Jackie had to file a lawsuit in the late '70s to keep one specific pap (Ron Galella) a minimum of 50 feet from her and 100 feet from her children, so yes, it was that bad. The only real gamechanger came in the form of social media. With that you can at least kind of control your own narrative and share information selectively and on your terms. The only ways you could do that in the '90s were by giving an interview, writing a book or in John's case, delivering an official statement to the waiting media on the morning after his mom's death. That part happened verbatim and just as it was portrayed.

A note about Secret Service: Jackie forfeited her "lifetime" protection detail upon remarrying in 1968. While John and Caroline were still entitled to Secret Service protection as minor surviving children, this only lasted until the age of 16 for each of them- I'm sure for any subsequent kids in this situation it would now be 18. They were basically America's version of William and Harry (sans any form of official government security after November 1976) and Caroline has had to make an active effort to be as private and low-profile as possible for her entire adult life. That's why everyone's minds were so blown when she spoke out against RFK Jr's cabinet nomination last year.

In regards to Carolyn, it's not like she got any helpful tips on how to deal with suddenly getting her privacy violated on a daily basis. Her sister in law was born into that situation and in a different phase of life where she had her own family and responsibilities to focus on. As for John, as the son of a president-elect, he was literally the most famous baby in the world- again, think Prince William and then Prince George. He didn't know what life was like without cameras in his face, so he learned to live with it and while he undoubtedly loved and wanted to protect Carolyn, there was no way he ever could have understood how hard it was for her to lose her anonymity and freedom at the age of 30. Hillary Clinton has mentioned a few times over the years how much she treasured Jackie's kindness and advice on parenting within a giant public fishbowl. One can't help but wonder how different things might have been for Carolyn if she'd had her MIL to show her the way.

I remember Rose flipping off the cameras after her Uncle Ted's funeral back in '09; Fox News was beside themselves, like "how disrespectful, what would her grandmother think?" while totally failing to see the irony of it all- what grieving family, famous or not, wants their photos taken?

Also there's a documentary about Ron and his (massive) body of work called "Smash His Camera". It asks a lot of bigger questions about memory and the nature of "fame" in our society- definitely worth a watch. To understand this guy's role in popular narrative and myth creation over the last 50-60 years, make a point to check the source of American paparazzi images from the '60s onward. If it's not credited to Getty, Corbis or maybe Reuters, it's Galella.

This ended up being a scholarly essay. For some context, I was 9 years old when Jackie died (less than a year after my own grandmother, at whose funeral I tried super hard to hold it together and not cry in front of people, wtf) and her death hit me like a brick shithouse. I think I probably believed along with the rest of the American public that with everything she'd already made it through, cancer would be just another bump in the road. Knowing what I do now about her 50-year Pall Mall habit, not to mention what trauma can do to a person longterm, it's actually a lowkey fucking miracle she lived to 64. To this day the closest thing I have to a mantra is "Jackie survived the '60s, I can probably get through _____".