Carole Radziwill was taken by surprise when she found out about Ryan Murphy’s upcoming John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette series, American Love Story.
“A friend of mine called me, like, maybe six months ago and said that he had an audition to play Anthony,” Carole, 61, said in a preview of her appearance on the “We Met at Acme” podcast shared via Instagram on Thursday, August 7, referring to her late husband, Anthony Radziwill, who was JFK Jr.’s cousin.
The Real Housewives of New York City alum explained that she had gone on “a bunch of dates” in 2020 with the friend who auditioned to play Anthony, who died of cancer six days after his 40th birthday in 1999. Her friend’s call about the audition was the first time she had heard about American Love Story.
“I was so dumbfounded. I remember I was driving … my 1998 little red Jeep around town … so I had to pull over. Even now, I’m like … I panic about it,” she said.
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The full “We Met at Acme” episode featuring Carole will be available on Sunday, August 10.
In a comment on the Instagram post, Carole added of learning about Murphy’s show, “It was wild. And though I’m quite good-natured about these things … it’s not to say that it isn’t painful … even after all these years or maybe because it’s been so many years. 🙏🥹.”
Carole and Anthony tied the knot in August 1994. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with sarcoma, a rare kind of cancer, right before their nuptials. The couple kept his illness a secret until his death in 1999.
“[Cancer] was seen as a death sentence. So it’s not something that you wanted to talk about,” Carole explained on Sarah Brokaw‘s “Shared Secrets” podcast in 2017. “No one would talk about it openly, even though there [were] many, many, many treatments and there were a lot of cures also for different cancers. But still it was that lingering thing, like, ‘Oh, you have cancer.’ And it was always said with a whisper. Still, even today it is, which is just interesting. That became our secret.”
Casting for the roles of Carole and Anthony in American Love Story has not yet been announced.
FX ordered the American Story franchise spinoff in 2021. American Love Story is slated to follow JFK Jr. and Bessette’s romance and tragic deaths in a plane crash in 1999.
Sarah Pidgeon has been cast as Bessette, with Paul Kelly set to play JFK Jr. Meanwhile, Naomi Watts will play his mother, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Grace Gummer was cast as his sister, Caroline Kennedy. Other cast members include Leila George as Kelly Klein, Noah Fearnley as Michael Bergin, Sydney Lemmon as Lauren Bessette, Alessandro Nivola as Calvin Klein and Omari K. Chancellor as Gordon Henderson.
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In the three-part CNN docuseries American Prince, Carole reflected on JFK Jr. and Carolyn’s deaths, which came one month before her husband’s.
“It was just one of those calls that you dread,” she said of learning that the couple’s plane never made it to Rory Kennedy’s wedding in Martha’s Vineyard. “Immediately, you know [something is wrong]. It was 11 o’clock, close to midnight on Friday night, and John’s friend … was calling from [the] Hyannis airport, saying, ‘They’re not here. Are they there with you?’ Even, like, 25 years later, I still get this pit in my stomach.”
Carole added, “It was so cruel for Anthony to have to watch [his cousin’s death]. John and Anthony, they were real brothers. All I could think of was like, ‘I’m going to be the only one left.’”
