JFK Jr: The Man Behind The Myth

"Politics is about triumph and loss," John F. #Kennedy Jr. remarked at the launch of his new political magazine George on September 8, 1995. At age 34, he could not possibly have known that he had less than four years left to live, and just how self-eulogizing those words would ultimately turn out to be. John interviewed the Reverend Billy Graham (one of his personal heroes) for an issue of George in 1996. He led the interview with a startlingly deep spiritual question: "In this life, where does our own free will end and God's will begin?" John inquired. "Are we always responsible for our own actions, or is there a point at which God's will takes over? "We have tremendous responsibility ourselves because God has given us a will of our own," Rev. Graham counseled him. Those wise words would guide #JFKJr through the many important life choices that lay ahead: his choice of making Carolyn Bessette his wife, his choice to start a magazine against all odds; his choice of where, when, and how to enter elected politics, and ultimately that fateful choice to fly his private plane over the Atlantic Ocean on the dark night of July 16, 1999. Join me for the final episode of my biography podcast series "JFK Jr: The Man Behind The Myth, Ep. 7 -- Triumph and Loss" Sunday Sept. 21 at 7 PM Eastern. Listen to all episodes of the JFK Jr. series in this playlist. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE0M1qzXbdpukTc7NdnR2nBaHeeRT0k9a Follow me on X: http://x.com/@RealLoriSpencer On Facebook: http://Facebook.com/RealLoriSpencer Subscribe on Rumble for UNCENSORED videos YouTube won't let me show you! http://Rumble.com/LoriSpencer My blog: http://LoriSpencer.WordPress.com My Substack: http://RealLoriSpencer.Substack.com Join as a monthly member at: http://Patreon.com/LoriSpencer http://BuyMeACoffee.com/LoriSpencer Buy me a book from my Wishlist for a future book club reading! http://GiftApp.com/RealLoriSpencer

In Episode 6 of “JFK Jr: The Man Behind The Myth,” John F. Kennedy Jr. is all grown up, and now America's most eligible bachelor. People Magazine heralded him as "the sexiest man alive" of 1988 -- an issue that sold more copies than any other in the magazine's history. His matinee-idol good looks utterly captivated women, and John gave them what they wanted every time he whipped off his shirt in public, seemingly happy to let press photographers take cheesecake shots of his flawless physique. The world's most famous women lined up to date him; from Madonna to Sarah Jessica Parker to Daryl Hannah (with whom he would have a stormy five year relationship that nearly led them to the altar twice). All the while John continued to date his old standby non-famous girlfriends like Christina Haag and Sally Munro, whom he maintained deep feelings for. Despite his playboy reputation, John was still searching for "the one" -- and he finally met her, completely by chance, in 1993 while he was living with Daryl Hannah. Young Carolyn Bessette was the girl that struck him like lightning, as no other woman had affected John before. He was also looking for a career path. John spent four years working as an Assistant D.A. in Manhattan, and as a clerk in President Ronald Reagan's Justice Department. He flirted with the #Kennedy family business of nonprofit philanthropy as he worked to improve the lives of those less fortunate in New York City, and made his stunning political debut as a featured speaker at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. In the late 80s and early 90s, the world truly was John's oyster. It seemed that he was on track for a bright future in whatever he wanted to do. John was still figuring out his life path, in no great rush, and simply enjoying the ride. After all, being #JFKJr was a lot of fun (as he freely admitted)! Then, John's perfect world crumbled around him in late 1993, when Jacqueline Kennedy #Onassis was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. And once again -- as he had so many times before in his young life -- John prepared to lose yet another loved one; the person who had always been closest to him; the only steadfast presence he had ever really known, his mother. Listen to “JFK Jr: The Man Behind The Myth, Ep. 6 -- Sexiest Man Alive" on YouTube, Substack, Rumble, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow me on X: http://x.com/@RealLoriSpencer On Facebook: http://Facebook.com/RealLoriSpencer Subscribe on Rumble for UNCENSORED videos YouTube won't let me show you! http://Rumble.com/LoriSpencer My blog: http://LoriSpencer.WordPress.com My Substack: http://RealLoriSpencer.Substack.com Join as a monthly member at: http://Patreon.com/LoriSpencer http://BuyMeACoffee.com/LoriSpencer Buy me a book from my Wishlist for a future book club reading! http://GiftApp.com/RealLoriSpencer

In Episode 5 of "JFK Jr: The Man Behind The Myth," we follow the trajectory of young John F. #Kennedy Jr.'s life as he matured into his late teens -- and experienced his first taste of freedom. John was finally free from the abusive home of Aristotle #Onassis; freed at age 16 from his assigned Secret Service detail; free to travel without parental supervision; free to live in a campus dorm at Andover and later, his own pad at Brown University; free to speak for himself in public press conferences and speeches; free to start dating girls and party with the boys; free to pursue his passion for acting, and, free to work his first paying job as a cowboy on the ranch of Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow. It was Barlow (a private pilot himself) who introduced John to the ultimate exercise in freedom: flying. John took his first lessons in the cockpit from Barlow -- a secret they conspired to keep from John's mother Jackie, who forbade both of her children from pursuing their dreams of becoming hobbyist aviators. Haunted by recurring, terrifying premonitions of her son dying in a plane crash, flying was the one freedom Jackie absolutely would not allow John to have. Tragically, Jackie's nightmares would later manifest in the worst imaginable way. Listen to "#JFKJr: The Man Behind The Myth, Ep. 5 -- Free At Last" on Rumble, YouTube, Substack, or wherever you get your podcasts. Playlist of all episodes: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE0M1qzXbdpu2nk0L1chRm3XEWLbsnenb&si=Hw0oeiNSiGYSR_wx

Our exploration of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s life continues this week with a deep dive into the tumultuous and often troubled second marriage of John's mother Jackie to Aristotle Onassis. In Episode 4 of my podcast series “JFK Jr: The Man Behind The Myth — Mr. Onassis” we find young #JFKJr and his sister Caroline #Kennedy struggling to adjust to a new father figure in their lives amid the strange new environment of a remote Greek island, and with two new siblings -- Ari's children Alexander and Christina (both of whom hated Jackie O. with a passion). What started as a loving, happy marriage quickly deteriorated into loud arguments, emotional abuse, manipulation, and even physical abuse -- which John witnessed. Tragedy struck again when Ari's son Alexander (a skilled pilot who was one of John's early teachers) died from injuries suffered in an aviation accident. The man John always called "Mr. Onassis" fell into a dark depression and became increasingly violent, erratic; paranoid. Finally, Ari called on the infamous lawyer Roy Cohn to arrange for his divorce from "the Black Widow." And once more, another father figure John had closely bonded with in his life was suddenly gone. Join me for the live YouTube premiere of Ep. 4, "Mr. #Onassis" Sat. Aug. 30 at 7 PM Eastern. Listen to all episodes of “JFK Jr: The Man Behind The Myth” in this playlist. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXBcSYiYQxlfxTmjwtxC00rw0G40QKhr8&si=gp9fX93zjGIobHNE

The young prince of Camelot John F. #Kennedy, Jr. spent the first thousand days of his life in the White House being doted on by two loving parents — then, suddenly, one was just…gone. Of course, many young children lose a parent through death or divorce, but #JFKJr.’s dilemma was unique: his dad was the slain President of the United States, whose funeral, watched on TV by millions, happened to fall on John’s third birthday. From that dark day forward, young John was in constant search of the father he knew so intimately, yet couldn’t remember. Unlike his older sister Caroline, John had no memory of his dad. His widowed mother Jacqueline Kennedy had many crosses to bear after November 22, 1963; not the least of which was making sure that John had some semblance of a father figure in his life. Friends, family, household staff, cabinet members, even Secret Service agents all stepped up and did their best to give the boy as normal of a childhood as possible. But one by one, they all faded away — either because his mother felt they were trying to replace Jack and pushed them out of the inner circle, or, in the case of Uncle Bobby, death took them out of John’s world — leaving deep scars on his psyche and creating a fear of abandonment that would haunt JFK Jr. for the rest of his life. In Episode 3 of my podcast series “JFK Jr: The Man Behind The Myth — Is Daddy There?” we explore the confusing merry-go-round of surrogate fathers who tried to fill John’s empty spaces, and how every man he bonded with in his young life would eventually leave him — wondering what happened, where they had gone, and why. Listen to all episodes of “JFK Jr: The Man Behind The Myth” in this playlist. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXBcSYiYQxlfxTmjwtxC00rw0G40QKhr8&si=Pb4J55ar8TcXbvUd

John F. Kennedy, Jr. was an Adonis-turned-Icarus, a man who wore great expectations lightly and was always searching. What exactly #JFKJr was searching for, he wasn't exactly sure just yet. Still in his mid-30s, John had plenty of time to figure it out. Despite intense pressure from the Democratic party to throw his hat into elected politics, and constant questions from reporters about when he might start a family with his new bride Carolyn Bessette-#Kennedy, John seemed quite content for the time being just keeping his nose to the grindstone in the New York City offices of his magazine, "George." But beneath his ever-cool exterior, John Kennedy was feeling the walls starting to close in during the final months of his life. Powerful New York politicos were pushing him to run for the Senate seat soon to be vacated by Sen. Daniel Moynihan; while at the same time "George" was floundering financially. “It’s my name in the editor in chief position,” John said. “And if the magazine works or doesn’t work, people will say, it’s John Kennedy’s magazine.” As the only son of President Kennedy, who now carried the heavy dreams of a disillusioned Generation X upon his shoulders, failure was not an option for JFK Jr. His private life was in turmoil, too. During the early summer of 1999, John's best friend Anthony Radziwell was dying of cancer. John and Carolyn fought frequently, were in marriage counseling, and under 24/7/365 surveillance by the unforgiving paparazzi's watchful zoom lenses. At the controls of his private plane -- a newly-purchased Piper Saratoga -- was the only place he felt truly free. Taking to the skies for weekend getaways, like his cousin Rory Kennedy's wedding on July 16, 1999, was John's only temporary respite from Manhattan Madness. John had even managed to convince his reluctant wife Carolyn to accompany him home to Hyannisport that weekend (after a good deal of prodding from her sister Lauren), perhaps hoping that a family wedding might rekindle some of that old spark between them. And that's where my new podcast series "JFK Jr.: The Man Behind The Myth" begins, with EPISODE ONE: "A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S BAD DREAM." Full playlist of all episodes here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXBcSYiYQxlfxTmjwtxC00rw0G40QKhr8&si=MFNQCKgaCqEJBWya

This week, on Episode 2 of "JFK Jr.: The Man Behind The Myth," I'll be sharing a personal story about my eight year friendship with John F. Kennedy, Jr. from 1991-1999. For more than three decades, I chose to keep my memories of John private because I had no desire to publicize the good times we shared, or feed the public's insatiable thirst for gossip about a dead celebrity. It wasn't until the 25th anniversary of John's death approached that I began to feel bothered by how his life is being inaccurately portrayed to a younger generation that doesn't remember him. In today's social media clickbait world, John is sold as a handsome-but-stupid rich nepobaby. He and his wife Carolyn are now reduced to mere 90s fashion models; shallow, empty suits. Then there's the trashy books and podcasts by "mean girl journalists" like Maureen Callahan that peddle a false portrait of John as a philandering playboy cad who collected sexual conquests the way some people collect baseball cards. Even more annoying are the new documentaries about John being a flawless, faultless "American Prince," (he wasn't) or John and Carolyn's perfect "American Love Story" (it wasn't), or never-ending nonsensical video "bombshells" on the internuts claiming that he was the victim of a political murder conspiracy because John ran against Hillary Clinton for a Senate seat (he didn't). Most disturbing of all is the painful falsehood perpetuated (and apparently, believed) by QAnon that John, Carolyn, and her sister Lauren Bessette are somehow still alive, under the watchful eye of the Witness Protection Program, and that one day, John will re-emerge as a future running mate of President Donald Trump. I finally had enough of these outrageous lies and felt compelled to speak the truth; to tell the world who the real John Kennedy was -- or at least, what I knew of him over years of friendship. The John I knew wasn't at all like what you read about in the funny papers. The John I knew was wild about music (it was our mutual love of the blues that brought us into each other's orbit). The John I knew was a gentle, intelligent, kind, funny, and honorable man who deserves to be remembered and celebrated. He deserves better than the drivel you'll find when you Google his name today. My frustrations came to a boiling point on the 24th anniversary of John's funeral, during a Maverick News broadcast. That was the only time I've ever told the story of our friendship in public, so here it is again if you missed it back in July of 2023. I hope you enjoy this uplifting, fun story and come away appreciating what John was really like in private, when the cameras and eyes of the world weren't watching him -- because that's when a person's true character emerges. Meet the real John #Kennedy in Ep. 2 of "#JFKJr.: The Man Behind The Myth" Saturday, Aug. 16 at 7 PM Eastern. #carolynbessette #jfk #thekennedys #history