She'll forever be remembered as the cool, enigmatic blonde who captivated John F Kennedy Jr.
But long before she became one-half of America's golden couple, Carolyn Bessette was in a passionate romance with a young Calvin Klein model whose chiseled body graced six-story high billboards in 's Times Square in the mid-1990s.
He was the handsome Michael Bergin - and for a while they were the 'it' couple, before Bessette ultimately chose the 'Prince of Camelot' and People magazine's sexiest man alive.
Now, 56, silver-haired and bespectacled, Bergin's face no longer towers above Manhattan.
Instead, the Daily Mail can reveal, it covers bus benches in Studio City, California, where the former Baywatch heartthrob has reinvented himself as a successful real estate agent with his realtor wife Joy, 55, and father of two children.
But it's his relationship from over three decades ago that has him back in the spotlight thanks to the new FX television drama resurrecting the fateful love triangle.
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Silver-haired and bespectacled, former supermodel Michael Bergin, 56, was seen stepping outside his $2 million Studio City home in the wake of the new FX series premiere about his former love Carolyn Bessette
Bergin was one of the shirtless hunks who starred alongside Pamela Anderson and Nicole Eggert on the lifeguard show Baywatch. And he modeled for Calvin Klein as well
Carolyn Bessette and John F Kennedy Jr tragically died in 1999 off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, when JFK Jr crashed his small private plane, killing everyone on board
The couple's love story, as well as Carolyn's brief romance with Bergin is depicted in the new FX series, in which he is portrayed by Noah Fearnley (pictured on set)
Once the face (and body) of Calvin Klein, Bergin now advertises luxury homes alongside his wife, with their photos seen on bus benches throughout LA
These days, Bergin lives a much quieter life as a realtor in LA, where he lives with his realtor wife Joy, and his two adult children
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The former TV heartthrob shows off his athletic frame in black joggers and a sweatshirt during a weekend outing in Los Angeles
'Try not to drop your word endings. It makes your sentences sound unfinished,' she told him, according to the book. He liked the constructive criticism.
'She was right. "Doin', sayin', goin'." I sounded like a small-town hood and Carolyn was trying to help me change that.
'She was educating me. Shaping me. Refining me And I not only allowed it, I appreciated it.'
Like Carolyn, Bergin was a Connecticut native, raised in the small blue-collar town of Naugatuck before graduating from the University of Connecticut in 1992.
A photograph published in his memoir shows the couple curled up together on the couch inside his modest Naugatuck home, where, according to Bergin, she would visit him and his family on the weekends.
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The rare image underscores the intimate nature of their relationship portrayed in his book - a softer and more private portrait of Carolyn before she entered JFK Jr's orbit.
Bergin was later seen heading to his real estate office just a few miles from home
Bergin played character JD Darius on Baywatch and later starred in spinoff Baywatch: Hawaii for 88 episodes from 1997 to 2001
Their romance, which was largely out of public view, would later be eclipsed by the glare of her high-profile relationship with the Kennedy heir that dominated headlines.
Bergin's handsome looks - and his Adonis-like physique - were also evident at the time, prompting friends to encourage him to try modeling.
By 1994 he was an international supermodel, landing the controversial Calvin Klein underwear campaign and other high-profile gigs.
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Throughout their relationship, Bergin says, Carolyn remained quite a mystery to him, even lying about the depth of her blossoming romance with JFK Jr.
When he confronted her about the first images showing the two together in October of 1993, sitting on a curb watching the New York City Marathon, Carolyn denied there was anything going on.
She claimed JFK Jr had a girlfriend (actress Daryl Hannah) and that she was just being 'a friend' he could to talk to during a difficult time in his life.
Carolyn would go on to leave Bergin for JFK Jr - a high-profile relationship that would eclipse theirs
Three years later on September 21, 1996, she and JFK Jr were married in front of 40 guests at the First African Baptist Church on Cumberland Island, Georgia.
Bergin has made waves with his claim that their sexual trysts continued after she married JFK Jr.
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In later interviews he suggested it was more of an emotional affair that he finally walked away from after turning down a weeping Carolyn's plea to get back together around May of 1998.
He never saw her again.
Carolyn, 33, and JFK Jr, 38, were killed along with her older sister Lauren, 34, when the small plane that Kennedy was piloting went down into the ocean en route to Martha's Vineyard on July 16, 1999.
In an excerpt from The Other Man, Bergin writes, 'I found myself wondering what would have happened if I had said yes…would she be alive today? Would we be together? Would we be happy?'
