Daryl Hannah trashes new JFK Jr. series in scathing New York Times essay
Daryl Hannah, the ex-girlfriend of the late John F. Kennedy Jr., strongly condemns the new television series about her ex.
On Friday, the “Kill Bill” actress published an essay in The New York Times in which she described “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette” as “exploiting tragedies” and an example of “textbook misogyny,” while focusing on how actor Dree Hemingway portrays her on the show.
“The character ‘Daryl Hannah’ portrayed in the series is not even remotely an accurate representation of my life, my behavior, or my relationship with John,” Hannah wrote. “The actions and behaviors attributed to me are false. I have never used cocaine in my life or hosted cocaine-fueled parties. I have never pressured anyone to get married. I have never desecrated any family heirloom or invaded anyone’s private monument. I have never planted any story in the press. I have never compared the death of Jacqueline Onassis to that of a dog.”
He went on to note, “I find it appalling to even have to defend myself against a television show. These are not creative embellishments of personality. They are behavioral statements, and they are false.”
Hannah was hot in a string of hit movies, including “Splash” and “Steel Magnolias,” when she and Kennedy began dating in 1989. Their on-again, off-again romance is believed to have still been ongoing when Kennedy met his future wife, Carolyn Bessette, in the early ’90s.
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Kennedy, the son of former President John F. Kennedy, ended his relationship with Hannah shortly after the death of her mother, former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, in 1994. He and Bessette married in 1996, about three years before they died when the private plane Kennedy was piloting crashed off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.
Elsewhere in her essay, Hannah called her characterization of “Love Story” “irritating, self-absorbed, whiny and inappropriate” and said she had since “received many hostile and even threatening messages” from viewers who “seem to believe the depiction is objective.”
“My professional life is based on compassion and responsibility. Reputation is not about ego, but about the ability to continue doing the meaningful work I love,” he concluded. “Like any career, doing good work requires an intact reputation. That’s why I choose to defend myself now.”
“Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette” premiered on FX and Hulu last month and is the first installment of what is expected to be an anthology series. It was executive produced by Ryan Murphy, whose credits include “Glee” and “American Horror Story.”
The show is based on Elizabeth Beller’s 2024 book “Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy” and stars Paul Anthony Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon as Kennedy and Bessette-Kennedy, respectively.
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While reviews of “Love Story” have been mixed, those with personal ties to the couple at the center of the series are not praising it. This includes Kennedy’s nephew, Jack Schlossberg, who gave the show “a capital ‘F’ for fiction” in a “News Sunday Morning” interview that aired Sunday.
The would-be New York lawmaker said of Murphy: “The guy doesn’t know anything about what he’s talking about and he’s making a ton of money off of a grotesque display of someone else’s life.”
The producer, however, seems to take the criticism in stride. Appearing on California Governor Gavin Newsom’s podcast last year, he suggested that Schlossberg, 33, would have been too young at the time of many of the events depicted in the series to attest to their authenticity.
“I thought it was a strange choice to be upset about a family member you don’t really remember,” he said.