Angie Coqueran thought she was heading out for another routine day of work when she got into her Chevy Blazer that winter morning.
But by nightfall, she had taken photographs that would go on to gross an estimated $7 million – and permanently alter how the public saw America’s ‘golden couple.’
Now, 30 years later, the images of John F Kennedy Jr and his then-fiancée Carolyn Bessette locked in a heated argument at a New York City park remain among the most explosive celebrity paparazzi shots ever published.
February 25 will mark the anniversary of the infamous, unguarded moment, which will be revisited in Ryan Murphy‘s American Love Story nine-episode anthology, airing on FX and Hulu on February 12.
For Coqueran, now 68 and retired, every new documentary or dramatization of the couple’s fight pulls her straight back to that day.
‘I actually thought it was going to be another boring set,’ she told the Daily Mail. ‘Boy, was I wrong. But that’s how this business works.’
By 1996, the intrepid photographer had an established ‘route’ she worked, in the lower Manhattan area where she would scour the streets for celebrities out doing their thing.
JFK Jr’s Tribeca loft was one of the spots she checked out regularly.
John F Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette were infamously photographed arguing in a New York City park on February 25, 1996, just months before their wedding
The explosive images, taken at Battery Park, would later shatter the illusion of America’s golden couple
The now infamous photos were taken by street photographer Angie Coqueran, whose exclusive set has since grossed an estimated $7 million
‘On Sunday he would walk to a newsstand and buy the New York Times, grab breakfast at Bubby’s nearby, walk his dog, nothing too exciting,’ she recalled, except that he was the most famous bachelor on earth and once People’s Sexiest Man Alive.
But that unseasonably warm winter’s day was different.
After breakfast John, 36, and Carolyn, 30, walked with their dog down from Tribeca to Battery Park.
Coqueran went into a public restroom and got in place to take pics of the somber couple sitting on a bench, reading the paper.
She believes JFK Jr may have been triggered by something he saw in the Sunday paper, perhaps the listing of many of his late mother’s belongings for sale at an upcoming Sotheby’s auction. Jackie Kennedy Onassis passed away from cancer on May 19, 1994, at the age of 64.
‘John got up and tried to walk away and out of my sight,’ Coqueran told the Daily Mail, so she repositioned herself to get more pictures.
What followed was a brief but volatile altercation.
‘Carolyn was trying to grab the dog leash, and he physically pushed her back over and over again. It looked like he was going to smack her in the face,’ she recalled.
The raw, unguarded photos stunned the public when they were published, exposing a side of the famously private couple never seen before
In some of the most shocking frames, the two seem to wrestle over their dog’s leash, with John appearing to rip an engagement ring from Carolyn’s finger
Some of the images show John’s hand dangerously close to Carolyn’s face, with others capturing him tearing the engagement ring off her finger.
‘He ripped a ring off her hand and later they find it in pieces. The actual fight was only like 15 minutes. But if you look at the photos it seems like it would be longer.’
Afterwards, the couple sat next to each other on a bench in silence. As they left the park, Coqueran heard John tell Carolyn: ‘I don’t even know her… I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
Moments later, John could be seen sitting alone on a curb, with his head tucked into his arms, distraught.
After another brief exchange, the couple were seen hugging, with Carolyn, tears running down her face, clutching a cigarette.
The storm had passed.
The couple went on to get married seven months later and both died when the plane John was piloting on the way to his cousin Rory Kennedy’s wedding, plunged into the Atlantic in 1999.
At the time Coqueran took the famous set, celebrity photography still ran on film.
‘Back then we used film, 35 millimeter, and we’d have to take it somewhere to get developed. We didn’t go digital until 2001,’ she said.
The couple had been sitting down on a park bench before John got up and stepped away to walk their dog
At the time, JFK Jr was 36 and Carolyn Bessette was 30. The couple would go on to marry later that year
Moments later, the couple appeared to reconcile, embracing as Carolyn wiped away tears and held a cigarette – a fleeting calm after the storm
That created a two-hour window between the ‘fight’ and having the prints ready to sell – during which Coqueran and her partner Kenny pitched only the story to a major news organization.
‘We pitched just the words, like, “Hey, JFK Jr and Carolyn were seen fighting in the park, do you want to buy the story?”‘
They did not reveal they had photos – yet. Back then, you could make money on just that sort of thing, she said.
They immediately contacted JFK Jr’s people for comment who, not realizing there was photographic evidence to back up the claims, said the story was: ‘Not true. Totally made up.’
The images would later shock the world: America’s golden couple screaming in each other’s faces, John ripping Carolyn’s engagement ring off her hand, appearing to slap her in the face, wrestling over his dog’s leash, and with each other.
‘I knew when his PR team said it was all made up, they had never seen me taking pics,’ Coqueran said.
‘The reason many of the photos are blurry is that I was quite a distance away at times, using a 300 lens.’
But once the images were published, Coqueran said John knew exactly who had taken them.
After breakfast that day, John, 36, and Carolyn, 30, walked with their dog down from Tribeca to Battery Park
John was later photographed sitting alone on a curb, his head buried in his arms, visibly distraught following the altercation
‘He came up to my car and reached inside like he was trying to grab my arm or my camera. It was Carolyn who told him to stop, warning: “She’ll sue you.”
The magnitude of what that set was raking in made other photographers set up camp outside that Tribeca loft and amped up the competition to get an exclusive.
As someone who regularly photographed the couple, Coqueran has an interesting insight into their relationship.
‘I noticed that when they were dating, and later engaged, Carolyn had a sporty, tomboy vibe,’ she said.
‘It was like she was morphing to be what John wanted, and what [ex-girlfriend] Daryl Hannah was like, not her true self.
‘As soon as they got married she turned into this fashion diva. It was like she played a role and got her guy.’
Coqueran had photographed John with actress Daryl numerous times as well.
As for her own interactions with her subject, Coqueran explains that JFK Jr never hid his disdain for photographers.
Now retired and living in Los Angeles, Coqueran suffers from illnesses that make it painful to hold a camera – but her legacy is secure
Coqueran revealed she had photographed John with actress ex-girlfriend Daryl Hannah numerous times as well
Among Coqueran’s other photos of John and Carolyn was this snap from 1995
‘He would say stuff to me like: “Is the economy that bad?” In other words, is it so bad you have to do this for a living?
‘Did he have no idea what kind of money these photos were making? He acted like we must all be on welfare or something,’ she said.
These days, Coqueran suffers from illnesses that make it painful to hold a camera – though her legacy is secure.
She remains one of the few women who competed against men, carrying heavy cameras and long lenses to get the money shots that the magazines, TV shows and newspapers wanted.
Through street smarts and a keen eye she rode the wave of the big money tabloid heyday which began in the 1990’s and ended around 2007.
It may be hard to imagine an era before iPhones where now everyone has the potential to capture a candid moment of a public figure without them knowing and make money.
A scrappy New Yorker of Caribbean and Panamanian heritage, Angie was born to immigrant parents. Her mom worked in an administrative role at a hospital, while her father was a gambler and sports bookie.
‘I remember when I was a teenager, my mom chaperoned my school class on a field trip to the Met. I spotted a woman wearing dark sunglasses [inside] and a striped top.
The famous couple tragically died in 1999 off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, when JFK Jr crashed his small private plane, killing everyone on board
John gave wife Carolyn a kiss on the cheek during the annual White House Correspondents dinner May 1, 1999, in Washington, DC just four months before they were both killed in a plane crash
‘”Look Mom, there’s Jackie Kennedy Onassis!” She turned to me and said, “Don’t be ridiculous.”‘
Days later, photos of Jackie wearing that exact top leaving that exact location were published and she showed her mom that she was right, she had spotted her.
‘From that moment on I felt like I had to prove to her I could spot people!’ Coqueran said.
She went on to pursue a Visual Arts degree from Marymount College in Westchester County, New York.
Later she secured internships with studio photographers and artists, and even spent 15 years doing tech work for the Associated Press.
But it was taking photos backstage of some of her favorite rockers like Blondie, Patti Smith, Martha and the Motels and the Pretenders that launched her career in photo journalism.
The first photo she remembers as selling well was of Madonna and Sean Penn when they were first dating in 1985.
The last photo she took that sold well was one of the first photos showing Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox as a couple in 2020.
She counts as her biggest influence in her career Ron Gallela, the photographer best known for his candid Jackie Kennedy photos.
Coqueran now lives in Los Angeles and spends months at a time with friends in other states.
‘February 25, 1996. That day changed my life,’ she reflected. ‘It was a highly emotional, intense scene that my camera captured. It was a different era. I still haven’t processed that all these people are gone.’
