Anthony Radziwill died in August 1999 from cancer, less than one month after his cousin JFK Jr.
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NEED TO KNOW
- Anthony Radziwill was John F. Kennedy Jr.’s first cousin and best friend
- He was first diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1989, but later went into remission
- Radziwill died in August 1999 after being diagnosed with sarcoma
It’s been nearly 27 years since the death of Anthony Radziwill, John F. Kennedy Jr.'s first cousin and close friend.
The lives of JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy are currently being depicted in FX's Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, including those of their loved ones. In the series, Paul Anthony Kelly portrays JFK Jr. and Sarah Pidgeon takes on the role of Bessette, while Anthony is played by Erich Bergen.
Anthony was the son of Lee Radziwill — Jacqueline “Jackie” Kennedy Onassis' sister — and Prince Stanisław Radziwiłł. He was born in Switzerland but raised in the United States, eventually attending Boston University and earning a degree in broadcast journalism. He started his career at NBC Sports and joined ABC News in 1989, where he worked as a television producer. That same year, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer, but later went into remission, his widow Carole Radziwill told Washingtonian Life Magazine.
Anthony and Carole met in 1990 while they both worked at ABC News. Right before they wed in August 1994 — where JFK. Jr served as his cousin’s best man — Anthony was diagnosed with sarcoma. In the years that followed, Anthony received treatment for his cancer in private, including undergoing several major surgeries, as well as chemotherapy and radiation later on.
Anthony died in August 1999, less than a month after JFK Jr., Carolyn and her sister, Lauren Bessette, were killed in a plane crash off the shore of Martha’s Vineyard in July 1999.
Here’s what to know about Anthony Radziwill’s death.
He died in August 1999
Credit: Globe Photos/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
Anthony died on Aug. 10, 1999, at New York Presbyterian Hospital at the age of 40, per The New York Times. At the time of his death, he was survived by his wife, Carole, his mother, Lee, his stepfather, Herbert Ross, and his sister, Anna Christina Radziwill.
To mark the 20th anniversary of her late husband’s death, Carole penned an essay for the Daily Mail in July 2019 where she reflected on the loss of Anthony, as well as those of JFK Jr., Carolyn and Lauren.
“When I married my husband in 1994, he had a death sentence,” Carole wrote. “He was determined to overturn it, but I'd done the research and knew his chances were slim. We spent ten years together, the last five of them in and out of hospitals, and in again.”
To conclude the essay, she added, “For all the time I'd had to brace myself, prepare for it, Anthony's death, too, still seemed so abrupt and unfair, just like the others. Because … we just weren't done.”
He was sick for several years
Credit: Carole Radziwill/Instagram
Before his death in 1999, Anthony was sick for several years and privately struggling.
Anthony was first diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1989, Carole told Washington Life Magazine. Because of this, he couldn't have children, she said.
However, after Anthony was diagnosed with sarcoma in 1994, Carole “spent six years navigating our healthcare system," she shared on social media in January 2024.
He kept his cancer diagnosis private
Credit: Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty
Carole opened up about her late husband’s cancer diagnosis during a February 2017 episode of Sarah Brokaw’s Shared Secrets podcast. During the episode, the former Real Housewives of New York City star shared their hesitancy around announcing the news, telling Brokaw, "[Cancer] was seen as a death sentence. So it's not something that you wanted to talk about.”
"No one would talk about it openly, even though there was many, many, many treatments and there were a lot of cures also for different cancers,” she added. “But still it was that lingering thing, like, 'Oh, you have cancer.' And it was always said with a whisper. Still, even today it is, which is just interesting. That became our secret."
Carole and Anthony could conceal his cancer diagnosis because he “was really healthy except for the cancer.” He maintained his work schedule at ABC News and scheduled two major surgeries “like vacations.”
"We could keep this secret for a very long time,” she said. “Very few people knew about it. His immediate family, really, and a couple of close friends at work. We lived like that for almost four, really, of the five years he had the illness."
One of the reasons Carole and Anthony chose to keep his cancer diagnosis private was because saying it out loud would make it more real, she said.
"For Anthony, he didn't want to know he had cancer or think about it,” she said. “We didn't even talk about it much between the two of us. It was something we did on the weekend at [the National Institutes of Health], and then when we were back in New York, we were back to our New York lives."
However, during the last year of Anthony’s life, his cancer metastasized outside of his lungs, which had to be treated with chemotherapy and radiation. At that point, it became more difficult to keep the secret, though Carole said they were able to “manage,” even recalling a trip to Martha’s Vineyard with JFK Jr. and Carolyn.
His death came one month after JFK Jr.’s fatal plane crash
Credit: Ed Betz/AP
Anthony died from cancer less than one month after his cousin’s tragic death.
JFK Jr., Carolyn and Lauren died in a plane crash on July 16, 1999. The group were on their way to Rory Kennedy’s wedding when JFK Jr. became disoriented while flying through a thick fog on the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, leading the aircraft to plummet into the Atlantic Ocean.
According to JFK Jr: An Intimate Oral Biography, written by PEOPLE editor-at-large Liz McNeil and Rosemarie Terenzio, JFK Jr. had several worries on his mind around the time of his death, involving his professional and personal life. He was fighting with his wife, attempting to keep his magazine George running and was very concerned about his cousin Anthony’s health.
Carole told Washington Life Magazine that she didn’t “remember those three weeks” between the deaths of JFK Jr., Carolyn and Lauren in July 1999 and the death of her husband in August 1999.
“I think that the night of the accident I was mourning and grieving for the three of them. Anthony as well because I knew it was just a matter of time,” she explained. “But Anthony was still in denial about his illness. And he handled it much better than I did. At this point, he was on dialysis every morning because his kidneys had failed. It really is a bit of a blur to me, those three weeks."
JFK Jr. was a support system for his cousin during his illness
Credit: Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty
JFK Jr. and Anthony had a close bond as both cousins and friends, serving as each other’s best man in their respective weddings. After Anthony was diagnosed with cancer for a second time, Carole told The Telegraph in October 2005 that JFK Jr. and Carolyn were their two biggest supporters.
"When they were kids, John was always the one who joked with Anthony and could make him laugh,” she explained. “So his way of dealing with the cancer was to continue being funny. He thought it would cheer him up, and it did. But he also told me that he was afraid that if he stopped joking, Anthony would know things were really bad and would just give up and die."
Toward the end of Anthony’s life, he had begun to lose weight. At one point, Carole recalled once when JFK Jr. and Anthony were going to go for a swim and the late attorney saw his cousin’s body, explaining, "It was about the only time I think I saw John cry."
J. Randy Taraborrelli, who wrote the 2019 book The Kennedy Heirs, has said that Anthony’s cancer diagnosis also affected the relationship between JFK Jr. and Carolyn.
“You can’t overestimate the impact Anthony’s illness had on John and their marriage, and his feelings of despair about what was happening to his cousin,” Taraborrelli told PEOPLE in May 2019. “John and Anthony had a relationship no one could get in the middle of. And Carolyn was having a hard time accessing him.”