Carolyn Bessette and Gwyneth Paltrow were both beautiful, blonde, 5ft 9in tall, cool characters representing the epitome of nineties minimalism style.
But the Calvin Klein publicist and future bride of JFK Jr. was reportedly not a fan of the now 53-year-old nepo baby of Blythe Danner, who was a VIP client of the fashion house long before she won an Oscar for Shakespeare in Love in 1999.
Klein, now 83, would throw parties in Paltrow’s honor, lent her his helicopter and she would hold court front row at his fashion shows all over the world.
This was confirmed on February 18 by former Calvin Klein staffer Kara Mendelsohn, who revealed Klein literally ‘had her helicoptered in’ to attend one of his runway extravaganzas in 1998.
‘One of the publicists on the brand’s small team who helped Gwyneth was Carolyn Bessette,’ author Amy Odell wrote in Gwyneth: The Biography last July, which has been resurfaced by fans in the wake of TV drama, Love Story.
‘According to one person familiar with her thinking, Gwyneth irked her. When there were pictures of Gwyneth in the papers, Bessette, who viewed her as “little miss perfect,” would make cutting remarks about her.’
Unlike Paltrow, Bessette graduated college, Boston University, and she didn’t have famous family connections to help her career.
The Connecticut-born beauty worked her way up from a Calvin Klein salesgirl at the Chestnut Hill Mall in Newton, MA in 1988 to the director of publicity at the company’s flagship store in Manhattan to earning six figures as director of show productions.
Bessette quit the brand in the spring of 1996 due to intense paparazzi harassment, and a few months later she wed George editor-in-chief John F. Kennedy Jr. but the marriage ended in 1999 with their tragic deaths in an avoidable plane crash.
And while Paltrow’s second husband Brad Falchuk is a longtime producing partner of Ryan Murphy, he was not involved in his hit miniseries, Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette, which became FX’s most-watched limited series ever on Hulu/Disney+.
Creator Connor Hines’ fictionalized nine-episode drama, based on Elizabeth Beller’s 2024 book Once Upon a Time, earned a ‘certified fresh’ 81 percent critic approval rating (out of 47 reviews) on Rotten Tomatoes.
Love Story starred Sarah Pidgeon, Paul Anthony Kelly, Grace Gummer, Naomi Watts, Alessandro Nivola, Dree Hemingway, Tonatiuh, Constance Zimmer, Sydney Lemmon, Donal Logue, Jessica Harper, Michael Nathanson and Leila George.
Meanwhile, Paltrow has passed down her substantial collection of vintage Calvin Klein skirts, tube skirts and slip dresses to her lookalike daughter Apple Martin.
The 21-year-old Vanderbilt University student donned the same plunging backless Calvin Klein LBD her famous mother wore to the Emma premiere in 1996, to the Marty Supreme premiere on December 16.
‘My absolute favorite stuff is her old Calvin Klein from the nineties,’ Martin told Interview last year.
‘Going into her archive closet is just heaven on earth.’
Last month, the Goop CEO-founder signed on to executive produce and star in producer Stacey Sher and playwright Heidi Schreck’s adaptation of Belle Burden’s new bestseller Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage, which will stream on Netflix.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Paltrow’s representatives for comment.
