THE KENNEDY family has confirmed weekend reports that Mr John Kennedy Jnr (35), publisher of George magazine and son of the late President John F. Kennedy, has married Ms Carolyn Bessette on an island off Georgia.
"My cousin John did tie the knot," Congressman Patrick Kennedy said.
The secretive ceremony took place on Saturday on Cumberland Island, a rustic national wildlife preserve off the coast of the southern state.
The little church where they were married holds no more than 30 people. In 1953, 1,200 guests attended the wedding of Mr Kennedy's father and Jacqueline Bouvier in Newport, Rhode Island.
The best man on Saturday was Mr Kennedy's cousin, Mr Anthony Radziwill, son of his mother's sister, Ms Lee Radziwill. Mr Kennedy's sister, Ms Caroline Schlossberg, was maid of honour and her daughters, Rose (7) and Tatiana (5), were flower girls.
After the ceremony, guests feasted on capon at the reception at the Greyfield Inn, a 30 room mansion built in 1902 by the Carnegie family.
A source close to the couple told the New York Daily News that the two were determined to get married in peace. "Even their closest friends didn't know about it until four days ago," said the source.
Employees at the Greyfield Inn were forced to sign strict confidentiality agreements, the Daily News said.
The couple's on and off relationship had been a staple of the gossip press, with a public battle and reconciliation in Central Park in March, reports surfacing in August that a wedding was imminent and more talk weeks ago that the couple had broken up and Ms Bessette was seen nuzzling a Frenchman in a Paris cafe.