John Checks Into a Hotel After a Devastating Fight With Carolyn
Carolyn is clearing the table after a dinner party—planned by John for “her friends,” a characterization she objects to, insisting they’re “our friends”—and the couple get into a huge fight.
Barbs include John saying it’s lucky he never introduced Carolyn to his mother, as “she would have never encouraged this,” and Carolyn saying he only talks to her enough to “keep the peace.” Because, she added, “I imagine it’s tough seeing how unhappy you make me.”
It’s an all-around devastating exchange—she also accuses him of not making any space for her, while he charges her with having “no identity outside of your own victimhood”—and it ends with John saying he’s going to check into the Stanhope Hotel because he’s tired of seeing in her eyes how he’s “failing at this marriage.”
She begs him not to leave, and he promises he’ll be back.
If this is, in fact, the notorious check-in to the Stanhope two days before their plane crashed on the night of July 16, 1999, then Love Story leaped almost two years into the future. While their final weeks were fraught, they also traveled, went to parties and experienced at least some happiness as a couple during their nearly three years of marriage.
But, as Beller wrote, stories about them being on the rocks or otherwise unhappy sold more papers, as did photos of Carolyn looking upset, and that cycle continued for the rest of their lives.