Did John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy Invent the Secret Celebrity Wedding?

John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy were one of the most beloved couples of the ‘90s, a result of John’s standing as the country’s most eligible bachelor, connection to a legacy American family that was practically royalty, and high-profile job (he was at one point the assistant district attorney in New York City). Carolyn, a publicist, was an icon in her own right; to this day, she remains a fashion symbol for the ages. Together, they held the public’s attention from the moment Carolyn walked into John’s life in 1994—despite their very best efforts. The camera-shy duo (and particularly Carolyn, who was photographed in public less than 100 times, per CNN) avoided the paparazzi’s cameras at all costs. That did very little, however, to lessen their appeal: Together, they made a striking couple, known for their street style and quiet romance.

The fact that they pulled off an all-but-secret wedding on September 21, 1996—today marks what would have been their 28th wedding anniversary—was fully on brand for them and an incredible feat, given their status. Though their relationship wasn’t clandestine, their engagement (press didn’t know about the duo’s intentions to wed) and celebration absolutely were, and remained out of the papers for a week after the wedding; news broke of their Cumberland Island, Georgia, ceremony, held at the tiny First African Baptist Church, and Greyfield Inn reception roughly seven days after it took place.

This was in part thanks to the island itself; its inhabitants and inn staff remained tight-lipped about the wedding of the decade, per Southern Living. The New York Times affirms this: One of the inn’s employees even helped the couple obtain a marriage license in private, which involved sending a county clerk to a parked private plane, where Carolyn was waiting.

TLC’s two-hour special on the couple’s nuptials, JFK Jr and Carolyn’s Wedding: The Lost Tapes, indicates that the event’s secrecy was entirely by the couple’s design. From the jump, the event’s small number of guests (just 35, primarily composed of delegates from each Kennedy faction, per Town & Country) were barely in on it: John gave attendees just five days’ notice to book their airline tickets. One of his friends, Billy Noonan, who attended the celebration and was interviewed for the special, was on a plane the couple hired to fly them and a few friends to what they believed was an airport in Jacksonville, Florida. “We knew we were going to a wedding but we didn’t know where,” Noonan shared. This tickled John and Carolyn, who giggled for the majority of the flight. When they were up in the air, the groom-to-be (somewhat) revealed the news: “John said, ‘We’re not really going to Florida,’ so we had no idea where we were (ultimately) headed.”

Though most attendees were left entirely in the dark (pun intended: the duo really did get married in the dark) about the couple’s nuptials, carefully selected vendors were, of course, looped in. The pair’s wedding photographer, Denis Reggie, who arrived on the island with journalist Christiane Amanpour, told anyone who asked about his gear and reasons for visiting that he was photographing wildlife, reports Town & Country. Other wedding staff were legally sworn to secrecy; caterers, waiters, and other reception workers signed confidentiality agreements, per People. Even after the news broke days later and paparazzi poured onto the island, they held fast; neither inn and event staff nor the island’s natives ever gave a comment about the secret celebrity wedding that unfolded there.

Jackie Kennedy’s former social secretary Letitia Baldrige later told People that keeping the event of the season out of the press and public eye “required the skill of a James Bond and the whole CIA,” something that would have pleased the late first lady—who died before she could meet Carolyn—immensely. The couple’s uncanny dedication to virtually erasing their engagement and eventual nuptials (until they couldn’t) begs the question: Did they invent the modern-day secret celebrity wedding?

Though John and Carolyn certainly weren’t the first celebrity couple to marry in secret (Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio certainly tried), you could argue that their event’s element of surprise has informed the way many of today’s A-listers tie the knot. Some of today’s biggest stars have followed in ultra-covert suit, doing everything in their power to throw the paparazzi (and, occasionally, their own inner circles) off the scent.

Take Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, who married in October 1996, for example: They invited guests to what they believed was a charity softball event and concert in his hometown of Rayville, Louisiana; the duo surprised them with a wedding, instead, per Us Magazine. Nikki Reed and Ian Somerhalder followed this model in 2015, when guests arrived at their Santa Monica, California, home for a “housewarming party.” Brides cover stars Gabourey Sidibe and Brandon Frankel took it a step further a few years later. They gave a full interview about their “upcoming” wedding in May 2022, which had already happened (they ultimately shared the news a full year after their nuptials).

In fact, today’s celebrity weddings are almost always classified, though the degree of secrecy varies; most let the press and public in on the fun eventually. Take Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, who, after announcing their engagement via a newsletter, ran off to Vegas in July 2022 before retying the knot in Georgia months later; Jennifer Lawrence and Cooke Maroney, who brought a covert group up to Rhode Island for their mansion nuptials (to this day, we don’t know what the actress wore, though her gown was rumored to have its own hotel room, reports Harper’s Bazaar); and Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker, who hosted a full-blown secret wedding tour, which included celebrations in Las Vegas, California, and Italy.

However, while many celebrity couples have planned weddings on the down-low that have surprised us all, very few have achieved what John and Carolyn did at their level of fame: a fully secret engagement phase we didn’t know existed until it was over and a mysterious wedding we’re still asking questions about nearly three decades later.