Carole Radziwill Debunks Major Kennedy Family Myth About JFK Jr.

Carole Radziwill shut down one of the biggest myths about her close friend John F. Kennedy Jr. in the new CNN docuseries American Prince.

The Real Housewives of New York City alum — who was married to John’s first cousin Anthony Radziwill — tackled numerous tabloid allegations about John and his late wife, Carolyn Bessette, in the three-episode series, including denying that anyone in the family ever called the Kennedy heir by the nickname “John John.”

“This whole John John thing, I don’t know where it came from,” Carole, 61, insisted. “I think it was a press thing. Something happened where people thought that maybe his family called him John John.”

The John John nickname was popularized in the press shortly after his birth in 1960 and carried over into media coverage of his romantic exploits as an adult. However, Carole suspected that the nickname must have been an invention of the press since John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy never called their son John John.

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“Some people just started saying [John John] to imply that they were close to him,” the What Remains author pointed out. “I promise you, his sister didn’t call him John John. His mother, no one in his extended family, even, like, the extended cousins, ever called him John John.”

American Prince included poignant insights from Carole and others close to John Jr. and Carolyn that demystify the final years of their lives. In one lighthearted moment, Carole reflected on what made John Jr. so different from the other members of the Kennedy clan.

“He wanted to maybe break some rules, and then he did,” Carole remembered. “It sounds silly, but he moved downtown to Tribeca when his family lived on the Upper East Side. It was, like, in these little ways, and you’re creating your independence. You’re creating this other life.”

Carole Radziwill in November 2018. Jim Spellman/WireImage)

John Jr. truly got to forge his own path following his mother Jackie’s 1994 death from non-Hodgkin lymphoma in May 1994. However, the magazine editor faced even more adversity at the time because his cousin Anthony had a recurrence of testicular cancer that would ultimately take his life.

“John [Jr.] and Jackie, they were really close,” Carole said. “He was heartbroken, and it was a very hard time for him, but there was almost, I would say, an emancipation [after Jackie’s death]. I think, for the first time, he felt free to do what he wanted to do in a way that he wouldn’t have when his mom was alive. A lot of good came out of that.”

John Jr. and his wife Carolyn’s lives ended in tragedy in July 1999 when the couple — along with Carolyn’s sister Lauren Bessette — died in a small private plane crash off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. For Carole, the trauma of losing her two best friends was compounded when her husband Anthony died less than one month later in August 1999.

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Reflecting on her reaction to losing John Jr. and Carolyn, she admitted: “It was so cruel for Anthony to have to watch [his cousin’s death]. John [Jr.] and Anthony, they were real brothers. All I could think of was like, ‘I’m going to be the only one left.’”

American Prince premieres on CNN Saturday, August 9, at 9 p.m. ET, with new episodes continuing each Saturday through August 23.