Did Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and Princess Diana Really Cross Paths Weeks Before Diana's Death? Meredith KileFri, March 20, 2026 at 8:19 PM UTC 0 Princess Diana; Carolyn BessetteKennedyCredit: Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty; Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Princess Diana and Carolyn BessetteKennedy both attended Gianni Versace's funeral just a few weeks before Diana's death In FX's Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr.
Did Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and Princess Diana Really Cross Paths Weeks Before Diana's Death?
Meredith KileFri, March 20, 2026 at 8:19 PM UTC
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Princess Diana; Carolyn Bessette-KennedyCredit: Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty; Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty -
Princess Diana and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy both attended Gianni Versace's funeral just a few weeks before Diana's death
In FX's Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette, Sarah Pidgeon's Carolyn has a horrified reaction to the princess's death, saying that she just sat behind her at the funeral
It's unclear if the real-life Carolyn and Diana ever had a connection, but the royal did meet once with JFK Jr., with whom she sympathized about life in the spotlight
In the summer of 1997, Princess Diana, John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette were three of the most famous faces in the world. When Diana died in a car accident in Paris while being chased by paparazzi in the early morning hours of Aug. 31 of that year, it had a profound impact on the couple.
Episode 8 of the FX limited series Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette — in which Sarah Pidgeon and Paul Anthony Kelly play the late couple — explores their reactions to Diana's tragic death, incorporating some real-life facts into the dramatization.
The episode opens with Carolyn receiving the news via a frantic phone call from her sister, Lauren, who was the third victim in the plane crash that killed John and Carolyn less than two years later.
Love Story shows Carolyn turning on the television to watch the coverage, but Diana has not yet been declared dead. "I just saw her," she tells John. "At Gianni's funeral, I sat right behind her."
It is true that Carolyn, who worked as a fashion publicist for Calvin Klein, and Diana were both among the 2,000 attendees at the high-profile funeral for Gianni Versace at Milan Cathedral in Italy, on July 22, 1997.
Carolyn Bessette attends the final tribute to Gianni Versace in Milan, Italy ; Lady Diana, Princess of Wales, attends the last tribute to Gianni Versace in Milan, Italy.Credit: Alberto Pizzoli/Sygma via Getty (2)
However, it's unclear if they sat near each other or even acknowledged one another. Carolyn never spoke publicly about a personal connection with the late princess.
The show's version of Carolyn has an intense reaction to the news of Diana's death, likely based on the real-life woman's admission to those closest to her that she was "terrified" of the paparazzi.
"Carolyn was horrified by Diana's death," RoseMarie Terenzio, who was JFK Jr.'s assistant and co-authored JFK Jr: An Intimate Oral Biography with PEOPLE's Liz McNeil, told PEOPLE in 2017. "She feared, 'Now they're going to focus on us even more because they don't have her.' "
In the show, Pidgeon's Carolyn is frozen in horror at the news. "They killed her," she says. "She did everything right, posed for every photo, gave them everything they wanted and they still killed her."
"It's monstrous," she adds. "She was their princess, and they treated her like prey."
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However, it soon becomes clear that the death has affected Carolyn and John very differently. While Carolyn sits in shock, watching the coverage and wondering what comes next in her saga with the predatory press, John goes for a run, chastising Carolyn for still having the news on when he gets back.
"I think there's something really macabre about watching this s--- when right now, halfway across the world, someone is waking up her kids before they find out their parent is dead on TV," he says, revealing that the traumatic memories of his father's assassination have caused him to fixate on Prince William and Prince Harry's futures and how they might mirror his own.
While Carolyn and Diana didn't seem to have a real-life connection, the princess met JFK Jr. once before both of their lives ended tragically too soon.
The pair had a private meeting in a New York City penthouse in December 1995, so John could ask Diana to pose for the cover of his political magazine, George. Diana's private secretary, Patrick Jephson, said in the oral biography that Diana was "intrigued" by John but wanted to be discreet as she was separated from then-Prince Charles, and he was the "world's most eligible bachelor" at the time.
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After the meeting, Jephson recalled thinking that, while there didn't seem to be anything romantic between the two, there was an understanding.
"I think she might have spoken about the famous picture of him as a little boy. And she had sympathy for him growing up with the name and being the object of public fascination," he said. "These were things that she could relate to. I definitely picked up a sense of sympathy, of concern, for him."
In February 1997, Terenzio recalled, just a few months before her death, Diana wrote JFK Jr. a letter that would prove to be a meaningful gesture and an eerie prophecy.
"She thanked him for his letter and a few copies of George he had sent over," Terenzio recalled. "She said 'regrettably' she must decline his offer and that she would get back in touch when the time was right. At the end, she wrote, 'I hope'—and she underlined '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!' "
on People
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Source: Entertainment
Published: March 20, 2026 at 04:46PM on Source: PRIME TIME
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