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At the height of her high-powered Calvin Klein career, Carolyn Bessette was forced to leave her job so her husband, John F. Kennedy Jr., could take center stage.
Sasha Chermayeff, JFK Jr.’s best friend from high school, exclusively spoke with Page Six about why Bessette left her PR position with the American fashion house after marrying the only son of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
“She left her job basically because everything had to revolve around John and George magazine,” Chermayeff said, referring to the political lifestyle magazine Kennedy Jr. co-founded in 1995.
Chermayeff also claimed there was a “conflict of interest” for advertisers because of the magazine’s crossover with fashion. (The first issue’s cover famously featured supermodel Cindy Crawford dressed as George Washington.)
“She was supposed to sort of give up everything in order to make his career moves more palatable for the world, and I feel sad about it,” Chermayeff said, adding that in the ’90s, women “weren’t really as important.”
Chermayeff wondered what Bessette could have accomplished had she stayed in the industry.
“She was a very smart girl… She was very, very well-read. She was interested in all kinds of things,” Chermayeff reminisced.
After graduating from Boston University, Bessette started working for the brand as saleswoman at a store located in a Massachusetts shopping mall. While working the floor, she was noticed by a traveling sales coordinator and was offered a position at the flagship store in New York City.
Bessette quickly worked her way up and began dressing Klein’s high-profile clients like Annette Bening and Diane Sawyer.
After being noticed by the designer himself, Bessette quickly rose up the ranks to become the director of show productions.
Her reign at the clothing company came to an abrupt end when she quit her job following her and Kennedy Jr.’s 1996 nuptials.
Episode 6 depicts the heartbreaking moment Bessette (Sarah Pidgeon) informs Klein (Alessandro Nivola) that she is quitting.
“I hope you know how deeply indebted I am to you — for your mentorship, your friendship — you’ve changed my life,” she says. “You saw something in me and fostered it and for that I am forever grateful, truly.
“I think it’s become apparent that I can no longer serve you or this company in the way we both would like.”
Klein, taken aback, responds by telling her he didn’t think that was where the conversation was going.
“I just think my presence here has become a bit of a distraction,” she explains, “My whole job is to promote your work and I can’t do that to my full ability.”
Bessette went on to explain that she knows the mayhem surrounding her relationship is only “temporary,” to which Klein disagrees.
“Don’t downplay it, Carolyn. You’re the realization of every woman’s dream. America’s son has chosen you. It’s not a temporary feat, it’s a masterstroke,” he spits back, before adding that he felt “blindsided.”
Bessette apologizes before walking out and leaving for good. The scene ends with Klein calling her out for choosing her friend, Narciso Rodriguez, to design her wedding gown over him.
In Thursday night’s episode, Bessette is seen struggling with the aftermath of leaving her job and feels lost without her PR position. Bessette then goes to a job interview with Klein’s competitor, Ralph Lauren, only to be stalked by the paparazzi on the way to the meeting.
While Bessette is grappling with her new life as Mrs. Kennedy, her husband is having issues with his magazine, from financial setbacks to disagreements with co-founder Michael J. Berman over the creative direction of the monthly mag.
The final issue of George Magazine was published in January 2001 — two years after Kennedy Jr. and Bessette died in a tragic 1999 plane crash. He was 38 and she was 33.
