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Meet Carolyn Bessette’s low profile parents, Ann Messina and William Bessette

STORYSumnima Kandangwa
In Love Story, Constance Zimmer (second from left) plays Ann Messina, Carolyn Bessette’s mum. Photo: @constancezimmer/Instagram
In Love Story, Constance Zimmer (second from left) plays Ann Messina, Carolyn Bessette’s mum. Photo: @constancezimmer/Instagram
Celebrity Families

The teacher and engineer split when their daughter was eight – and the show seems to note she was later estranged from her dad

JFK Jr, the son of former US president John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy, lived his life in the spotlight and was even adoringly dubbed the “Prince of America” by the media. Not surprisingly, his wife Carolyn Bessette, a former Calvin Klein publicist, found herself thrust into the limelight following their relationship.
Paul Anthony Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon play the titular characters in Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr & Carolyn Bessette. Photo: FX/AP
Paul Anthony Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon play the titular characters in Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr & Carolyn Bessette. Photo: FX/AP
Throughout Ryan Murphy’s ongoing Love Story: JFK Jr. & Carolyn Bessette series, we get insights into their highly publicised romance, tumultuous marriage and eventual death in a plane crash in 1999. However, viewers hardly get a glimpse into Bessette’s family life, with only passing remarks made about her father in the first episode and her mother Ann Messina, played by Constance Zimmer, only appearing in the show’s later episodes.
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Carolyn Bessette was thrust into the limelight when she started seeing JFK Jr. Photo: Getty Images
Carolyn Bessette was thrust into the limelight when she started seeing JFK Jr. Photo: Getty Images

So who are Carolyn Bessette’s parents, Ann Messina and William Bessette – the latter the show seems to note she was estranged from? Read on to find out.

They divorced when Bessette was eight years old

Ann Marie Messina and William Bessette welcomed their youngest daughter, Carolyn, in January 1966. Their twin daughters, Lauren and Lisa Ann, were born 18 months earlier, per The New York Times.

Messina worked as a teacher, reportedly in New York’s public school system, while William was an architectural engineer.

The couple lived in White Plains, New York, and raised their family there until their divorce in 1974, when Bessette was eight. Messina went on to remarry and wed Richard Freeman, an orthopaedic surgeon, and relocated with Bessette and her sisters to Old Greenwich, Connecticut.

Their relationship with Carolyn Bessette

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