"She was very level-headed, she wasn't drama, and I think he liked that about her," says RoseMarie Terenzio, a former executive assistant to JFK Jr. and friend of the Bessette sisters
Credit: Lawrence Schwartzwald/Sygma via Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- John F. Kennedy Jr. saw his sister-in-law Lauren Bessette as a “voice of reason” throughout his relationship to Carolyn Bessette Kennedy
- “She was very level-headed, she wasn’t drama, and I think he liked that about her,” says RoseMarie Terenzio, JFK Jr.’s former executive assistant and a friend of the Bessette sisters
- Lauren returned to New York the year before she tragically died in a plane crash alongside her sister Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and JFK Jr. in 1999
John F. Kennedy Jr. admired his sister-in-law, Lauren Bessette, the older sister of his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, as a grounding force in the couple’s whirlwind life.
“They had a good relationship," RoseMarie Terenzio, Kennedy’s executive assistant during the last five years of his life and a friend of the Bessette sisters, tells PEOPLE. "John had a lot of respect for Lauren."
“I think he trusted her judgment, for the most part,” Terenzio says. “I think he felt like she knew Carolyn — her family knew her better than anybody — and I think he felt like Lauren had really good insights."
"She was very level-headed, she wasn't drama, and I think he liked that about her. She was the voice of reason, so to speak, a lot of times," Terenzio adds.
Credit: Lawrence Schwartzwald/Sygma via Getty
Terenzio, now a publicist in New York, has written two books that draw from her time with John and Carolyn: Fairy Tale Interrupted, released in 2012, and JFK Jr: An Intimate Oral Biography, the 2024 bestseller she co-authored with PEOPLE editor-at-large Liz McNeil.
Carolyn introduced Terenzio to Lauren, a beguiling 30-something freshly reveling in the New York City life, after several years abroad in Hong Kong for Morgan Stanley. Lauren joined the banking giant in 1986 following her graduation from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, N.Y., where she majored in economics.
Lauren quickly climbed the corporate ladder — pausing briefly to earn a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business — and had recently been made a principal when she died.
“Lauren was amazing, she was so funny and so smart,” Terenzio says. Carolyn, she adds, was proud “of everything that [Lauren] had accomplished.”
Credit: Courtesy
Others in Lauren’s orbit felt similarly. “She was exceptional,” Patrick McGuire, one of Lauren’s professors at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, told The Associated Press for her 1999 obituary. Daniel McGowan, another professor, told The New York Observer, “You would like to have a roomful of Laurens.”
Veteran BBC correspondent Fergal Keane wrote shortly after her death that Lauren, whom he met while working and living in China, “had the gift of a formidable intellect” and was “one of the most vibrant women I’ve ever met.” A candlelight service in Greenwich, Conn. — the Bessette sisters’ hometown — on the first anniversary of the plane crash was held, notably, in Lauren’s name.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Despite having perhaps been deserving of one, Lauren did not appear to crave the spotlight or lead with her accomplishments.
“We’d go out for drinks, and when people would ask, ‘What do you do?’ she’d answer, ‘I work at a bank,’ ” Terenzio wrote in Fairy Tale Interrupted. “I asked, ‘Why do you say it like you’re a teller?’ ”
“She wasn’t pretentious,” Terenzio says now. “She wasn't trying to downplay herself; she was very confident. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh no, I'm not that big of a deal.’ It wasn’t like that. It was more a matter of fact, like, ‘That's what I do for a living, but that's not who I am.’ ”
Read the full article here
