Anthony Radziwiłł

Born in Lausanne, Switzerland,[1] Radziwiłł was the son of socialite/actress Lee Radziwiłł (younger sister of First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy) and Stanisław Albrecht Radziwiłł. He was a member of the House of Radziwill, a Polish-Lithuanian noble family. He was also a descendant of King Frederick William I of Prussia via Princess Louise of Prussia, and George I of Great Britain via his only daughter Sophia Dorothea of Hanover. His paternal cousin was Countess Isabella Potocki who married Count Hubert d'Ornano, the owner of Sisley who was a son of Guillaume d'Ornano, a co-founder of Lancôme. His maternal first cousin once removed was Mary Lee Ryan (1931–2017), the wife of William Amherst Vanderbilt Cecil, owner of Biltmore. [2] He married a former ABC colleague, Emmy Award–winning journalist Carole DiFalco, on 27 August 1994 on Long Island, New York.[1]

Radziwiłł attended Millfield School and Choate Rosemary Hall preparatory school in Wallingford, Connecticut. In 1982, he finished his studies at Boston University, earning a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism.[2]

Radziwiłł's career began at NBC Sports, as an associate producer. During the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he contributed Emmy Award-winning work. In 1989, he joined ABC News as a television producer for Primetime Live. In 1990, he won the Peabody Award for an investigation on the resurgence of Nazism in the United States.[3] Posthumously, Cancer: Evolution to Revolution was awarded a Peabody.[4] His work was nominated for two Emmys.[5]

Around 1989 he was diagnosed with testicular cancer and underwent treatment which left him sterile but in apparent remission. However, shortly before his wedding, new tumors emerged. Radziwiłł battled metastasizing cancer throughout his five years of marriage, with his wife, Carole, serving as his primary caretaker through a succession of oncologists, hospitals, operations, and experimental treatments.[1]

The couple lived in New York, and both Radziwiłł and Carole tried to maintain their careers as journalists between his bouts of hospitalization.[1]

On September 21, 1996, Radziwiłł was the best man for the wedding of his best friend and cousin John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. Kennedy's older sister, Caroline, was the matron of honor.[6]

Radziwiłł died of cancer on August 10, 1999,[7] six days after his 40th birthday, and less than a month after his cousin John Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette, and her sister Lauren Bessette predeceased him in a plane crash.[8] He was survived by his wife, his mother, and a sister, Tina.[3]

In 2000, his mother, Lee Radziwiłł, and widow, Carole Radziwiłł, set up a fund in his name to help emerging documentary filmmakers.[9] In 2005, Carole wrote the autobiography What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship and Love, focused largely on her marriage to Radziwiłł. Published by Scribner, the book made The New York Times Best Seller List.[1]

• Anthony Radziwiłł at IMDb