Inside John F. Kennedy Jr. and Mike Tyson's Unusual Friendship

Seventeen years after JFK Jr.'s death, his closest friends reveal never-before-told stories about his life and final weeks. Subscribe now for an inside look at the JFK Jr. you never knew, only in PEOPLE!

John F. Kennedy Jr. and Mike Tyson had a bond that was as strong as it was unlikely.

In 1997, John, then the editor-in-chief of George magazine, sent a letter to the boxing champ, with the hopes of profiling him in his magazine.

In the letter, John wrote candidly about the pressures of being a public figure, dealing with the press: "Most folks think you have considerable talents balanced by some faults. Just like the rest of us. Both will always be magnified because of your high profile."



John wrote that the public was always fascinated by those, he said, "who in their best efforts and worst failures, show themselves to be human. That despite all they have, they still struggle. That's why, 35 years after his death, my father [and family] still sells books, miniseries, magazines, etc."

Although Tyson met with John at his George office, the boxer got to know him on a deeper level when John visited him in prison after he'd assaulted two men following a minor traffic accident in Maryland in 1998.

"I was surprised at how down-to-earth he was," Tyson tells PEOPLE via email. "During our visit, he was very honest and sincere with me about my situation. Then he told me that every one of his family members told him not to visit me. He emphasized 'all of them.' "

"He said they told him, 'It's going to kill your image and people won't respect you if you visit [Tyson] in prison,' " writes the boxer. "From that visit, I had total respect for him. He said, when you get out of [prison] we have to go hang out. He wanted me to hang out with him in Aspen. I laughed and said, 'Come on, they don't have any [black people] up there.' "

The story of their friendship is told in a new SPIKE TV documentary, I Am JFK Jr., airing Aug. 1 and now open in select movie theaters. The documentary shows footage of John's prison visit with Tyson and how he tried to use the constant press attention to publicize Tyson's situation.

"He sympathized with me in some way," Tyson notes. "He thought people judged me without getting the facts."

"We had a very respectful opinion about one another," he continues. "I was very surprised that he was a man of his word. He told me how difficult it was having friends in his position because he had a good friend that turned on him in the press. We often spoke about our relationships with women as well. He thought Naomi Campbell was pretty hot."

John also told Tyson about his love for flying and how he flew his own small plane. In response, Tyson teased him: "I told him he should get a G3 or a G4. A guy like you should have someone driving your plane for you.' He said, 'No, it's just not the same. ' He said he couldn't describe the feeling of flying his own plane."

After their visit, Tyson told John he was welcome to visit his house in Bethesda, Maryland, where his then-wife Monica Turner and children lived – which John did.

"Monica told me later that John had said to her, 'Mike said I shouldn't fly but he is the one that got into the motorcycle accident,' " writes Tyson. "Monica said he was so tired that she had to give him coffee before he left back out to fly home."

Now, 17 years after John's death, the boxer, who will appear at the MGM in Las Vegas in September for the return of his one-man show Undisputed Truth, remembers John's loyalty and his sense of humor.

He also remembers how John closed the letter, by promising Tyson that he'd overcome his struggles. "They crucify saints and anoint fools as kings," John said of the press attention. "So again, as long as you maintain the respect of those who truly know you, the rest will take care of itself."

"Don't give up," he wrote in closing. "Stay humble and always remember (as my mother always told me) this too shall pass."