JFK Jr's assistant reveals her torment over urging Carolyn Bessette to board that ill-fated flight

Almost 12 years after JFK Jr and his wife Carolynn Bessette's untimely deaths, his assistant has revealed how she talked his wife into taking the flight the couple perished on.

RoseMarie Terenzio, 44, was John F Kennedy Jr's personal assistant, publicist and one of his closest confidantes during the last five years of his life.

In her book, 'Fairy Tale Interrupted', she reveals that the couple were having serious troubles in their marriage and Carolyn had initially refused to join John on that ill-fated flight on July 16, 1999.

Tragic: John F. Kennedy Jr and wife Carolyn Bessette are pictured here outside their
New York City apartment soon after they wedded in secret in 1996

With their marriage under intense strain, Carolyn, a Calvin Klein executive, who struggled with the constant media attention her husband attracted, had said she was not going to join him at his cousin Rory's wedding on July 17.

John,39, who ran George magazine, had told RoseMarie that Carolyn was determined to stay at home and that he was not 'going to fight with her about it', she recalls in People Magazine.

But RoseMarie tried to change her mind.

'I'm not a priority,' she said. It's always something else. George. Somebody getting fired. A trip to meet advertisers. I just want some normal married time. I'm exhausted' RoseMarie remembers Carolyn telling her.

But RoseMarie said she urged Carolyn to take the flight and go to the wedding in Massachusetts.

'I know. But now's not the time to take a stand. His whole family's going to be at this wedding.

Listen. You don't want to put yourself in a position of being judged, you get enough of that.

'Go get a dress and I'll get you a car to the airport.' RoseMarie told her, according to People.
As he left, John had thanked RoseMarie was talking Carolyn around.

'He turned to me and said, 'Rose you're the best. Thanks for smoothing things over.'

Hours later, John's plane crashed in the Atlantic Ocean near Martha's Vinyard, Massachusetts killing him, Carolyn and her sister Lauren.

After the tragic, untimely deaths, RoseMarie said her whole world came crashing down around her, along with her hopes for the future.

'I don't feel responsible for what happened, but I will certainly always have the feeling that I should have kept my mouth shut and not told Carolyn to get on the plane,' said RoseMarie reports People magazine.

Only now as the head of her own public relations company, is RoseMarie finally ready to tell her story, giving a very real insight into the lives of the tragic couple.

'John was more than a mannequin of good looks and privilege; Carolyn was not this uptight, cold and guarded person,' RoseMarie told People magazine.

Writing the book 'felt like paying tribute to them. It felt really good.'

In her book, RoseMarie reveals John and Carolyn's sometimes tumultuous relationship and the strain Carolyn felt from the constant media attention after their secret wedding in September 1996.

'Whenever she went out - to get coffee, walk the dog, or meet a friend - they were there, pushing in close and shouting things like wh*re and b**ch. If they could break her perfect exterior, it would be an instant story,' RoseMarie says in the report by People.

'Carolyn retreated into herself. Unfortunately John didn't understand. 'Just don't pay attention to it. I don't,' he said.

'I knew that John's dismissive attitude was due to his frustration. He couldn't protect his wife. He should have told her as much - I know she really wanted to hear it,' she added.

The book also gives an insight into the couple's more loving relationship and how John proposed to Carolyn on a fishing trip.

RoseMarie revealed to People; 'The couple teased each other a lot, one Valentine's Day there was some tabloid story about him cheating, so she sent him flowers from all these famous models and actresses, like Pamela Anderson. He thought it was hilarious.'

She added that she felt the marriage became strained because they struggled to find 'peaceful marriage time' amongst the media frenzy and the magazine struggling.

RoseMarie also delves into how she planned the couple's secret wedding on Georgia's Cumberland Island as well as their tragic funeral and how she struggled to cope with their deaths.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2088456/JFK-Jrs-assistant-reveals-torment-urging-Carolyn-Bessette-board-ill-fated-flight.html#ixzz1jyzTM1Hm