{"id":339334,"date":"2026-03-10T20:20:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T20:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/339334\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T20:20:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T20:20:15","slug":"love-story-star-paul-anthony-kelly-looks-unrecognisable-with-shaggy-hair-a-nose-ring-and-30-tattoos-after-transforming-into-clean-cut-john-f-kennedy-jr-for-hit-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/339334\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Story star Paul Anthony Kelly looks unrecognisable with shaggy hair, a nose ring and 30 tattoos after transforming into clean cut John F. Kennedy Jr. for hit show"},"content":{"rendered":"

By JOANNA CRAWLEY, DEPUTY SHOWBIZ EDITOR (NEWS)<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published: 12:08 EDT, 10 March 2026 | Updated: 12:30 EDT, 10 March 2026 <\/p>\n

Love Story star Paul Anthony Kelly has revealed the transformation he went through to play John F. Kennedy Jr. on the hit show.<\/p>\n

Instagram photos show the model turned actor sporting shaggy hair and a nose ring as he shows off his relaxed day to day life in Portland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Paul, 37, also flaunts his extensive tattoo collection in shirtless snaps after revealing it took makeup artists on the set of the FX\/Hulu show over an hour every day to cover up the inkings.<\/p>\n

The star, who spent twenty years as an international model before landing the JFK Jr. role, also had to undergo an extreme physical transformation to play the icon.<\/p>\n

He went up two suit sizes in just three weeks to emulate Kennedy’s beefed-up frame after spending two decades with a leaner, runway-ready body.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He embarked on heaving lifting workouts focusing on his chest and back, and\u00a0hit the gym at 4:30 a.m daily after learning he had won the part just weeks before the Ryan Murphy show started shooting in New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Love \"Instagram <\/p>\n

Love Story star Paul Anthony Kelly has revealed the transformation he went through to play John F. Kennedy Jr. on the hit show<\/p>\n

\"During <\/p>\n

During his December conversation with Interview, Paul noted the day of his producer callback was also the day he and his wife Syd (pictured) found out they were expecting their first child<\/p>\n

The final minor, but integral, part of his physical transformation was his hair.<\/p>\n

Paul had ‘two very small pieces’ added into his locks every day on set, as he admitted I’m getting older. My hairline is not as thick and prominent as John-John’s.’<\/p>\n

The tweaks paid off with fans raving about Paul’s likeness to JFK Jr. He has also earned praise for his performance, all the more remarkable considering his only previous acting credit before Love Story was a minor role in two episodes of a 2008\u20132010 Canadian TV drama called Body Language.<\/p>\n

Paul has admitted he always wanted to move from the runway to acting but spent ten years auditioning.<\/p>\n

And the day he found he had won a callback for the Love Story role was monumental for another reason.<\/p>\n

During his December 2025 conversation with Interview Magazine, Paul noted the day of his producer callback was also the day he and his wife found out they were expecting their first child.<\/p>\n

‘I do the Zoom, and right before we’re about to go for dinner for our second wedding anniversary, she tells me we’re pregnant,’ he said, noting that ‘May 1st was a big day.’<\/p>\n

\"Paul, <\/p>\n

Paul, 37, also flaunts his extensive tattoo collection in shirtless snaps after revealing it took makeup artists on the set of the FX\/Hulu show over an hour every day to cover up the inkings<\/p>\n

\"The \"He <\/p>\n

The star, who had spent twenty years as an international model before landing the JFK Jr. role, also had to undergo an extreme physical transformation to play the icon<\/p>\n

A day later his agent called and told him they wanted to see him for a chemistry read with Sarah Pidgeon, who was already cast as\u00a0Carolyn Bessette.<\/p>\n

The shoot took place in New York weeks later and when the show finished filming Paul and his wife Syd\u00a0Widziszewski-Kelly\u00a0planned to go back home to Portland and ‘start nesting’ in preparation for their January 7 due date.<\/p>\n

As he has throughout much of his two year marriage to production manager Syd, Paul has kept news of his baby private, only confirming that the couple were parents during a recent appearance on the Kelly Clarkson Show.<\/p>\n

Paul has made sure to let the world know he is happily married though, sharing an Instagram carousel dedicated to Syd two weeks after the first Love Story episodes dropped.<\/p>\n

‘Couldn\u2019t live life without you. To forever and ever-again. xo’ he gushed, leaving fans swooning as one declared ‘we love a man who makes his woman feel secure and shows her off as he\u2019s becoming America’s boyfriend.’<\/p>\n

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\n Love Story star Paul Anthony Kelly looks unrecognisable with shaggy hair, a nose ring and 30 tattoos after transforming into clean cut John F. Kennedy Jr. for hit show<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By JOANNA CRAWLEY, DEPUTY SHOWBIZ EDITOR (NEWS) Published: 12:08 EDT, 10 March 2026 | Updated: 12:30 EDT, 10…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,539,93,61,60,1489],"class_list":["post-339334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-dailymail","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tvshowbiz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}