JFK JR. WON CAROLYN’S — & AMERICA’S — HEART

What's more, 'some think that Carolyn could have caused the delay in their departure by changing her mind again and arguing with him,” says a Kennedy family insider, noting that many experts believe the late takeoff contributed to the crash. “The big question, of course, is could the events have turned out differently? We’ll never know.”

On their last day, John — the son of

ate president John F. Kennedy and his first lady, Jackie — and Carolyn went about their business as usual. John, a lawyer and the founder of the now-defunct political magazine George, had a meeting to discuss the periodical’s future. Having reluctantly agreed to go to the wedding, Carolyn shopped at Saks Fifth Avenue, picking up a $1,640 dress to wear. Around 6:30 p.m., John and Lauren rode together to Essex County Airport in Fairfield, N.J. Carolyn arrived to the airport about 30 minutes later than them. Some believe she was deliberately

taunting her husband, says the insider: “Carolyn was prone to throwing temper tantrums and making dramatic statements.” John usually flew out as early as 5 p.m., so the plane took off almost four hours later than expected.

PASSIONATE PAIR

Their marriage was on notoriously shaky ground. John had moved into NYC’s Stanhope Hotel that week, and with Carolyn still refusing to go to the wedding up until the last minute, he even told friends he would consider a divorce if that’s what she wanted, according to Steven M. Gillon’s new book, America’s Reluctant

Prince. “They fought often and passionately, and even threatened divorce the morning of the crash,” a source adds of the couple, who were infamously photographed having a shouting and shoving match in NYC’s Washington Square Park when they were still engaged in 1996. “They had knock-down, drag-out fights.”

They went many rounds over her alleged drug use. When John came home to their New York apartment one day to find Carolyn “disheveled and hollow-eyed, snorting cocaine with a gaggle of gay fashionistas,” author Klein has reported, “he screamed, ‘You’re a cokehead!’ to her.” The insider says Carolyn’s drug use was obvious to everyone in her social circle: “It was a well-kept secret among Manhattan’s elite. Her demons were destroying them.”

So were their affairs, which were the subject of the pair’s clashes, including the public park row, sources tell In Touch. Artist Sybil Hill claims she was John’s mistress for the last two years of his life — and that he told her he was heartbroken that his wife not only refused to have his baby, but she was also having sex with another man. “At the height of one of their arguments, Carolyn told John she was still sleeping with her old boyfriend [Baywatch actor and former Calvin Klein underwear model] Michael Bergin,” a close friend tells In Touch. (In his own book, Michael also claimed they hooked up after she was married.) According to Taraborrelli, John even paid a middle-of-the-night visit to one man who was having an emotional affair with Carolyn: “John swung a punch, saying, ‘Stay away from my g--d--- wife.’ ”

Despite the notorious Kennedy family curse, John was prone to brash behavior. “He couldn’t stop himself from being reckless,” friend Ed Hill, who met John when they were students at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., recalls in the new book Four Friends.

Indeed, on that last evening — a hazy night with limited visibility in which other more experienced pilots decided to stay on the ground —John was initially supposed to fly with an instructor. He had only earned his license the previous year and did not have practice using the plane’s instruments to fly during periods of low visibility. Alas, John told the instructor to go home. “It was magnificently stupid that he did,” Hill says, because the accident could have been prevented. When the weather deteriorated, John likely became disoriented and inadvertently sent the plane into a violent spin. At 9:41 p.m., the plane crashed into the Atlantic.

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN

The deaths devastated their families — and a country that pinned their hopes on the glamorous duo. “John and Carolyn were supposed to be the new Camelot,” says the insider, referring to the nickname given to his father’s White House reign. And despite the constant private drama, John and Carolyn had started couples counseling and were even “trying to have kids,” adds the insider, who believes Carolyn could have even been pregnant — a secret she and John may have taken to their graves. “They loved each other and hadn’t given up,” adds Taraborrelli. “That’s what makes this story so tragic.” ◼

Throughout his 20s and 30s, the buff 6-foot-1 John regularly landed at the top of “sexiest” and “most eligible bachelor” lists. From his childhood until his death at age 38, John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. was affectionately referred to in Before marrying Carolyn in 1996, John was linked to several A-listers including Sarah Jessica Parker, Cindy Crawford and Daryl Hannah (pictured), whom he dated on and off for five years. John — who turne 3 on the day of hi father’s funeral in 1963 — saluted JFK’s casket in what became an iconic image. John worked long nights on his passion project, George, a magazine that covered politics like pop culture.

John managed to keep his 1996 wedding to Carolyn, which they celebrated on Georgia’s Cumberland Island, a secret from the press.

He’s not perfect after all! The fact that John, who graduated from New York University School of Law in 1989, failed the bar exam twice only made him more endearing.