A resurfaced letter shows Princess Diana worrying about JFK Jr. and Carolyn’s tabloid treatment months before her death.
Princess Diana and John F. Kennedy Jr. had more things in common than you’d think. A newly resurfaced letter written by Diana, sent to Kennedy and his wife, Carolyn Bessette, eerily shows how they were going through similar situations. Caroline Hallemann’s upcoming book, The Kennedys and the Windsors: The Story of Two Dynasties, One Born, One Made, details the contents of the note that the late Princess sent days before tragedy struck.
According to an excerpt published by Vanity Fair from Hallemann’s book, a February 1997 letter sent from Diana to JFK Jr. shows she was concerned about how harshly the tabloids were treating the young couple. She wrote, “I hope the media are leaving both you and Carolyn alone. I know how difficult it is, but believe it or not, the worst paparazzi are here in Europe!”
Just like Diana, the Kennedy couple also spent much of the 1990s being relentlessly followed by paparazzi. The late Princess remained a constant media obsession both before and after her divorce from King Charles, while JFK Jr. and Bessette also found themselves under intense tabloid attention throughout their relationship and marriage.
However, Diana and JFK Jr. had known each other for quite some time. Kennedy had previously approached her about appearing on the cover of George magazine, although Diana politely turned it down by saying, “Well, you know, this is all very nice, John. Thank you. But I hope you’ll forgive me if I don’t take up the opportunity this time, but would love to maybe for your fiftieth or your hundredth issue or something.”
In Hallemann’s book, Diana’s private secretary, Patrick Jephson, revealed, “She saw in him a fellow victim, if you can put it that way, of life in the public eye and difficulty of knowing who to trust.” He continued, “And I think that that did create a connection between them. I wouldn’t call it a bond, but an affinity, a recognition of each other’s unusual hardships and difficulties.
Tragically, Diana was killed by the very thing that she warned the Kennedys about. She died in August 1997 after a high-speed paparazzi chase in Paris that ended in a devastating car crash. Her partner, Dodi Fayed, and the driver were killed instantly, while bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones survived with serious injuries. Diana was taken to the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, where she died hours later at just 36 years old.
In another tragedy that shocked the world, JFK Jr. and Bessette lost their lives in a plane crash near Martha’s Vineyard in July 1999, less than two years after Diana’s death. Bessette’s sister Lauren was also on the flight as the group was traveling to Massachusetts for Rory Kennedy’s wedding celebrations. Their bodies were recovered days later from the ocean floor, with investigators concluding they had died on impact.
