Love Story's Sarah Pidgeon Addresses Misconceptions About John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette
While the tragic tale of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy—played by Paul Anthony Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon—provides the titular saga on Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette, they aren't the only couple under the microscope on Ryan Murphy's FX on Hulu limited series.
Because as Calvin Klein brand publicist Carolyn was getting tangled up with the political scion—arguably the '90s most eligible bachelor—her boss' romance with second wife Kelly Klein was simultaneously coming unspooled.
On the series, Kelly (Leila George) bristles when then-husband Calvin Klein (Alessandro Nivola) suggests that Carolyn's much-dissected romance with JFK, Jr. has become a distraction for the brand, insisting, "All due respect, you're the last person to be lecturing anyone on discretion."
His response: "From the beginning you knew what you were signing up for."
Because IRL, Kelly's romance with Calvin kicked off with its own meet-cute.
Trained in Ralph Lauren's design studio, then 21-year-old Kelly had interview with Calvin, only to learn that someone else had been hired.
But after they crossed paths months later at NYC hot spot Studio 54, the Bronx native called Kelly the next morning to offer her a job as his assistant.
As she would later detail to Vanity Fair in March 2008, "My whole life changed with Calvin. He would walk into the room, and it was just like the lights went on. The movie started every single day."
Not that she didn't have a featured role. Among the many ways she inspired Calvin was to suggest creating men's underwear designed specifically for women, noting there were few things sexier than wearing your boyfriend's briefs.
But when the two began mixing their business with pleasure shortly after she started working with him in 1981—13 years after he'd launched his eponymous brand—there were plenty of fashion insiders who were stunned.
Though Calvin was married to his high school sweetheart—he and textile designer Jayne Centre even welcoming daughter Marci Klein two years after their 1964 vows—assumptions were made about Calvin's sexuality because of his previous relationships with men.
But, as Kelly put it to Vanity Fair, "When you fall in love with someone, all the rumors that you hear fall away."
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And it's not as if Calvin hadn't addressed his sexuality in his own oblique way.
Reflecting on a 1985 ad for his fragrance Obsession, Calvin recalled casting "androgynous in a certain way but so fine and classy" model Josie Borain. In the photograph, he detailed to Vanity Fair, "There are arms and hands and all of these body parts all over her. You didn’t know if they were men or women. You didn’t know how many of them there were. But it got your mind going. That was a period of time when sex was everywhere, as were drugs."
As for his own familiarity, he continued, "I’ve experienced—and I’ve said it before—a lot of my fantasies. I’ve experienced sex with men, with women. I’ve fallen in love with women. I’ve married women. And I have a family. I have experienced lots of things that have influenced my world. I am for good or bad a real example of whatever I’ve put out there."
He just didn't love putting so much of himself out there.
As he'd put it to Playboy in 1984, "I think it’s more fun if you have the reputation and people don’t know everything—a little mystery isn’t so bad."
Particularly when you've experienced the worst parts of living a public life.
Back in 1978, then-11-year-old Marci was deceived into exiting an NYC bus by a former babysitter. Within hours, Calvin had dropped off the requested $100,000 ransom and was picking Marci up from a random apartment.
"I ran out and I saw him and I jumped into his arms," Marci, now a TV producer who's worked on Saturday Night Live, shared with Vanity Fair. "I've never felt so safe in my life."
But as for her father, he told the mag, "That was a nightmare that changed our lives a great deal."
So, his desire for a bit of privacy is understandable.
When he and Kelly split 10 years after their 1986 Rome vows, they announced their separation through a statement, revealing their plans to live apart, but remain "the best of friends."
Calvin was similarly forthcoming following a public relapse at New York Knicks game mere weeks after he and partner Barry Schwartz sold his company to Phillips-Van Heusen in 2003, pocketing $400 million.
"I think I was overwhelmed with what was going to be next—the future," he would later explain to Vanity Fair, detailing his decision to check into Arizona clinic the Meadows. "For a number of years, I was preparing for this. I knew that I was looking for other challenges or maybe other things. I had made so many collections. I had done everything I wanted to do. I was ready to let go. But when it actually happened I just went completely crazy. Then, once again, I dealt with getting my life together."
In the years following, he added, "It's been the best time in my life."
And that was before he enjoyed a two-year romance with model Nicolas Gruber, with the legendary designer inviting his circle of famous friends—including Anna Wintour, Donna Karan, Vera Wang, Alec Baldwin and Andy Cohen—to fete the California native's 21st birthday at NYC's Indochine in 2011.
"Basically we met through mutual friends," Nicolas detailed to New York Magazine's The Cut in 2013. "I came to New York before for a photo shoot when I tried to become a model. I was in the Army, and I had three months before I had to get out. We started talking and one thing led to another."
By the time Nicolas sat down with the mag, he and Calvin had strutted down different path. And the fashion guru has kept an even tighter lid on his subsequent relationship.
Photo by Aurora Rose/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
But since 2016, nothing has gotten between Calvin and his longtime love, 37-year-old model Kevin Baker.
While Calvin has never publicly addressed his romance with Kevin—whose twin brother Joel is also a model—they've waged their own marketing campaign of sort.
First spotted at the March 2016 Mint Luxury Conference in Mumbai, India, the couple have turned up everywhere from the opening night performance of American Psycho on Broadway that April, the Future of Fashion Runway Show in May and on trips that have taken them everywhere from his lavish Hamptons spread to the island of St. Barts.
Most recently, the pair—who keep a townhouse in New York and a spread in Los Angeles—were seen leaving the gym together in L.A.
As for Calvin's body of work, he built both his brand and his thriving personal life by following his gut.
"I think maybe the most important thing is finding your own identity," he stressed in a 2016 chat with i-D. "And even though people say, 'You should be doing this or that,' no. Do what you believe. Even when you're not confident, believe that you know better than what people are telling you to do. I think that's really important."
That tenacity is certainly on display during Love Story, but keep reading to see which parts were solely made for TV.
