For nearly a century, two families have captured the world’s collective imagination: the Windsors and the Kennedys. Much has been written about their individual trysts, tragedies, and triumphs over the years, but no one has examined their intertwined legacies. Until now.
The Kennedys and the Windsors unearths the shared story of these two families, drawing out some startling parallels between them: the style icons Princess Diana and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, who both tragically died young, the frustrated second sisters Princess Margaret and Lee Radziwill, the scandal-plagued next generation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the man formerly known as Prince Andrew, and the current generation’s struggles to figure out what a monarchy - actual or imagined - means in the twenty-first century.
From Queen Elizabeth’s coronation to President Kennedy’s historic London visit, JFK Jr.’s shocking death to Prince Harry’s decisive break with his family, Caroline Hallemann traces the key moments in the lives of these dynasties through a fresh and fascinating lens, showing how they have intersected over the generations in ways that not only shaped their images, but history itself.