Our Favorite Photos of Dazzling Couple JFK Jr. & Carolyn Bessette

On July 16, 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr. boarded a small aircraft with wife Carolyn Bessette and her sister Lauren Bessette, intending to fly from New Jersey to Martha’s Vineyard and then on to Cape Cod for his cousin Rory’s wedding; instead, he crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Massachusetts, leaving no survivors. Their loss became another in a series of what some call the “Kennedy curse:” the tendency of members of this family to die prematurely, like President John F. Kennedy, assassinated at age 46, or his brother Robert F. Kennedy, assassinated at age 42. The loss of the young, beautiful couple of JFK Jr. and wife Carolyn only intensified comparisons to his illustrious parents JFK and Jackie O., and their legacy has since taken on the same harrowing blend of glamour and tragedy.

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