Lisa Bessette, the sister of Carolyn Bessette, endured an unimaginable tragedy when a single accident took away both of her sisters. On July 16, 1999, a plane crash off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard claimed the lives of Carolyn Bessette, her husband John F. Kennedy Jr., and Lisa’s twin sister, Lauren Bessette. While Lisa had not been much in the public eye, one could only imagine what she would have gone through. Hulu’s ‘Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette’ presents a dramatic retelling of some of the events that preceded the crash.
Lisa Bessette Was in Germany When Her Sisters Passed Away in the Airplane Crash
Lisa Bessette is the daughter of William Joseph Bessette and Ann Marie Messina Freeman. She was welcomed into the world alongside her twin sister, Lauren Bessette, in White Plains, New York, on November 4, 1964. The twins grew up in a fairly working-class, regular family. Her father worked as an architectural engineer before becoming a cabinet-maker, while her mother was a New York City public school administrator and substitute teacher. When their younger sister Carolyn Bessette was born in 1966, both Lisa and Lauren doted on her. From an early age, they were fiercely protective and deeply loving toward their baby sister.
However, in 1974, Lisa’s parents separated, and it has been alleged that the split was quite acrimonious, marking a difficult period in their childhood. Ann, along with her three daughters, moved to Old Greenwich, Connecticut, where Lisa and her siblings were enrolled at Juniper Hill Elementary School. Eventually, her mother married orthopedic surgeon Richard Freeman, who took the girls as his own children, and they loved him as a father figure in their lives. Lisa later finished her schooling at St. Mary’s High School. She was always quite academic and determined to chart her own course in life.
In the mid to late 1990s, she joined the University of Michigan to study art history and eventually enrolled in a doctoral program. In September 1996, she attended the small wedding of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn, wishing the best for them. In July 1999, when the plane crashed and she lost two of her sisters, Lisa was in Munich, Germany, as part of her studies. She immediately flew back and attended the funeral to lend support to her family.
Lisa Bessette Shares Her Life With an Art History Professor Today
Lisa Bessette kept a low profile in the aftermath of the accident and did not make any public comments. Her family filed a civil lawsuit for wrongful death against John F. Kennedy Jr.’s estate, and the matter was settled in 2001. A 2006 procedural ruling affirmed the Bessettes’ right to the prior settlement, and Lisa and her mother, Ann, became the sole beneficiaries of it. In 2010, Lisa was appointed as Lecturer I in the History of Art department at the University of Michigan. She has remained closely tied to the University and has also been referred to as a contract editor and art scholar there.
Lisa now lives in a five-bedroom home in the North Burns Park neighborhood of Ann Arbor, Michigan, near the university campus. She shares her home with her longtime partner, Howard Lay, an art history professor at the same University. Fiercely protective of her privacy, she has avoided media attention. According to several news outlets that have tried to reach her over the years, those around her are equally protective. She has shown no desire to be in the public eye and instead leads a quiet, quaint life.
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