Jann Wenner says the marriage of John F. Kennedy Jr. was on the rocks when he died.
In his forthcoming memoir, “Like a Rolling Stone,” out September 13, the rock ‘n’ roll magazine founder reveals that he died just two weeks before Kennedy died while piloting a small plane in July 1999 with the political scion. spoke.
“His marriage was on the rocks,” Wenner writes. “He had flown after sunset, two hours late, chose a route over open water despite poor visibility, rather than along the well-lit shoreline.”
The private plane also carried Kennedy’s wife, Carolyn Bessette, and her sister, Lauren. Wenner, who had been invited to the small church service, said that the first person he saw at the service was Kennedy’s niece Maria Shriver and that the two “fell into each other’s arms, crying. I loved John. He was my good friend, a little brother, and now a mythological fallen prince.”
Wenner adored his friend — he even called Kennedy a guardian for his children if something happened to Wenner — but nonetheless offers an honest portrait of the George Magazine co-founder.
He remembers attending a Rolling Stones concert in the Meadowlands with Kennedy.
“I said I’d get the tickets if he brought the drugs,” Wenner wrote. “Once we parked, he pulled out a foot long bong, as if we were going to take him to our seats. Very Jan.”
He also believes that the son of assassinated President John F. Kennedy should have been a politician himself.
“We had often discussed what he wanted to do; it was assumed that he would run for the office. I thought so,” Wenner writes. “He had the communal touch, spoke earnestly and was a compassionate person. In fact, he was polite, funny and a great guy.
“He also had a temper, was impetuous and sometimes reckless.”
Wenner confesses that the two argued in the months leading up to Kennedy’s death.
“John was rambunctious and too hot-tempered. He wouldn’t call me back,” he writes, explaining that the bitterness started when Kennedy’s cousin Anthony Radziwill asked him what he “really thought about George.” [magazine]’ and ‘repeated it to John, who thought I pissed him off in town. I shouldn’t have been so direct with Anthony, but I thought it all ran in the family; on reflection, that would have only made it worse.”
The two reconciled with the help of a little prodding from Maria Shriver. Kennedy died just a few weeks later.
Wenner was also close friends with Kennedy’s sister, Caroline, and his mother, Jackie Onassis.
“I loved the time I spent with Jackie,” Wenner writes. “Being in public, even walking, was like being in a beautiful and shiny sunlit bubble. People looked at her, gave way to her. She seemed to enchant them. The power was strong. We had many lunches.”
He also reveals that the former first lady liked to gossip “about rock stars and movie people and whoever is in the news.”
Wenner’s last lunch with Onassis was in late April 1994. The two spoke of her children and “her grief over her sister Lee [Radziwill]’s anger at her, how Lee just wouldn’t let it go.’
He recalls that the 64-year-old had “a strange dry cough.” I had no idea she was being treated for cancer. She was dead two weeks later.”