Dr. Steven M. Gillon on His Friend, John F. Kennedy Jr., and His Life as America’s Reluctant Prince

As we continue our series on John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and Lauren Bessette to honor the 25-year anniversary of their tragic deaths in a July 16, 1999, plane crash, we are going to be talking to people that knew the victims—and I truly want to thank each and every one of them for their courage in talking about them. As I told each of my guests in our pre-show, I know that, to them, these aren’t just celebrities—these are real people and real friends who they loved and lost, and I am so thankful that they all, first of all, shared their stories in the pages of a book, and then, later, with me on this show. Thank you all for having conversations with me.

Today on the show we have Dr. Steven M. Gillon, author of the 2019 book America’s Reluctant Prince: The Life of John F. Kennedy Jr. Dr. Gillon is a leading historian and scholar who was also a close friend of John’s, and I ask him what it is like to examine John from both a historic lens and a deeply personal lens in this book. In America’s Reluctant Prince—which is a great title, by the way—he not only shares his own experience, but also shares exclusive interviews and information from previously classified documents about John’s life, from before his birth until the day he died 25 years ago, a full picture of, as the book puts it, John’s “complicated and rich life.” Dr. Gillon is the scholar-in-residence at the History Channel, a professor of history at the University of Oklahoma, and senior faculty fellow at the Miller Center for the Study of the Presidency at the University of Virginia. Before his current academic appointment, he spent nine years teaching history at Yale and three years at Oxford. He is one of the nation’s leading experts in modern American history and politics, and his articles have appeared not just in academic journals but also in outlets like The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Daily News, and The Chicago Tribune. Over the past decade, Dr. Gillon has hosted a number of shows on the History Channel and has also served as the main narrator and executive producer for a number of History Channel and A&E documentary specials, including many about the Kennedy family; he also served as the chief consultant on the History Channel’s eight-hour series, The Presidents. Dr. Gillon frequently contributes to HuffPost and has appeared on Today, Good Morning America, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News as a commentator and expert on issues related to modern American history, and has written or edited nearly a dozen books, including The Pact: Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and the Rivalry That Defined a Generation and the book we are discussing today, about his dear friend John, who he met while at Brown—they met when Dr. Gillon gave a lecture to a class that JFK Jr. was taking about none other than John’s father, President John F. Kennedy. What a way to meet and begin a friendship!

America’s Reluctant Prince: The Life of John F. Kennedy Jr. by Dr. Steven M. Gillon