Daryl Hannah slammed executive producer Ryan Murphy’s popular FX limited series “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette” in a guest essay published Friday by the New York Times, accusing the show of pushing “appalling” falsehoods about her and her relationship with the late John F. Kennedy Jr.
The “Splash” and “Kill Bill” star had an off-and-on relationship with Kennedy for five years throughout the early 1990s. She is portrayed in “Love Story” by Dree Hemingway, and the FX series positions her as a kind of antagonist to the core romance between Kennedy (Paul Anthony Kelly) and Bessette (Sarah Pidgeon).
As a result, not only does Hannah invite some friends of questionable character over to her and Kennedy’s apartment at one point in the limited series, but she also shows up uninvited to the memorial service for Kennedy’s mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (Naomi Watts). In her guest essay for the Times, Hannah fervently disputed these events.
“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 wrote. “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,” she continued. “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.”
Quoting a producer of the show who described her character as an “adversary” in “Love Story,” Hannah noted that the decision to portray her as “irritating, self-absorbed, whiny and inappropriate” was “no accident.” “Storytelling requires tension. It often requires an obstacle,” Hannah acknowledged, before countering, “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?” Hannah argued. The actress went on to note that she has received “many hostile and even threatening messages” from “Love Story” fans who believe its portrayal of her “is factual.”
“When entertainment borrows a real person’s name, it can permanently impact her reputation,” Hannah observed. “I know that as an actress I will be in the public eye. I’ve endured a number of outrageous lies, crappy stories and unflattering characterizations before. I chose not to battle them but to focus on my work and respect my loved ones by keeping my private life private. But my silence should not be mistaken for agreement with lies.”
Concluding her essay, Hannah wrote that she has always respected and “honored” the Kennedy family’s privacy and told readers that anyone “claiming to have any intimate knowledge of our personal lives are self-serving sensationalists trading in gossip, innuendo and speculation.”
“Many people believe what they see on TV and do not distinguish between dramatization and documented fact — and the impact is not abstract,” Hannah wrote. “In a digital era, entertainment often becomes collective memory. Real names are not fictional tools. They belong to real lives.”
TheWrap has reached out to FX for comment regarding Hannah’s remarks.
“Love Story” has been a huge success for all involved, having emerged as FX’s most-watched limited series ever on streaming. However, Hannah is not the first public figure to publicly call out the show’s historical inaccuracies.
JFK Jr.’s nephew Jack Schlossberg, who is running this year to replace retiring incumbent Congressman Jerrod Nadler and represent New York’s 12th Congressional district, has also criticized the FX series. “If you want to know someone who’s never met anyone in my family, knows nothing about us, talk to Ryan Murphy,” he said during a recent guest appearance on “CBS Sunday Morning.” “The guy knows nothing about what he’s talking about and he’s making a ton of money on a grotesque display of someone else’s life.”
The aspiring politician first distanced himself from the show last year when set photos began to emerge from its production. At the time, he urged Murphy to donate to some of the causes that were important to Kennedy while he was alive. Murphy responded to those comments during an appearance on California Governor Gavin Newsom’s podcast last summer.
“I thought it was an odd choice to be mad about your relative that you really don’t remember,” the “Love Story” producer said at the time. That comment prompted a swift response from Schlossberg, who went on to list in a since-deleted Instagram post some of the memories he still has of his late uncle.
“I would just want people who do watch the show to watch it with one letter in mind, and that’s a capital ‘F’ for fiction,” Schlossberg additionally told “CBS Sunday Morning” viewers earlier this month.
