Speaking with RHONY newbie and makeup artist Daisy Toye, Stewart shared: “I was with John-John the Monday before the Friday when they died. He called me. I was running Martha Stewart Living Magazine. He called me, and he said he’s in trouble.”
The longtime domestic diva explained the namesake son of late President John F. Kennedy wanted advice about his political lifestyle magazine, George, and that they then met up, “had a very nice dinner” and discussed their weekend plans.
“He said, ‘Oh, we’re going to a wedding in Martha’s Vineyard. And I’m taking my wife and her sister,'” Stewart recalled. “And I said, ‘Well, who’s flying?’ He said, ‘I’m flying.’ I said, ‘You have a copilot, right?’ And he said, ‘No, I don’t need a copilot’ … I’ve thought about that so many times that I told him to get a copilot. Ugh, I feel sorry.”
John died on July 16, 1999, at age 38 when the plane he was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Stewart’s Vineyard.
His wife, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, 33, and her sister Lauren Bessette, 34, were also killed.