John F. Kennedy Jr.

What must it be like to have a father who was revered like a god? And to be called 'America's most eligible bachelor'? The private life and varied careers of the late John Jr explored.

Born only weeks after his father, President John F Kennedy, was elected president, John F. Kennedy Jr. was the first infant to inhabit the White House since the 1880s.

He became famous in the eyes of the world as the three-year-old saluting his father's coffin after his assassination in 1963, with the press lovingly referring to him as "John-John".

Soon after, he moved with his mother Jacqueline to Manhattan. Another blow for John was the assassination of his uncle and father-figure Robert Kennedy, when he was six years old.

Though Jackie soon became Mrs. Aristotle Onassis, her new husband played little part in his life. John attended Brown University (against the family tradition of Harvard), graduating in 1983.

Handsome, charismatic and rich, just like his parents, John considered acting, but, under his mother's influence, he attended New York University's Law School in the mid 1980s.

He found legal training difficult, failing his examinations twice, with the press calling him 'the hunk who flunked'. He passed on his third attempt in July 1990 and then worked as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's office for four years.

However, in 1988, People Magazine dubbed him 'the sexiest man alive'. He said: "People could say a lot worse things about you than you're really attractive and you look good in a bathing suit."

Around this time, he was to start dating the actress Daryl Hannah. He also dated Madonna for a while.

After introducing his other uncle, Senator Edward Kennedy, to the Democratic Convention of the same year, many anticipated his own political career.

However, he became a Manhattan district attorney, scoring a 6-strong run of successes between 1989 and 1993.

He then moved into publishing, founding his politics magazine George, with public relations magnate Michael J Berman in 1995. The glossy politics-as-a-lifestyle monthly publication carried interviews with, amongst others, Fidel Castro. The editorial also took a swipe at his own family on occasions. Kennedy owned 50 per cent of the magazine shares.

He was also actively involved in much significant philanthropic work.

In 1996, he married Carolyn Bessette, a Calvin Klein publicist, who was known for being very shy but, on the 16th July 1999, John died alongside her and her sister in a plane which he was piloting, when it crashed off Martha's Vineyard.

Kennedy had loved flying from a young age and held a pilot's licence. The couple were on their way to Rory Kennedy's wedding (the youngest of Robert Kennedy's children) after dropping off Carolyn's sister. It was foggy and when the plane crashed into the Atlantic ocean, all three died.

A search for the bodies took 15 hours and Kennedy was found in the pilot's seat. After his death, George magazine continued until 2001. Prior to his death, Kennedy had conceded that the publication might have to be wound up.