Daryl Hannah has broken her silence on FX’s Love Story — a Ryan Murphy-produced series that explores the romance and death of John F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy.
Hannah, who dated JFK Jr. for several years in the 1990s, blasted the show as a "tragedy-exploiting television series" that depicted her in a "false" light. The Kill Bill actor said the "Daryl Hannah" character (played by Bree Hemingway) was portrayed as an "irritating, self-absorbed, whiny and inappropriate" adversary to JFK Jr. and Bessette-Kennedy’s relationship.
Hannah pointed out that pop culture has a long history of pitting women against each other, often elevating a female character "by portraying others as rivals, obstacles or villains." She said such a narrative was "textbook misogyny" that can harm reputations when it "borrows a real person’s name."
Hannah claimed that since the series premiere on February 12, she has received "many hostile and even threatening messages from viewers who seem to believe the portrayal is factual."
"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," she wrote in a New York Times op-ed. "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."
She continued: "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. 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."
Hannah’s scathing essay came just days after Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of President John F. Kennedy, criticized Love Story as a "grotesque" depiction of his uncle and aunt’s lives. He expressed his frustrations in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, insisting the Kennedys were not involved with the series.
"If you want to know someone who's never met anyone in my family, knows nothing about us, talk to Ryan Murphy," Schlossberg said. "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."
He continued: "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."