'Love Story' cast shares careful approach to John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette's relationship
A new limited series is putting John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette's whirlwind romance and relationship front and center.
FX's "Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette," executive produced by Ryan Murphy and based on the book "Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy" by Elizabeth Beller, traces the late couple's journey from their unlikely meeting and courtship to their marriage and the intense public scrutiny that surrounded their relationship.
The couple died in a fatal plane crash in July 1999, when the light aircraft that Kennedy was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts.
Another passenger, Bessette's older sister Lauren, also died in the crash.
Ahead of the series premiere Thursday, stars Paul Anthony Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon, who portray Kennedy and Bessette, respectively, spoke about their approach to portraying one of the most talked-about couples of the 20th century.
"I think this is a very tender look into what the world might have been like and how these sort of outside forces played into their battle to maintain integrity within their private relationship," Pigeon told "Good Morning America" Digital.
When Kennedy and Bessette's relationship became public in 1995, the fascination around the couple skyrocketed, which resulted in them being relentlessly followed by paparazzi and Bessette typically being depicted by tabloids at the time as a blonde dating "America's prince."
Connor Hines, who created the series and wrote several episodes, said there was "quite a bit to be reexamined" in their relationship, specifically Bessette's treatment by the media.
"You wouldn't believe how misogynistic and outdated the narrative that they ran with about her," Hines told ABC News. "I think that their relationship was a lot more nuanced than somebody that was happy to be famous and somebody that struggled with it."
Prior to filming, Pidgeon, who previously starred in the 2025 film "I Know What You Did Last Summer," said she struggled with the "negative characterization" of Bessette -- who built her own career at Calvin Klein -- in the media.
"I just found them so clearly tabloid culture and a story that they were trying to mine and this mischaracterization of a woman who really gave up a lot in order to be with the man that she loved," Pidgeon said. "I think it goes to show just how strong their relationship was in order for her to endure such scrutiny and, really, bullying from the press."
For Kelly, the role of Kennedy marks his acting debut. Executive producer Brad Simpson said finding someone to portray the son of former President John F. Kennedy was a "multi-month process," and the search for an actor to play him went as far as Australia and England.
When they found Kelly, who previously appeared in local theater productions, Simpson said he came in for a camera test with Pidgeon and described their chemistry as electric.
Like Pidgeon, Kelly said that he had a "baseline familiarity" about Kennedy and Bessette's story, and when he was cast, he said he dove into research on the couple and on Kennedy alone.
"Luckily, John is a very well-documented individual," he said. "So I had a lot of material to rely on and go back and utilize in creating my character."
"Love Story" has garnered mixed reactions from members of the Kennedy family.
Kennedy's nephew Jack Schlossberg addressed Murphy's new series in a video shared on his Instagram story back in June 2025, noting that his family had not been consulted about the show.
During an appearance at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival in January, Kennedy's cousin, documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy, said she was not sure that she would watch the series.
"I was quite close to John and continue to miss him every day," she said at the time, according to Variety. "It's been a great loss for our family and a great loss to the country. They are people we feel very close to and saddened by their loss. But there are opportunities for younger people who did not know their story to learn about it. Depending on how the show is done, it could also be a wonderful thing to their character, their personality, their contribution to society. We will see."
When asked about his approach to telling JFK Jr. and Bessette's story, Hines said that he, along with his fellow writers, were "very judicious in terms of what information and details we extracted."
"Obviously everything has to be taken with a grain of salt, but the reality is that the more that I read about them, the more I fell in love with who they were and the more protective I felt," he said.
The Walt Disney Co. is the parent company of FX and ABC.
