EDITOR’S NOTE: Watch the three-part NCS Original Series “American Prince: JFK Jr.” premiering August 9 at 9 p.m, ET/PT and operating the next two Saturday nights.
John F. Kennedy Jr. was born into the Kennedy political dynasty within the early 1960’s simply after his father was elected president of the United States of America.
Now 26 years after his dying, his life is embedded into politics and tradition.
“JFK Jr. was harnessing his celebrity into something meaningful, and most people don’t bother to do that,” Tabitha Soren, a former MTV News correspondent, mentioned.
Here are 5 issues you need to find out about him from the upcoming NCS Original Series “American Prince: JFK Jr.”
Kennedy was the primary son of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, born in 1960. His delivery, only a few weeks after his father was elected because the thirty fifth president of the United States, made the entrance web page of each main newspaper.
Kennedy grew up within the highlight, and the whole lot from his skilled decisions to his relationship life was the main target of tabloid fodder – together with public relationships with actresses Sarah Jessica Parker and Daryl Hannah. Kennedy went on to marry Carolyn Bessette, an American vogue publicist, within the fall of 1996. The couple quietly wed in a ceremony off the coast of Georgia earlier than settling into an condominium in Manhattan – however the couple remained below intense media scrutiny up via, and after, their deaths in 1999.
“You kind of grew up being this public figure even before you knew you were a public figure,” mentioned Oprah Winfrey, throughout a broadcast with Kennedy.
Steve Gillon, a good friend of Kennedy, mentioned, “You have to realize that JFK came to power just as television was becoming the primary source for people getting their news.”
Even although the media affectionately referred to JFK Jr. as “John-John,” the nickname was solely utilized by the general public and barely, if ever, by his family. The nickname, which was mistakenly given to him by a reporter who misheard his father repeating his name in succession, stays within the political zeitgeist.
“I promise you, his sister didn’t call him John-John, his mother, no one in his family, even like the extended cousin ever called him John-John,” mentioned Carole Radziwill, a Kennedy member of the family.
Studies within the US and India
Kennedy studied American historical past at Brown University and graduated in 1983. Even although he tried to solid his superstar apart, folks flocked to his “JK factor,” a time period Kennedy himself coined.
“There was always that kind of special, he got a little bit special treatment that the rest of us didn’t get,” recalled former Brown classmate and good friend of Kennedy Gary Ginsberg. During his undergraduate research, Kennedy balanced his familial obligations together with his skilled, together with his marketing campaign work for his uncle, Ted Kennedy, who was operating for president.
Freshly graduated from Brown, a 23-year-old Kennedy went to India the place he studied on the University of Delhi.
“He always said, you know, I don’t want to do what people expect me to do. He needed to do something that stood out,” mentioned Gillon.
Gillon mentioned Kennedy typically despatched letters during which he alluded to the long run, and whereas in India, Kennedy considered regulation college as a attainable profession step.
Kennedy earned his regulation diploma from New York University Law in 1989, however he couldn’t escape the press throughout his time in regulation college or after. “There is an intense amount of scrutiny around what is John F. Kennedy Jr.’s thing going to be,” mentioned NCS contributor and political historian Leah Wright Rigueur.
While fielding incessant questions on his political aspirations, Kennedy continued down the authorized path and took the New York bar examination, which he failed twice. Front pages ran wild with headlines like “The Hunk Flunks,” however by the third strive, he handed.
Perhaps Kennedy’s crowning skilled legacy was the George, a shiny month-to-month journal overlaying the intersection of politics, tv, artwork and tradition. Kennedy and his enterprise accomplice, Michael J. Berman, labored with writer Hachette Filipacchi Media US to launch the journal within the fall of 1995. With magazines as highly effective in driving dialog as social media is at this time, the George labored to show folks on to politics: “Politics is much too important to be left only to the politicians,” Kennedy mentioned.
The provocative debut cowl featured supermodel Cindy Crawford dressed as George Washington.
“George was a huge risk for John. Look, George was a risk for any person wanting to start a magazine,” mentioned Lisa Depaulo, a journalist at George.
Even with the recognition of magazines, the emergence of figures like Rush Limbaugh and Bill Clinton created an area for political leisure not but seen. Kennedy’s fierce competitiveness and innate reputation labored in his favor. On its launch day, the journal bought half one million copies, making it probably the most profitable debut in journal historical past.