Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy Was Hunted by the Paparazzi. So Why Didn’t She and JFK Jr. Move?

It’s easy to go down a Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy rabbit hole after watching Love Story: John F. Kennedy, Jr. & Carolyn Bessette these last few weeks. Did the couple really meet at a fundraiser with Calvin Klein? Where did their big fight in the park happen? Did Carolyn’s mother, Ann, really give that speech at their rehearsal dinner?

Many of these stories can be answered by doing a comprehensive Google search, but there are others that we’ll never know the answer to. For instance, would John have run for political office? Would he and Carolyn have had a family? Would they have stayed together?

But there’s one question that hasn’t even really been brought up and it seems glaringly overlooked: Given the intense paparazzi camped outside Carolyn and John’s apartment, why didn’t they move to a more private building once it became obvious the attention wasn’t about to let up?

“We talked about this ad nauseam in the room,” Love Story creator Connor Hines tells Glamour. “Why not just move?”

In Love Story‘s seventh episode—titled “Obsession” and written by Hines—the show jumps ahead two months after the newly-named Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and her husband have returned from their honeymoon, and it’s clear their situation is no paradise. The paparazzi have set up shop 24/7 outside their apartment on 20 North Moore Street, and they want to know why Carolyn hasn’t been seen in a week. (To answer their own question, how about the fact that eight weeks earlier, John specifically asked them for privacy and grace now that Carolyn was no longer a private citizen?)

As the episode progresses, Carolyn becomes more withdrawn, and tells her sister, Lauren, that she can’t go anywhere without attracting a circus. She’s asked about baby plans ad nauseam; her every outfit is scrutinized for signs of a potential bump. And when Carolyn chooses to ignore the paparazzi stationed outside her home, she’s often called derogatory names.

Glamour‘s digital director, Perrie Samotin, grew up down the street from John and Carolyn in Tribeca, and saw them regularly. Samotin says it’s important to understand that the Tribeca of today is completely different from the TriBeCa (as it was then spelled, to clearly indicate Triangle Below Canal Street) from the ’90s.

“The paparazzi situation barely existed for him in the neighborhood,” Samotin says. “It metastasized only once the ‘most eligible bachelor in the world’ got serious with Carolyn—which, in retrospect, feels deeply sexist. As soon as she started visiting, and later moved in, things turned feral.”