In the popular mini-series Love Story by Ryan Murphy, John F. Kennedy Jr. isn’t the only character who receives a favorable portrayal.

Carolyn Bessette is once again cast as America’s reluctant princess, with her more cunning and ambitious traits significantly softened or erased.

The journey of Carolyn into JFK Jr.’s world left many with broken hearts.

This world was, in many ways, polished and obscured by media narratives.

In the eyes of New York City tabloids and the American media, John was seen as a member of American royalty—a noble figure with the potential to follow in his father’s footsteps as President.

However, as I explored thoroughly in my book, Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed, the reality was that JFK Jr. harbored a constant, intense death wish. He often pressured his girlfriends into dangerous situations—one such instance being when Christina Haag narrowly escaped harm while kayaking with him on the open sea.

And that wasn’t Haag’s only brush with death, or catastrophic injury, due to his demands.

Carolyn, however, remains in many depictions — Love Story the latest — as a fawn in the woods, an innocent young woman who just happened to fall for the world’s most eligible bachelor, yet had no idea that intense media attention would also follow her.

Not so. Not true in the least.

Carolyn remains in many depictions as a fawn in the woods, an innocent young woman who just happened to fall for the world’s most eligible bachelor. Not so. Not true in the least

Carolyn Bessette was raised in the wealthy enclave of Greenwich, Connecticut. She went to Boston University and became a habitué of the club scene there, eventually working for John Lyons, one of the city’s biggest nightlife impresarios.

She dated high-profile men even then: Alessandro Benetton, heir to the fashion brand; future ice hockey star John Cullen; and no shortage of actual royals.

‘Carolyn was very good at her job,’ a former friend of Lyons told the New York Times upon her 1996 marriage to JFK Jr. ‘She had a lot of hands to hold, and she did it very well.’

‘Being in the circles she was in,’ the friend continued, ‘young men with power and influence were hitting on her frequently. She’s had offers of courtship and marriage from every Saudi prince from here to the Middle East in those clubs.’

A doe, indeed.

Carolyn then moved to New York City to work for Calvin Klein, where she quickly worked her way up to be his right-hand woman — styling A-list celebrity clients and consulting on his runway shows.

Rumblings have long circulated, ever since Carolyn first began seeing John, that she had set her sights on him way back in Boston and was determined to marry him.

As longtime JFK Jr friend Steve Gillon wrote in his biography America’s Reluctant Prince (there’s that word again, for a guy who loved media attention so much that he was shirtless the minute spring weather hit), Carolyn said, back in Boston, ‘I’m going to move to New York and I’m going to get him’ — meaning JFK Jr.

Carolyn moved to New York City to work for Calvin Klein (pictured left), where she quickly worked her way up to be his right-hand woman. But rumblings have long circulated that she had set her sights on JFK Jr way back in Boston and was determined to marry him

As a close friend of Carolyn’s told me, Carolyn spent one afternoon at Calvin Klein begging everyone to get into a gala, sponsored by Calvin, where JFK Jr was going to be the guest of honor.

And get in she did. Carolyn was spotted that night with him at the bar, where she oh-so-casually introduced her CK co-workers to, ‘My friend, John.’

Another source emailed me this week, saying that at lunch with one of Carolyn’s former business associates, her targeted attempts to get near JFK Jr were the big topic of conversation.

‘Carolyn was OBSESSED with John Jr from the beginning,’ says my source — way back in late 1980s Boston.

So much so that Carolyn ‘admitted she was going to move and put herself in a position where she would meet John Jr. She had mousy brownish-blonde hair in Boston and made a strategic decision to bleach it simply because she knew John Jr preferred blondes.’

That tracks. John was famously dating platinum blonde movie star Daryl Hannah at the time — and Carolyn also began losing a good amount of weight, to resemble Hannah’s waifish frame.

My source went on to say that Carolyn’s longtime colleague and friend insists that ‘Carolyn found out which bar John Jr frequented and went there and that’s how they met. Not through Calvin.’

That, too, would track. Carolyn spent her nights at NYC’s hottest, most exclusive nightclubs, even dating Will Regan, owner of hotspot Rex, for a time.

John was famously dating platinum blonde movie star Daryl Hannah (pictured 1993) at the time – and Carolyn also began losing a good amount of weight, to resemble Hannah’s waifish frame

My source insists that ‘Carolyn found out which bar John Jr frequented and went there and that’s how they met’

‘This [Ryan Murphy] mini-series makes it look like Carolyn rejected John a lot because of his status and her uncomfortability with it,’ my source continues.

‘Not so. It was a massive ploy and it paid off. She knew it would hook him because he was rarely, if ever, rejected… When it took her a month to decide on saying yes to marriage, that was also a calculated strategy. She played hot and cold to keep him longing for her and hooked. It wasn’t because of problems or anything about being in the public eye. She pretended to hate it but actually loved it.’

Of course. If you truly have an aversion to that level of fame, you step away — let alone relentlessly pursue America’s most wanted bachelor.

Lost in this mini-series, criminally, is Carolyn’s heartless treatment of a man who truly loved her: one-time Calvin Klein model Michael Bergin, who wrote in his now out-of-print 2004 memoir The Other Man about Carolyn using him to make JFK Jr jealous.

Also missing, so far: The night Carolyn physically assaulted Bergin for flirting with another woman at a party.

Bergin writes: ‘She dragged me to the nearest corner… and took my face in her hands, literally burying her fingernails into my skin. ‘What the f**k do you think you’re doing?’ she hissed… I turned and caught a glimpse of my face in a mirror. I had two bloody slits on each cheek from where Carolyn’s nails had burst through the is skin.’

Keep in mind: Bergin was a model. His face was his livelihood.

Of course. If you truly have an aversion to that level of fame, you step away – let alone relentlessly pursue America’s most wanted bachelor

But there’s more — a lot more — that proves Carolyn’s emotional and psychological instability, her capacity for cruelty and physical violence.

Bergin writes of a night in October 1993, Carolyn insisting he come over to her apartment. She told him she was pregnant, that the baby was his, and despite his willingness to raise the child with her, that she was going to have an abortion.

‘I don’t want to discuss it,’ she told him. ‘This isn’t your decision.’

Bergin writes that he asked Bessette to spend the weekend with him in Connecticut, but she kept pushing him off with vague excuses.

He went back to her apartment that Sunday night, walked her to the subway on Monday morning, and shortly after dropping her off, a gut punch: he saw Carolyn on the front page of the New York Post, seated closely next to John F Kennedy Jr on a curb, watching the New York City marathon.

Carolyn, pregnant with his child, on a Sunday morning date with JFK Jr. No wonder she hadn’t wanted to join Bergin in Connecticut.

She was waiting around for John to call, pregnant or not.

Sometime later, Bergin writes, he went with Bessette to her abortion and nursed her through her recovery for a week.

Bessette went on to get engaged to JFK Jr.

Lost in Ryan Murphy’s new mini-series, criminally, is Carolyn’s heartless treatment of a man who truly loved her: one-time Calvin Klein model Michael Bergin (pictured with Carolyn)

Bergin writes wrote in his now out-of-print 2004 memoir The Other Man about how Carolyn used him to make JFK Jr jealous

After Carolyn had told Bergin she was pregnant, he saw her on the front page of the New York Post, seated closely next to John F Kennedy Jr on a curb, watching the New York City marathon (in 1993)

But she never fully let Bergin go, and sometime in early 1996, she called him, and he went to her apartment. They sat together on her bed and held hands. Carolyn had a confession of sorts: She was pregnant again.

‘You’re having a baby?’ Bergin asked.

‘No,’ she said. ‘I lost the baby.’

Bergin writes that they spent that night together, and he still hoped he might win her back.

‘The way I saw it,’ he writes, ‘she probably didn’t even tell John Jr about the pregnancy.’

That sounds right. Carolyn knew that if everything didn’t go according to John’s schedule — what he wanted, when he wanted it — that he would likely never marry her.

This second ‘lost’ pregnancy could very well have been another abortion.

After all, why wouldn’t John also grieve a miscarriage? John, who was openly talking about how eager he was to start a family? Why wouldn’t John want to be there, comforting Carolyn — the pair now secretly engaged — instead of Bergin?

In the end, Carolyn got her wish: She and John were married that September. Three years later, he would kill her, her sister Lauren, and himself in a wholly preventable plane crash.

‘She moved her entire world on taking a chance that she would land [JFK Jr] — and she did,’ says my source. ‘The irony is, it cost her life.’