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America is obsessed all over again with John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette thanks to the Ryan Murphy series “Love Story.”
“Extra” caught up with RoseMarie Terenzio, John’s personal assistant, publicist, and a close confidante to the couple, who shared her thoughts about the series and revealed what they were really like.
She told us, “I appreciate that they’re being remembered, and I appreciate that there’s interest in them because I think they deserve that.”
Terenzio went on, “I worked really closely with them… I spent every day with John and almost every day with Carolyn. So, for me, it’s sort of watching other people portray them… I can’t be objective about it because I knew them.”
How does she feel about Paul Anthony Kelly playing John?
She said, “I think Paul Kelly has done an amazing job because those are big shoes to fill.”
Reflecting on the couple’s relationship, she said, “They had their ups and downs. They loved each other very much. They were each other’s closest friend, I would say, confidante. And I think that there’s this perception that it’s either all or nothing. And as we all know in relationships, that’s not the way it goes.”
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The show also reenacts John and Carolyn’s heated argument in a park, and RoseMarie shared her thoughts on the headline-making moment.
“They’re tussling in the park and they’re yelling at each other and she stops in the middle and she walks across the street and she bums a cigarette off some guy,” she recalled, “and then comes right back with her cigarette and goes right into it again. And I’m like, ‘That’s Carolyn.’”
She insisted, “There were ups and there were downs, and I think that they were young and they were starting to talk about starting a family.”
RoseMarie also helped the couple pull off their secret wedding in 1996.
She said of Carolyn, “She did it all herself. It was all DIY. It was like this little trusted group of people. We printed the wedding programs on the printer at George magazine at like 10 at night.”
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Before the tragic plane crash in 1999 that killed the couple and Carolyn’s sister, Terenzio said John and Carolyn were planning for a bright future.
She said, “They were looking for property outside of the city to think about, you know, where do they want to have a place to raise their family?”
Their lives were lived in the headlines, but RoseMarie wants people to know what they were really like.
“I think they were both kind and generous and warm and loyal friends. And I think they loved each other very much,” she said.