The Hamptons Cottage Where JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Hid From Manhattan

Long before Instagram summers and $100,000 rentals, the couple slipped away to a modest Sagaponack beach house called Sea Song—a quiet refuge shared with friends just steps from Sagg Main Beach.

Back in the mid-90s, when Manhattan summers got hot and sticky, and the paparazzi were always outside their place in Tribeca, John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette did what many New Yorkers have done: they went to the Hamptons to get away.

But their time at the beach wasn’t as fancy as you might think.

Instead of some big house, they stayed in a pretty simple rental in Sagaponack called Sea Song. It was a relaxed beach house that they shared with Kennedy’s cousin, Anthony Radziwill, and his wife, Carole, who was a journalist.

The house was close enough to walk to Sagg Main Beach, in a calm part of Sagaponack. Back then, in the 90s, it felt more like farmland with a beach nearby, not like the super-rich area it is now.

Even for the Hamptons back then, the house was small.

It was built in 1965 and was only one story, about 1,800 square feet. It had three plain bedrooms around an open kitchen and living room. There were hardwood floors, exposed beams, and a brick fireplace in the main room. The furniture was simple and beachy: white sofas and tables from Pottery Barn, not fancy designer stuff.

Outside, there was a big yard with a heated pool and some casual spots to hang out under the trees.

The best part was the privacy.

Everyone in Manhattan was always watching Kennedy and Bessette. Their house in Sagaponack gave them something rare: they could be normal. They spent their days on the beach or by the pool, and their evenings were filled with dinners, chats, and just normal summer stuff.

The house became a small but important spot for their friends back then. People would get together there on weekends, which was quite different from all the media attention Kennedy and Bessette got. Kennedy was the son of President John F. Kennedy, and Bessette was a publicist for Calvin Klein. Her simple style made her a fashion icon almost overnight.

Before and after the Kennedys’ summers, the rental had a long life in the Hamptons. Yvonne Dunleavy, a writer, bought the property in 1977 for $140,000, and years later, it was back on the market for $5.75 million. Lately, it’s been rented out for around $50,000 a month during the summer.

Now, Sagaponack is known for rich hedge-fund people and some of the most expensive real estate around. Houses sell for millions, and summer rentals can cost as much as penthouses in Manhattan.

That makes the Kennedy-Bessette beach house seem pretty simple now.

During those years, their main home was still their Tribeca loft on North Moore Street. Kennedy bought a two-bedroom place there in 1994, and everyone knows the photographers were always waiting outside to get a picture of them walking their dog.

But the Hamptons house was the opposite of that.

It was small, a bit worn, and full of friends, not staff. It was the kind of place where people walked in and out from the beach without shoes, where the outdoor shower was used all the time, and where it felt more like a shared summer house than some celebrity getaway.

Now the area is known for fancy houses and expensive sales, the little house called Sea Song reminds us of a different time in the Hamptons: when even the most talked-about couple in America could disappear into a simple beach house for the weekend.