RoseMarie Terenzio and Liz McNeil on What John F. Kennedy Jr. Was Really Like, As Told By So Many People That Knew Him Personally
Listen now
Description
What an episode we have for you listeners today as we conclude our JFK Jr. series. Today, July 16, officially marks 25 years since the plane crash that took the lives of John, Carolyn, and Lauren, and on the show today we have RoseMarie Terenzio and Liz McNeil, who have written the absolutely brilliant new book JFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biography, which is out today. RoseMarie also wrote the memoir Fairytale Interrupted: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Loss, which came out in 2012; we talk about Fairytale Interrupted on the show today, too. Rose and Liz’s new book, the oral biography, is one of the best books I have ever read—full stop. And not just about the Kennedys, but period. It is so rich with detail, honesty, transparency, courage, new information—even someone like me, who has read every book on the Kennedys I can get my hands on, learned so much in this read. So many people you expect to be interviewed are interviewed, but then there’s the unexpected barrage of celebrities, with everyone from Brooke Shields to Julia Roberts, Mike Tyson, Whoopi Goldberg, Carly Simon, President Bill Clinton, Wyclef Jean, Demi Moore, and Drew Barrymore making appearances. There is so much good here—I could not put it down. It is a full, robust portrayal of a life—John’s life. Rose was John’s assistant for five years and had an incredibly unique relationship with him—she was his personal assistant, which she writes in Fairytale Interrupted was the best job she ever had. They had such a fun dynamic—full of brother/sister teasing. Of Carolyn, though she was presented in the press as an ice queen, Rose speaks of her as this warm, generous woman, loyal, loving, kind. Rose had a front row seat to the creation and launch of his magazine, George, and was also deeply involved in John and Carolyn’s top-secret wedding planning. Rose was one of the first people to learn that John, Carolyn, and Lauren were missing, right behind Carole Radziwill, who we interviewed last week. This book is perfect to conclude our series on JFK Jr. and to honor John, Carolyn, and Lauren on this anniversary of their death. It’s told in one of my absolute favorite formats—the oral history—and I can’t wait for you to hear this conversation with Rose and Liz, who is an editor-at-large at People magazine, where she has worked for the last 30 years. These days, Rose is a strategic communications professional and also executive produced Paramount Network’s I Am JFK Jr. I can’t wait for you to hear from them both.   JFK Jr: An Intimate Oral Biography by RoseMarie Terenzio and Liz McNeil Fairytale Interrupted: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Loss by RoseMarie Terenzio
More Episodes
Sometimes in life we get the chance to experience a mountaintop moment, and that’s exactly what happened when I chatted with the brilliant Geneen Roth this week. Geneen wrote the landmark book Women, Food, and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything, which came out in 2010, nearly 15 years...
Published 11/24/24
Published 11/24/24
What if I told you that, when it comes to managing your time and your life, you were never going to get it together — and that was okay? Continuing the thread from our last conversation with Kendra Adachi, today on the show we have the incomparable Oliver Burkeman, who wrote the book Meditations...
Published 11/12/24