The television personality makes an appearance during the season 16 premiere of “The Real Housewives of New York City.”

Martha Stewart recalls telling JFK Jr. to get a co-pilot days before fatal flight

The television personality makes an appearance during the season 16 premiere of “The Real Housewives of New York City.”

By Marina Watts

Marina Watts

Marina Watts is a news writer for with seven years experience covering entertainment, pop culture and celebrity news. Her previous work appears in PEOPLE, Bustle and Newsweek.

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September 8, 2026 9:00 p.m. ET

Martha Stewart and John F Kennedy Jr. Credit:

Jamie McCarthy/Getty; Brownie Harris/Corbis via Getty

- Martha Stewart recalled speaking with JFK Jr. in 1999 during the season 16 premiere of *The Real Housewives of New York City*.

- The latest *RHONY *season welcomes back Carole Radziwill, who is related to the Kennedy family by marriage.

- New episodes of *The Real Housewives of New York City* air Wednesdays on Bravo.

Martha Stewart is reflecting on a connection to the Kennedy family.

In the season 16 premiere episode of *The Real Housewives of New York City*, Stewart told *RHONY *newcomer and makeup artist Daisy Toye a haunting anecdote about John F. Kennedy Jr. The two connected in July 1999, days before he died in a fatal plane crash, to talk shop about the publishing world.

“I was with John John — this is JFK Jr. — I was with him the Monday before the Friday when they died,” she begins.

“He called me. I was running *Martha Stewart Living *magazine, and he called me, and he said he’s in trouble, and could he please talk to me about what to do with *George*, the magazine that he had started. And I said, of course, anything you want.”

Martha Stewart attends Netflix’s “Martha” New York premiere in October 2024.

Roy Rochlin/WireImage

Stewart continues, “We had a very nice dinner, and then at the end of the dinner, I said to him, ‘What are you doing this weekend?’ And he said, ‘Oh, we’re going to a wedding in Martha’s Vineyard, and I’m taking my wife and her sister.’”

“And I said, ‘Well, who’s flying?’ He said, ‘I’m flying.’ I said, ‘You have a co-pilot, right?’ And he said, ‘No, I don’t need a co-pilot’... I’ve thought about that so many times that I told him to get a co-pilot. Oh, I feel sorry.”

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JFK Jr, along with his wife, Carolyn Bessette, and her sister Lauren Bessette, died on July 16, 1999, in a plane crash off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. JFK Jr. and Carolyn were en route to Cape Cod for their cousin Rory Kennedy’s wedding and were planning to drop Lauren off at Martha’s Vineyard on the way.

After several days of search efforts, the aircraft was discovered underwater on July 20. The bodies of JFK Jr., Carolyn, and Lauren were recovered on the ocean floor the following day. It was determined that the passengers died on impact.

In 2000, *The New York Times** *reported that a flight instructor offered to fly with them that evening, but JFK Jr. said that he “wanted to do it alone.”

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This season of *RHONY *also marks Radziwill’s return to the Housewives* *universe after her exit from the franchise in 2018. While filming her return in early 2026, *Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette** *premiered on FX, reigniting an interest in the Kennedy family, who Radziwill is connected to through marriage.

Radziwill’s late husband, Anthony Radziwill, was first cousins with JFK Jr. through their respective mothers, Lee Radziwill and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Anthony died of cancer just weeks after JFK Jr.’s plane crash.

Carole told *USA Today* that the two events of filming *RHONY *while the Ryan Murphy-produced series aired was “a very emotional time” for her.

“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. It was very hard… I hadn’t planned on talking about it.”

Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and John F Kennedy Jr. on April 6, 1998 in New York.

Ron Galella Collection via Getty

When *Love Story *aired, Radziwill said “the emotions all came back.”

“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.”

New episodes of *The Real Housewives of New York City *air on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo and are available to stream the following day on Peacock.

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