Carole Radziwill expected her return to “The Real Housewives of New York City” to feel like coming home. Instead, filming overlapped with the release of a Hulu series that dragged one of the most painful chapters of her life back into the spotlight. The journalist, 63, began filming Season 16 of “RHONY” in early 2026, around the same time FX aired “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette.”
The Ryan Murphy-produced series dramatized the relationship between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, both of whom Carole knew personally through her late husband, Anthony Radziwill.
Anthony was JFK Jr.’s first cousin. He died from cancer only weeks after JFK Jr., Carolyn, and her sister Lauren Bessette were killed in a July 1999 plane crash.
Why Was ‘Love Story’ So Difficult for Carole Radziwill?
Carole told USA Today that the timing caught her off guard.
“That show, really, it was like a body slam. I didn’t watch it, but you couldn’t get away from it,” she said. “Martha Stewart watched it. The other women on the cast watched it and were curious about this and that.”
She admitted she had not expected to revisit that period while filming.
“It was very hard… I hadn’t planned on talking about it. I wrote about it. I think people sometimes conflate talking and writing. What I had to say about that time in my life, I wrote in a book [the memoir What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love],” Carole said.
What Did Carole Radziwill Say About JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette?
GettyCarole said she resisted requests to explain how accurately “Love Story” portrayed people she knew.
“At some point I said, ‘It’s not my job to tell people what they were really like, because the minute you put down anything on paper, or even talk about it in a way, it changes it.”
She added, “They were wonderfully complex people, and all that that entails. I don’t know what they were like on the show. I’m sure it was probably more black and white.”
How Did Grief Affect Carole Radziwill’s ‘RHONY’ Return?
BravoCarole said her grief resurfaced throughout production.
“It’s a little grief that I felt, almost the whole time I was filming… You’ll see the arc of that story throughout, I think, the whole season [of RHONY],” she told USA Today.
“Certainly in the beginning, and then it comes up really big at the end, and that was completely unplanned.”
She also credited therapy and writing with helping her process the losses over time.
“I think writing about it really helped because then I felt like I own that story. This is my story. This did happen. I knew these people. This is who they were,” she said.
How Does Carole Radziwill Feel About the Story Today?
After “Love Story” premiered, Carole reflected on the attention surrounding the Kennedy story in a Substack post.
“But now I am at peace with it all,” she wrote. “I no longer worry about misrepresentations, false narratives, or bent truths. I don’t flinch at flat, lifeless descriptions or cornball storylines. I don’t care whether people get it wrong, get it right, or ever know what they were really like.”
“The Real Housewives of New York City” Season 16 premieres Tuesday, September 8, on Bravo and streams the following day on Peacock.
