What to Know About Carolyn Bessette's Sister Lauren, a Wall Street Exec Who Was Also Killed In Their 1999 Plane Crash
What to Know About Carolyn Bessette's Sister Lauren, a Wall Street Exec Who Was Also Killed In Their 1999 Plane Crash
Michael NiedThu, March 26, 2026 at 12:00 PM UTC
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Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and John Kennedy Jr. in May 1999 ; Lauren Bessette.Credit: Jonathan Elderfield/Getty ; Globe Photos/Shutterstock -
Carolyn Bessette had older twin sisters, Lisa and Lauren
Lauren Bessette was a successful executive who was fluent in Mandarin
She was killed in a July 16, 1999, plane crash alongside Carolyn and her husband, John F. Kennedy Jr.
The tragic loss of three young lives — Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, Lauren Bessette and John F. Kennedy Jr., who all died in a July 16, 1999, plane crash — reverberate to this day.
Lauren and her twin sister Lisa were born to parents Ann Freeman and William Bessette on Nov. 5, 1964. They were older sisters to Carolyn, the former Calvin Klein employee who married into the Kennedy family in a private ceremony on Sept. 21, 1996.
Lauren was killed alongside her sister and her brother-in-law when their plane — which JFK Jr. was piloting — crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, where the couple was planning on dropping off Lauren on the way to Rory Kennedy's wedding in Hyannis Port, Mass.
Although Lauren led a more private life than her sister, she has been remembered for her pioneering work in the finance industry and her close bond with Carolyn.
“Lauren was amazing,” RoseMarie Terenzio, JFK Jr.'s executive assistant during the last five years of his life and a friend of the two Bessette sisters, told PEOPLE in March 2026. “She was really fun and funny and really smart.”
Here’s everything to know about Carolyn Bessette’s sister Lauren Bessette.
Lauren and her twin Lisa were protective older sisters
Carolyn Bessette with cousin, sisters, and grandmother in 1985Credit: Courtesy
Carolyn’s birth followed 14 months after Lauren and Lisa’s on Jan. 7, 1996. The sisters’ parents divorced when they were young, per The New York Times, and Ann later remarried an orthopedic surgeon named Dr. Richard Freeman.
Growing up in Greenwich, Conn., the Bessette sisters were close. Elizabeth Beller, author of Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, wrote that Lauren and Lisa “looked out for” their younger sister.
She worked on Wall Street and previously lived in Hong Kong
John Kennedy, Jr., wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her sister, Lauren Bessette on November 15, 1997.Credit: Lawrence Schwartzwald/Sygma via Getty
Lauren began working for Morgan Stanley in 1987 after graduating from Hobart and William Smith College, per the New York Observer.
Her career as an analyst was briefly put on pause so that she could pursue an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and she returned to Morgan Stanley after graduating in 1991.
In 1994, she began working at the firm's Hong Kong office, where she was promoted to vice president. Shortly after her death, BBC correspondent Fergal Keane wrote in The Independent that Lauren, whom he met while working and living in China, “had the gift of a formidable intellect” and was “one of the most vibrant women I’ve ever met.” He and Lauren, who could speak Mandarin, had lively debates about Asian politics that would stretch late into the night, he said.
“It was a pleasure to argue with her,” he wrote.
Adam Clammer, who worked with Lauren in Hong Kong, told Town & Country in February 2026 that she impressed everyone.
“She would walk into a room and people would think, Okay, somebody brought their assistant. And she’d get up and present the IPO pitch in Mandarin, and people would be like, ‘What? I’ve never seen anything like this,’ ” he recalled, noting that his coworker “was so humble yet so smart and poised.”
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However, Lauren knew how to let off some steam after a busy day. “When she left work, she was going out to have fun,” Terenzio told PEOPLE. “She wasn't being an 'executive,' she was being, like, a fun, single girl in New York City."
Lauren and Carolyn got even closer while living in N.Y.C. together
Lauren Bessette.Credit: Globe Photos/Shutterstock
After Lauren returned from Hong Kong in 1998, she was promoted to principal, per The New York Times.
Upon her return, Lauren bought an apartment in Tribeca around the corner from JFK Jr. and Carolyn's loft, according to PEOPLE editor-at-large Liz McNeil and Terenzio's 2024 book, JFK Jr: An Intimate Oral Biography. Additionally, Lauren's Morgan Stanley office was across the street from the offices of George, the magazine that JFK Jr. and Michael Berman co-founded.
A source told PEOPLE that Lauren and Carolyn were so tightly bonded that the older sister served as maid of honor in her wedding.
She was dating Bobby Shriver at the time of her death
Bobby Shriver in 1992 in New York.Credit: Jim Smeal/Ron Galella Collection via Getty
Carolyn wasn't the only Bessette sister to fall in love with a descendent of the Kennedy family. Lauren was dating Bobby Shriver at the time of her death, according to JFK Jr: An Intimate Oral Biography.
"It was a long-distance thing because Bobby was in L.A.," Terenzio said.
Shriver was JFK Jr.’s cousin, the son of his aunt Eunice Kennedy and Sargent Shriver. Like many of his family members, he pursued a career in politics, serving on the Santa Monica City Council. He has been married to Malissa Feruzzi since 2005.
Lauren’s ashes were spread at sea with her sister and brother-in-law
Carolyn and Lauren Bessette in 1982.Credit: Courtesy
After the crash, the bodies of Lauren, Carolyn and John’s, strapped into their seats in the plane, were recovered according to The Washington Post. The trio was cremated and their ashes were scattered in the Atlantic Ocean in a ceremony aboard a Navy destroyer with a folded U.S. flag.
“John F. Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette were true soul mates, and we hope to honour them in death in the simple manner in which they chose to live their lives. We take solace in the thought that together they will comfort Lauren for eternity,” the Bessette family shared in a statement at the time.
Although she was buried at sea, a candlelight service was held in Greenwich. While the ceremony also recognized Carolyn and John, it was specifically for Lauren, per the Los Angeles Times. Caroline Kennedy, Edward "Ted" Kennedy and aunts Ethel Kennedy and Jean Kennedy Smith were among those in attendance.
A source told PEOPLE in 2017 that Ann moved to a home by the water after her daughters' burial at sea, explaining, “I feel closer to the kids.”
Lauren is portrayed in Love Story
Sydney Lemmon as Lauren Bessette in Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette.Credit: Hulu
Carolyn and John’s high-profile romance has made headlines again with the 2026 FX series Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette. In the series, Lauren is brought to life by Sydney Lemmon.
Series creator Connor Hines told The Hollywood Reporter in February 2026 that it was never a question that the older Bessette sister would appear in the show.
“As somebody with three sisters who are my very best friends, I know how critical that relationship is. I knew from the very get-go that that was something we all wanted to honor,” he said, describing Lemmon’s on-screen chemistry with Carolyn (Sarah Pidgeon) as “one of the more compelling parts of the series.”
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
