Does Love Story Accurately Portray Caroline & Carolyn’s Relationship?

In its Feb. 19 episode, FX’s Love Story imagines an awkward first meeting between Caroline Kennedy and Carolyn Bessette — but what was their relationship like in real life?

Kennedy has generally avoided commenting on her family life in the press, so it’s impossible to know for sure. However, multiple biographers have reported anecdotal claims about Kennedy’s feelings toward her sister-in-law.

A Unique Relationship

Love Story depicts the moment John F. Kennedy Jr. introduces Bessette to his sister. However, he fails to mention he’s bringing her to his sister’s intimate birthday dinner. While Bessette feels a little like a party crasher, it soon becomes clear that Kennedy is disappointed in her brother, not his date, telling him that he needs to try harder and act more like a grown-up in his relationship.

The show is inspired by Elizabeth Beller’s 2024 book Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, which challenges the notion that it was “dislike at first sight” between Kennedy and her future sister-in-law. They often went out for lunch together, Beller writes — and one friend quoted in the book says Kennedy was happy for her brother, seeing how much he laughed with Bessette.

The book later notes that while the women’s personalities were “extreme opposites” in many ways, they both valued privacy.

In a separate 2024 book, JFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biography by Liz McNeil and RoseMarie Terenzio, JFK Jr.’s friend Sasha Chermayeff claimed that Bessette’s lack of “blue blood” was a sore spot and that Kennedy didn’t accept Bessette “until she had no choice.” Another friend, Steve Gillon, said Kennedy “did not think Carolyn was good enough” for her brother.

And in his 2004 book The Kennedy Curse: Why Tragedy Has Haunted America’s First Family for 150 Years, Edward Klein claimed that Kennedy and her sister-in-law were “barely on speaking terms” after the wedding (via an excerpt from Vanity Fair). Klein also said that JFK Jr.’s sister had made critical comments about the bride on her big day.

The Love Story Portrayal

Again, these are only outside perspectives about the women’s relationship. Jack Schlossberg, Caroline Kennedy’s son, has said on Instagram that his family was not consulted about Love Story and accused the show of profiting off the public’s admiration for his uncle “in a grotesque way.”

Grace Gummer, who plays the accomplished author, attorney, and diplomat, weighed in on the role in an interview with L’Officiel. “What’s important to me, when portraying a real person in a fictional show, is capturing their essence,” she said. “A feeling they exude to the world and the people around them.”