Ryan Murphy’s latest creation, “Love Story: John F Kennedy Jr & Carolyn Bessette,” mirrors the allure of its central figures—visually stunning yet lacking in depth.
Once more, the narrative unfairly points to Bessette as the reason behind the tragic plane crash that claimed her life, along with her sister Lauren and a woefully inexperienced pilot, JFK Jr. This portrayal perpetuates a debunked and sexist myth.
Murphy’s narrative choices also raise eyebrows with their questionable representation of Jackie O’s legacy.
On a personal note, during the summer of 2024, Murphy’s production team reached out to my agent regarding potential rights acquisition for my book, “Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed.”
After submitting a counterproposal, as is standard practice, Murphy surprisingly withdrew his interest—a rare move in the industry. Such actions are almost unheard of.
Nonetheless, we found another serious contender, so the situation resolved without issue.
Yet I suspected that Murphy and his team would use parts of Ask Not anyway, and they seem to have done just that. And they also seem to have used key, never-before reported details from my 2014 non-fiction book Champagne Supernovas in which Carolyn Bessette appears.
I’m not suggesting there’s any wrongdoing here. But it’s not cool. Very tacky.
Pictured: Paul Anthony Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon in Love Story
Much like its subjects, Ryan Murphy’s ‘Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette’ is beautiful to look at but empty inside (Pictured: John F Kennedy Jr and Carolyn in January 1997)
That said, I’m genuinely curious as to why Murphy chose to depict the fairytale version of John and Carolyn, rather than the version depicted in Ask Not — the raw, real, disturbing one.
Truth, as they say, is stranger than fiction. But high-gloss fiction that inevitably careens into camp is Murphy’s trademark.
From the opening scenes, key facts are wrong. There is zero proof that John and Carolyn, who were on the verge of divorce when they died, had reconciled before getting in that plane, as they do here.
Carolyn, in the premiere episode, is depicted as causing the crash by petulantly demanding that her manicurist re-do her nails — a specious claim that has never been authenticated — thus arriving late to the airport and forcing Jr to take off at night.
Because it can never be said enough: The only person who caused that plane to crash was JFK Jr, who lacked the required, fundamental training; who broke basic rules of aviation such as filing a flight plan and remaining in contact with ground control; who nearly crashed into a packed commercial American Airlines jetliner making its descent to (ironically) Kennedy airport; and who the NTSB, in their official report, deemed the sole cause of that triple-fatality.
Another crucial mistake: Carolyn and her sister are depicted buckling themselves into the rear seats of the plane, facing forward — when in fact they were seated facing away from Jr, their backs to his.
A placement, no doubt, that would have made the sisters’ fatal descent into the Atlantic Ocean that much more terrifying.
But changing such key details, for creative or cosmetic reasons, tells us all we need to know.
Because truly, the hair does a lot of the heavy lifting here.
It can never be said enough: The only person who caused that plane to crash was JFK Jr (Pictured: JFK Jr at Caldwell Airport in New Jersey in October 1998)
I’m genuinely curious as to why Murphy chose to depict the fairytale version of John and Carolyn, rather than the version depicted in Ask Not — the raw, real, disturbing one
There is zero proof that John and Carolyn, who were on the verge of divorce when they died, had reconciled before getting in that plane
Recall the outcry last summer when Murphy released still photos of his leads: Paul Anthony Kelly as Kennedy and Sarah Pidgeon as Carolyn.
Both were decried as Temu versions of the real thing. Pidgeon as Carolyn, especially, came in for brutal eviscerations: The wardrobe wasn’t nearly high-end enough! Carolyn would never have worn low-cut Converse All Stars! She favored a Birkin 40, not the 35 they had Pidgeon carrying! The hair was all wrong!
All correct assessments. Such details, after all, are crucial when you’re flattening two very damaged, narcissistic, temperamental, entitled, emotionally immature people into perfect holograms.
The Guardian called it ‘fashion murder.’ The Cut: ‘These Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy Costumes Don’t Fit the Bill.’
Even Carolyn’s famous hair colorist Brad Johns, who never comments on the couple, weighed in: ‘No one would believe that Carolyn in the ’90s would ever have that color from me,’ he told Vogue last June. ‘It’s too 2024.’
And one-time Vogue editor and Moda Operandi founder Lauren Santo Domingo commented online: ‘Sorry but the wardrobe is wrong.’
Murphy quickly hired a fashion advisory panel and got someone to work on Carolyn’s famous Calvin Klein-era mane: Rather than the thin, flat platinum blonde hair Pidgeon originally wore in character, her Carolyn’s hair is now thick, wavy, and colored in much more difficult-to-execute low-lights.
Good thing, too, because Pidgeon’s primary acting here is all hair: She flips it, tosses it, tousles it, tugs at it.
Kelly’s JFK Jr fares little better: Shirtless, riding a bike recklessly through New York City traffic, furrowing his brow, and staring blankly when challenged by Bessette — it all adds up to a cipher.
What the show fails to excavate is who these two people were under their carefully constructed veneers. JFK Jr, adored in life as perfect and lionized in death as a saint, had a death wish so extreme that he often bullied his girlfriends into risking their own lives with him.
Where’s that?
Pidgeon as Carolyn, especially, came in for brutal eviscerations: The wardrobe wasn’t nearly high-end enough! (Pictured: Filming of Love Story in June 2025)
JFK Jr, adored in life as perfect and lionized in death as a saint, had a death wish so extreme that he often bullied his girlfriends into risking their own lives with him (Pictured: Scene from Love Story)
JFK Jr and Carolyn Bessent in New York City in 1996
The one thing the show acknowledges and depicts — and I’m shocked they did — is that Jr got his then-girlfriend Daryl Hannah’s dog killed on a walk, letting him roam into oncoming traffic.
In the show, Daryl still begs to be with JFK Jr In real life, Daryl did what any normal person would do: She dumped him.
Murphy’s Carolyn is too cool for school, an unstudied beauty with natural style who could take or leave JFK Jr, the world’s most eligible bachelor.
In reality, she desperately went after John, abided all kinds of terrible treatment by him, and spent hours cultivating her look. As any fashion person knows, it takes a lot of effort to look that effortless.
But Murphy’s worst offense is depicting Jackie O, alone and drunkenly swooning over JFK — a husband who cheated on her relentlessly, forcibly institutionalized her when she confronted him, and left her alone for ten days to grieve the loss of their stillborn daughter, because he preferred partying on a yacht in the Mediterranean.
Oh — and Murphy’s Jackie, who lived out her later years as a respected book editor in New York City, says ‘anyways’ instead of ‘anyway.’
Jackie would never.
Nor should we.
