JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s Hamptons Rental Getty Images/Jaime Lopez
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Like many fixtures of the Manhattan social scene, John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette escaped the city’s sweltering summers in favor of the Hamptons. Kennedy rented a house in Sagaponack with his cousin, Anthony Radziwill, and his wife, Carole Radziwill, in the mid-1990s. Their village of choice? Sagaponack, a seaside hamlet in the town of Southampton. Bessette, whose relationship with Kennedy is the subject of FX’s new series, Love Story, also stayed at the beach cottage, as Carole recounted in her 2005 memoir, What Remains, which she wrote after all three had tragically passed away.
A short walk to Sagg Main Beach, the Long Island retreat is where Carole first met both Kennedy and Bessette, who would go on to become her close friends. In her memoir, she looked back fondly on their shared vacation home, dubbed “Sea Song.”
The open living area features vaulted, beamed ceilings. Jaime Lopez
“Sea Song is modest by Hamptons standards—three small bedrooms separated by an open kitchen and living area, furnished with Pottery Barn tables and white slipcovered couches,” she wrote. The single-story home, built in 1965, has a compact footprint of just 1,800 square feet. Its interiors feature touches like hardwood floors, beamed ceilings, and a brick fireplace.
The house comes with a heated pool. Jaime Lopez
Also in her book, Carole recalled her first meeting with Bessette. “We were at Sea Song. I was washing dishes, Anthony was running on the beach, and John was reading the paper when she walked out of the bedroom, blonde and ten stories high, in a white cotton nightgown with eyelet trim,” she wrote.
Among the perks are a sprawling rear garden with a heated gunite pool and multiple outdoor entertaining areas. Perhaps best of all, the estate offers a sense of privacy and seclusion. “I remember our favorite feature was the outdoor shower on the side of the house,” Carole told the Wall Street Journal in 2016, when the house went up for sale. “It was completely open and overlooked a field to the front and [was] obscured by trees to the right and the left.”
In the ’90s, the owner was writer Yvonne Dunleavy, who purchased the residence in 1977 for $140,000, per WSJ. She put it on the market in 2016 for $5.75 million. The current owner most recently made it available as a rental in 2021, with an asking price of $50,000 a month.
Living Area
Photo credit: Jaime Lopez
Sliding glass doors open to the patio.
Kitchen
Photo credit: Jaime Lopez
The kitchen comes with wood cabinets and a range-equipped island with bar counter.
Living Area
Photo credit: Jaime Lopez
A brick fireplace anchors the living room.
Bedroom
Photo credit: Jaime Lopez
One of the bedrooms features sliding glass doors that open to the rear garden.
Pool
Photo credit: Jaime Lopez
The house comes with a heated gunite pool.
Exterior
Photo credit: Jaime Lopez
The single-story home dates to 1965 and spans roughly 1,800 square feet.
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