JFK Jr.: The Man Behind The Myth, Ep. 3 -- "Is Daddy There?"

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