{"id":465809,"date":"2026-02-13T07:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T07:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/465809\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T07:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T07:37:10","slug":"love-story-revisits-john-f-kennedy-jr-and-carolyn-bessette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/465809\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Love Story’ revisits John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette"},"content":{"rendered":"

With just a single photo released from their wedding day, much of the relationship between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette remains shrouded in romanticized legend: the courtship between the fashion publicist and the scion of an already much-mythologized family,<\/a> the private nuptials and, just three years later, their deaths in a tragic plane crash.<\/p>\n

The new FX and Hulu series premiering Thursday, \u201cLove Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette,\u201d attempts to fill in the gaps and chronicle their life together.<\/a> It details a meet cute at a party and culminates in the deaths of the couple and Bessette\u2019s sister Lauren Bessette on July 16, 1999, when a small plane piloted by Kennedy crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n

Jack Schlossberg,<\/a> Kennedy\u2019s nephew, spoke out against the series last year, saying it was profiting off his family \u201cin a grotesque way\u201d accusing executive producer Ryan Murphy of \u201cmaking millions\u201d off Kennedy\u2019s legacy. Murphy retaliated on California Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s podcast<\/a>, saying it was an \u201codd choice to be mad about your relative that you really don\u2019t remember.\u201d Schlossberg, now running for Congress in New York, took to social media to share memories of his uncle.<\/p>\n

Murphy was absent from the recent press circuit for \u201cLove Story,\u201d but executive producer Brad Simpson \u2014 a veteran of Murphy\u2019s based-on-a-true-story \u201cAmerican Crime Story\u201d<\/a> projects \u2014 told The Associated Press that the creative team is \u201cfully aware that there are real people and real tragedies often at the heart of these stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"**<\/p>\n

John F. Kennedy, Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy arrive at the Minskoff Theatre on April 6, 1998. (AP Photo\/Mitch Jacobson)<\/p>\n

John F. Kennedy, Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy arrive at the Minskoff Theatre on April 6, 1998. (AP Photo\/Mitch Jacobson)<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m not going to pretend like on some level we\u2019re not making an entertainment product out of it, but we\u2019ve tried to be ethical and we\u2019ve tried to be incredibly sincere,\u201d Simpson said.<\/p>\n

Paul Anthony Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon,<\/a> who portray Kennedy and Bessette in the series, say they took care in playing the couple, but do respect Schlossberg\u2019s opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to have a TV show or a movie or a book written about my family, and I understand his sensitivities, and I fully support him speaking his mind,\u201d Pidgeon said.<\/p>\n

Added Kelly: \u201cWe tried to have as much integrity and love going into this and retelling that I hope that people see that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The series is based on the book \u201cOnce Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy\u201d by Elizabeth Beller. Episodes detail Bessette\u2019s ambition, rising through the ranks of Calvin Klein, to Kennedy\u2019s struggles keeping George magazine afloat.<\/p>\n

\"Paul<\/p>\n

\n Paul Anthony Kelly (Photo by Matt Licari\/Invision\/AP)\n <\/p>\n

Paul Anthony Kelly (Photo by Matt Licari\/Invision\/AP)<\/p>\n

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\"Sarah<\/p>\n

\n Sarah Pidgeon (Photo by Matt Licari\/Invision\/AP)\n <\/p>\n

Sarah Pidgeon (Photo by Matt Licari\/Invision\/AP)<\/p>\n

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We see Grace Gummer as Caroline Kennedy<\/a> and Naomi Watts as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, nearing the end of her life and disapproving of both the magazine and Kennedy\u2019s on-again, off-again relationship with Daryl Hannah (Dree Hemingway). As the series tells it, Kennedy and Bessette had a magical first date that went nowhere for years because, shortly after, the tabloids reported he was back together with Hannah.<\/p>\n

Pidgeon admits she worried the project would be more salacious than sincere, but quickly realized that wasn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt a fear that we were going to sensationalize this. And then as I got on board the project that could not be, in my experience, further from the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

The show\u2019s creator, Connor Hines, is adamant that it\u2019s \u201cextensively researched.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe obviously had Elizabeth\u2019s book, but I read every single newspaper article that was written about them, every tell-all,\u201d said Hines. \u201cObviously, all of that material has to be taken with a grain of salt, and you have to be very judicious in terms of how you extract some of this information, because people have their own memories, people have their own slights, but we were exhaustive and diligent in how we approached this and I think that will ring true when people watch it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLove Story\u201d isn\u2019t the first show about the Kennedy family that has faced criticism. In 2011, The History Channel dropped a miniseries starring Greg Kinnear as President John F. Kennedy and Katie Holmes as Jacqueline Kennedy,<\/a> saying the finished project didn\u2019t fit the network\u2019s brand after Kennedy associates complained about script inaccuracies. \u201cThe Kennedys\u201d ended up airing on Reelz Channel.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not the only show about the Kennedy family coming soon: Netflix has announced its making \u201cKennedy,\u201d a series focused on the political dynasty\u2019s origins and based on Fredrik Logevall\u2019s \u201cJFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917\u20131956.\u201d Michael Fassbender will play Joe Kennedy Sr., the family patriarch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With just a single photo released from their wedding day, much of the relationship between John F. Kennedy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2224,216820,2356,38155,162046,216816,2000,216819,1996,161612,3506,3505,3827,216817,88,2013,793,216822,207281,851,27612,26070,170258,28030,26495,216818,2001,25222,66948,26072,217,2005,1999,216821,2294,111,880,11494,210098,200479,1505,795,800],"class_list":["post-465809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-arts-and-entertainment","tag-brad-simpson","tag-california","tag-calvin-klein","tag-caroline-kennedy","tag-carolyn-lauren-bessette","tag-connecticut","tag-connor-hines","tag-ct-state-wire","tag-daryl-hannah","tag-dc-wire","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-domestic-news","tag-elizabeth-beller","tag-entertainment","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-general-news","tag-grace-gummer","tag-greg-kinnear","tag-inc","tag-jack-schlossberg","tag-jacqueline-kennedy-onassis","tag-joe-kennedy-iii","tag-john-f-kennedy","tag-katie-holmes","tag-lauren-bessette","tag-massachusetts","tag-media-and-entertainment-industry","tag-michael-fassbender","tag-naomi-watts","tag-netflix","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-paul-anthony-kelly","tag-podcasts","tag-politics","tag-rhode-island","tag-ryan-murphy","tag-sarah-pidgeon","tag-send-to-apple-news","tag-television","tag-u-s-news","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}