Daryl Hannah says the new FX series Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette, in which she appears as a character, is filled with lies about her and feels like “textbook misogyny.”
Hannah and JFK Jr. dated for about five years before his relationship with Carolyn Bessette began in 1994. Hannah, star of films including Splash and Kill Bill, used a New York Times guest essay on Friday to say Love Story treats her like an antagonist and portrays her in an unflattering light in order to make the audience root for Kennedy and Bessette’s relationship.
“Storytelling requires tension. It often requires an obstacle. But a real, living person is not a narrative device,” she writes. “There is also a gendered dimension to this thinking. Popular culture has long elevated certain women by portraying others as rivals, obstacles or villains. Isn’t it textbook misogyny to tear down one woman in order to build up another?”
“The character ‘Daryl Hannah’ portrayed in the series is not even a remotely accurate representation of my life, my conduct or my relationship with John,” Hannah adds. “The actions and behaviors attributed to me are untrue. I have never used cocaine in my life or hosted cocaine-fueled parties. I have never pressured anyone into marriage. I have never desecrated any family heirloom or intruded upon anyone’s private memorial. I have never planted any story in the press. I never compared Jacqueline Onassis’ death to a dog’s. It’s appalling to me that I even have to defend myself against a television show. These are not creative embellishments of personality. They are assertions about conduct — and they are false.”
Daryl Hannah on Her Advice From John F. Kennedy Jr.’s Mother, Jacqueline Onassis
Hannah says she has taken care not to respond to distortions in the media — she begins the essay by sharing that JFK Jr.’s mother, Jacqueline Onassis, once told her that today’s tabloid stories are tomorrow’s bird cage liner. But she notes that in the digital age, that is no longer true.
“A dramatized portrayal can become, for millions of viewers, the definitive version of a real person’s life,” she writes.
She notes that she now focuses mostly on “environmental advocacy, documentary filmmaking and animal-assisted therapy for seniors living with dementia and Alzheimer’s” — all of which depend on her reputation.
“Like any career, doing good work requires an intact reputation. This is why I am choosing to stand up for myself now,” she writes.
Love Story, which depicts John F. Kennedy and Carolyn Bessette’s relationship from their meeing in the early ’90s through their death in a plane crash off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard in 1999, was created by Connor Hines and is executive produced by Ryan Murphy, Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson, D.V. DeVincentis, Kim Rosenstock, and Hines.
Murphy has had a run of hits with anthologies that fictionalize the lives of famous and notorious people, including American Crime Story and Monster. Even when the portrayals are accurate, some people object to the idea of dredging up past pain.
For example, Rita Isbell, the older sister of Jeffrey Dahmer’s eleventh victim, Errol Lindsey, was upset to see herself portrayed in 2022’s Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, saying the portrayal “brought back all the emotions I was feeling back then.”
Representatives for Hines and Murphy did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette has been a massive hit: FX announced Thursday that the show was its most-watched limited series ever on streaming, earning more than 25 million viewing hours for its first five episodes on Disney+ and Hulu..
It has also become a cultural phenomenon, renewing cultural attention on the glamorous world of Manhattan in the ’90s. and Bessette’s work for Calvin Klein.
The show has also fared well with critics: It currently holds an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Main image: Paul Anthony Kelly as John F. Kennedy Jr. and Dree Hemingway as Daryl Hannah in Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette. FX
Editor’s Note: Corrects misspelling.