John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette were considering leaving New York City before their tragic deaths as it became increasingly difficult to endure the relentless paparazzi attention.
Sasha Chermayev, a close friend of JFK Jr., exclusively told Page Six that Bessette was house hunting in the suburbs shortly before the couple died in a 1999 plane crash.
“They were looking to buy a house outside the city, and she came and stayed here with me,” said Chermayev, who lives in upstate New York.
“(Bessette) was thinking that maybe we can’t live in New York City. Maybe we need to figure out a different life so we don’t have her tailed around us,” she said.
Kennedy Jr. and Bessette were considering other locations besides the Empire State.
“They were looking elsewhere (also). They were looking around,” Chermaykh said.
Bessette and Kennedy Jr. were considering a property with a long driveway that would put them far away from photographers, a friend of the late couple explained.
“She wanted freedom,” Chermaykh said. “She was hoping for some way to get through this, but she hadn’t found it yet.”
After Bessette and Kennedy Jr. married in 1996, Calvin Klein’s publicist rarely left her Tribeca apartment, “for fear” of hungry tabloids following her every move.
“She started to get a little agoraphobic,” Chermaykh said. “So many photographers just harassed (her).”
Bessette used to have a fun and fulfilling social life in downtown Manhattan, but she moved away from it all and started staying indoors.
“The next thing you know, you’re not going anywhere and you’re being followed,” she says. “It was tough. It was really, really tough.”
Kennedy Jr. was used to living in the spotlight, but Bessette didn’t really know what she was getting into when she married the son of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
“So John wasn’t struggling with[the media attention]; he was struggling with the fact that[Carolyn]was having a really hard time,” Charmaif said. “There was nothing wrong with him, I didn’t know anything else.
“All his life he had been a little center of attention in the world, and he was completely at peace with that and completely used to it.”
The Istanbul honeymoon was a “harsh wake-up call” for Bessette, Chermaykh said.
“Istanbul was very special, but I think it was also the beginning of their realization that they were going to be followed everywhere,” Chermaykh recalled. “Carolyn was beginning to realize that getting off the plane far away didn’t guarantee privacy.”
Bessette and Kennedy Jr. had a miraculous moment of complete privacy during their secret wedding on Cumberland Island, a secluded island off the coast of Georgia.
Helicopters circled the Greyfield Inn, where guests were preparing for the wedding, Charmaif recalled. However, all 40 attendees were able to sneak out of the grounds in a jeep and arrive at the ceremony venue undetected.
“We lost the helicopter and couldn’t find the car,” she said. “We were really lucky that the beautiful ceremony was held quietly with water and not in front of the press.”
“We were all happy about it. They just didn’t find us. So it’s like a miracle,” she said.
Bessette’s love for Kennedy Jr. never wavered, despite the heightened tensions caused by the media buzz surrounding their marriage.
“So, what can I say? It was like electricity. It wasn’t for show,” Chermayf said. “There was so much energy between them. You could always see it and feel it.”
