Daryl Hannah Called Out Love Story’s Inaccuracies In An Op-Ed

Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette is breaking streaming records for FX — but for those whose lives and families are depicted on the show, it’s not been quite as warmly received.

A day after Love Story was named the network’s most-viewed limited series on Hulu and Disney+, Daryl Hannah wrote a New York Times op-ed decrying the show’s portrayal of her relationship with Kennedy, and how the “false” dramatization is impacting her reputation today.

Setting The Record Straight

In her March 6 essay, Hannah explained that she’s usually avoided responding to media coverage about herself. “I have long believed that engaging with distortion often amplifies it,” she wrote. However, the “tragedy-exploiting” Love Story prompted her to clear up misconceptions about the “irritating, self-absorbed, whiny, and inappropriate” portrayal of her character, which, she stated, is “not even remotely accurate.”

Hannah said the show utilizes “textbook misogyny” in using her as an obstacle in Kennedy and Bessette’s love story — then listed many of the specific falsehoods she took issue with.

“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,” she wrote. “I have never planted any story in the press. I never compared Jacqueline Onassis’ death to a dog’s.”

She reiterated that she’s not talking about “creative embellishments of personality.” Rather, she wrote, “They are assertions about conduct — and they are false.”

Hannah also revealed how the show is affecting life. “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 wrote. “When entertainment borrows a real person’s name, it can permanently impact her reputation.”

The actor — who is also a documentary filmmaker and advocate for numerous causes — concluded her essay by warning against “self-serving sensationalists” who claim to have insider information about the famously private Kennedy family. “In a digital era, entertainment often becomes collective memory. Real names are not fictional tools. They belong to real lives.”

Family Has Spoken Out, Too

Hannah is not alone in her disapproval of Love Story. Jack Schlossberg — the son of Caroline Kennedy — has been a vocal critic of the show, recently describing it as a “grotesque display of someone else’s life” in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning. “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 said executive producer Ryan Murphy “knows nothing about what he’s talking about.” (While the show was created by Connor Hines, it’s part of Murphy’s expanding TV universe of anthology series like American Crime Story.)

“I would hope that Mr. Murphy would donate some of the millions of dollars of profits that he’s making, to maybe some of the causes that John championed throughout his life — justice, maybe he would donate some of that money to the JFK Library to help keep President Kennedy’s memory alive,” Schlossberg said. “But he’s not. He’s making money. This is not a documentary.”