going through-having to put on a brave face while publicly mourning."
Bessette acknowledged that beyond his parents' deaths, Kennedy faced additional tragedy. "Not only because of his experience at his father's funeral, and just a few years later at that of his uncle Bobby, but also because he was still fresh in his grief over his own mother," she wrote. "But after thinking about it, he decided against calling the princes, given that they were not particularly close."
Kennedy's father, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas in 1963, and his mother, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, died in 1994 after battling non-Hodgkin's lymphoma-both events that stunned the world, given the couple's deep public admiration. Princess Diana, meanwhile, died at 36 after a 1997 car crash in Paris's Pont de l'Alma tunnel, where paparazzi were pursuing her vehicle; she later died at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital from her injuries.
The Kennedys and the Windsors: The Story of Two Dynasties, One Born, One Made is currently available for sale online and in bookstores.
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This story was originally published June 3, 2026 at 8:11 AM.