John F. Kennedy Jr.’s childhood friend denied that there was any friction between his sister, Caroline Kennedy, and his wife, Carolyn Bessette, on the day of their wedding.
Sasha Chermayeff addressed the long-swirling rumors in an exclusive interview with Page Six after alleged tensions between Carolyn and her sister-in-law were depicted in Hulu and FX’s “Love Story” series.
“People knew that there was some tensions between them as the two couples,” Chermayeff said, referring to John and Carolyn, and Caroline and her husband, Edwin Schlossberg.
“That was something that people did know, but it wasn’t really apparent at the wedding,” she added.
Chermayeff noted that all 40 guests at the intimate September 1996 wedding on a remote island off the coast of Georgia were “on their best behavior” and just “happy” for the bride and groom.
“At that point, there wasn’t a feeling of tension at all. It was just not there,” she doubled down.
While Caroline was Carolyn’s matron of honor, Chermayeff recalled the bridesmaid duties being handled by the bride’s mom, Ann Messina Freeman, and her sisters, Lisa and Lauren Bessette.
Bessette’s close friends Jessica Weinstein, Jules Birnbaum and Narciso Rodriguez — the latter of whom designed her wedding dress — were also by her side on the big day.
When asked if Caroline took on any bridesmaid duties, Chermayeff told us, “I’m not convinced that she had to do anything like that. I think Carolyn had her people pretty much with her.”
Instead, Chermayeff remembered Caroline spending much of the wedding weekend looking after her three little kids with Ed Schlossberg: Rose, Tatiana, who died in December 2025 from cancer, and Jack.
She also remembered Caroline joining John’s friends and family on the beach in the hours leading up to the rehearsal dinner.
The Ryan Murphy-produced FX drama illustrates a tumultuous relationship between Carolyn (Sarah Pidgeon) and Caroline (Grace Gummer).
In episode 4, Carolyn has an icy interaction with Caroline after John (Paul Anthony Kelly) invites the Calvin Klein publicist to his sister’s birthday dinner.
Signs of a strain between Carolyn and Caroline became even more evident in Thursday night’s episode, which depicts the lead-up to the wedding — as well as the wedding day itself.
In one scene, Carolyn and John get into an argument with Caroline and Ed over their wedding plans during a sit-down dinner.
When Carolyn explains that they want a small wedding because they are trying to avoid a “Kennedy spectacle,” Caroline spat back that she “hasn’t been included in any decisions” for the nuptials.
In another scene, Carolyn and her sister Lauren get into a fight after the former tells the latter that she is making Caroline her matron of honor.
“I don’t know what else to do to make her feel important,” Carolyn told her sister of Caroline, adding, “I can’t go into my wedding, my marriage, with her resenting me.”
When Lauren asked why Caroline would resent her, Carolyn replied, “For taking her only family left away from her. The Kennedys are like the Beatles. I feel like Yoko.”
Lauren, looking completely heartbroken, tells Carolyn, “This will mean nothing to [Caroline] and it would have meant everything to me.”
Later in the episode, Carolyn is seen getting her hair and makeup done before the wedding. While Carolyn is in one corner of the room with her mom and sisters, a very indifferent Caroline is shown sitting in a chair reading a book on the other side of the room.
Chermayeff — who refuses to watch the show about her late friends who tragically died in a plane crash on July 16, 1999 — pointed out that the writers and producers don’t know Carolyn or John.
“The way I look at it, [‘Love Story’] is just being made by a group of people that never met them, didn’t know them, and are just making it up as they go along,” she said.
Caroline’s rep did not respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
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