JFK Jr.'s Ex Daryl Hannah Breaks Silence on "Appalling" Love Story in Bombshell Op-Ed
Ryan Murphy’s art doesn’t imitate Daryl Hannah’s life.
The Steel Magnolias actress made her first public comments on FX’s Love Story, calling out the way it depicts both her and the end of her and John F. Kennedy Jr.’s five-year relationship.
“A recent tragedy-exploiting television series about John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette features a character using my name and presents her as me,” she wrote in an op-ed published in The New York Times on March 6. “The choice to portray her as irritating, self-absorbed, whiny and inappropriate was no accident.”
Daryl accused the show of mischaracterizing her in order to set up the central romance between JFK Jr. and Carolyn.
“Storytelling requires tension. It often requires an obstacle,” the 65-year-old wrote. “But a real, living person is not a narrative device. 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,” she added. “The actions and behaviors attributed to me are untrue.”
The Splash alum—who had an on-again, off again relationship with the youngest of John. F Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ two children from 1988 to 1994—called out specific elements from the show that paint an unflattering picture of her life.
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“I have never used cocaine in my life or hosted cocaine-fueled parties,” she wrote. “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.”
She stressed, “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.”
E! News has reached out to Ryan and FX but have not heard back.
As for why she feels compelled to speak out now, she cited advice her ex’s mom had given to her about life in the public eye—and how it has evolved in recent years.
“She told me that while tabloids, magazines and newspapers often sold ridiculous lies, they were nothing more than bird cage liner by the next day,” she wrote. “At the time, I found great comfort and consolation in those words. But today they no longer hold true.”
In fact, Daryl—who has been married to Neil Young since 2018—shared insight into the backlash she’s faced from Love Story fans.
"In the weeks since the series aired, I have received many hostile and even threatening messages from viewers who seem to believe the portrayal is factual,” she said. “When entertainment borrows a real person’s name, it can permanently impact her reputation.”
In the end, Daryl called for fans of the series—which has also been called out by JFK Jr.’s nephew Jack Schlossberg—to have discernment when it comes to what’s real and dramatized.
“Many people believe what they see on TV and do not distinguish between dramatization and documented fact — and the impact is not abstract,” she wrote. “In a digital era, entertainment often becomes collective memory. Real names are not fictional tools. They belong to real lives.”
For more on what’s fact vs. fiction in Love Story, keep reading…
Carolyn Bessette Impresses Calvin Klein With Her Style Suggestions for Annette Bening
In Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette, Carolyn (Sarah Pidgeon) suggests that Annette Bening (Megan Channell) wear a Calvin Klein suit to the Bugsy premiere, rather than the dress the designer himself selected for the actress.
While it's unclear whether she styled that particular look for the future Mrs. Warren Beatty, according to a 1996 New York Times article, Carolyn was the go-to saleswoman for Calvin Klein's celebrity clientele, including Annette, Diane Sawyer and Blaire Trump.
"She would guide them through the collection, tell them what looked good on them, and advise them on how to put it all together," Paul Wilmott, then Calvin Klein's VP of public relations, told the paper. "It was a wonderful thing. She sold millions of dollars of clothes over a period of time."
Another Love Story scene illustrating Carolyn's savvy has the eventual PR director encouraging Calvin (Alessandro Nivola) to hire Kate Moss for a campaign.
And Carolyn really was an early champion of Moss, who helped define the Calvin Klein brand in the 1990s.
Carolyn and John First Lay Eyes on Each Other at a Gala
As it unfolds in Love Story, Calvin introduces Carolyn and John at a charity gala in 1992 and sparks fly, though Carolyn refuses to give him her phone number, pointing out he knows where he works.
"He was just bored," Carolyn tells her friends at a nightclub afterward as her sometimes-lover Michael Bergin (Noah Fearnley)—dubbed "sexy doorman" by her pals—walks in.
Soon enough, John shows up unexpectedly at Calvin Klein and asks for a private fitting with Carolyn. He asks her to dinner and, once he leaves, her colleagues go nuts.
In reality, according to Elizabeth Beller's 2024 book Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, they first met in the spring of 1992 when John came into Calvin Klein for a VIP fitting (where her colleagues probably did go nuts). He then invited her to sit at his table at a gala, Carolyn's friend MJ Bettenhausen told Beller. But when Carolyn thought that another woman at the table was John's date, she got annoyed and declined his invitation to join him at an after-party.
Was Carolyn Seeing Someone Else When She Met John?
Carolyn did casually date Michael, a model who once worked as a hotel doorman, but not until the fall of 1992 and they were "much more off than on," per Beller's book.
And Bergin's claim in his 2004 book The Other Man that he continued having a sexual relationship with Carolyn, not just after she met John but until she died, was, Beller wrote, "considered questionable by many of Carolyn's friends."
Was JFK Jr. Super Late to His First Dinner Date With Carolyn?
In Love Story, Carolyn waits 20 minutes at an Indian restaurant for John and is leaving when he shows up on his bicycle.
Which he leaves unlocked, only to come out of their hours-long date to find it's been stolen. So, he gets to walk Carolyn home.
"I thought I had more time," he said as they arrive at her building's front door. She asks, "More time for what?" and they kiss. He asks if he'll see her again and she assures him, "I had a nice time tonight" before calling it an evening.
IRL, these two had a first date somewhere, and it's perfectly conceivable that John rode his bike and was late, but otherwise this two-kindred-spirits-bonding-over-beers tableau was created for the series.
Daryl Hannah Shows Up at John's Loft After His First Date With Carolyn
Daryl Hannah (Dree Hemingway), John's on-again-off-again girlfriend, is at his loft when he comes home after he was just rhapsodizing to his cousin and best friend Anthony Radziwill (Erich Bergen) about how all he wants to do is call Carolyn.
