The Tamesis
Klein, his then-wife Kelly, and his assistant MJ Bettenhausen decided to have Bessette show pieces from Kennedy’s men’s collection because she was “the most enthusiastic person on the sales floor,” Beller wrote.
Kennedy reportedly left behind several suits, along with Bessette’s phone number. (This may have been the inspiration for another scene in the pilot, in which Kennedy comes to the Calvin Klein offices to try on suits). A few days later, he called her and invited her to a dinner party for his team. At the dinner party, he sat with another woman who she thought was his date (and maybe she was), so she declined his invitation to the after-party. At the time, Kennedy was dating actor Daryl Hannah on and off.
In May, the two met again at a fundraiser (which was likely the inspiration for their adorable encounter on the show): the Don’t Bumble the Jungle II fundraiser at Amazon Village at Pier 25 to benefit “indigenous peoples of the world’s rainforests,” according to the show.
Artist Kenny Scharf chaired the event, and designers including Issey Miyake, Jean Paul Gaultier, Isaac Mizrahi, Thierry Mugler, Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein, Anna Sui, Gianni Versace donated jungle-inspired designs that will be purchased during a silent auction fashion show narrated by Fran Lebowitz, followed by an afterparty performed by Queen Latifah.
At the fundraiser, Bessette and Kennedy had an in-depth conversation. That summer they started dating, going out to eat, dance, and walk throughout the city. He took her to Sea Song, the summer home he rented on Long Island with his cousin Anthony Radziwill.
Beller wrote in the book that they broke up a week after a trip to Long Island. Kennedy received an anonymous letter claiming that Bessette was a “user, partygoer who was in it for fame and fortune” and that she was “dating men around town.” They reunited two years later in 1994.
