Ryan Murphy's new mini-series, Love Story: John F Kennedy Jr & Carolyn Bessette, has drawn criticism from the Kennedy family, with Jack Schlossberg, Kennedy's nephew, accusing Murphy of profiting off his family 'in a grotesque way'. Murphy responded on a podcast, calling it an 'odd choice to be mad about your relative that you really don't remember'.
The series, starring Paul Anthony Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon, dramatises the volatile courtship, marriage and deaths of John F Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette. It is adapted from a bestselling book by Elizabeth Beller and airs on FX and Hulu.
Those who knew Kennedy recall a man who wrestled with a dual identity. Historian Steven Gillon, a friend from Brown University, said: 'He told me that he was two people, that he was John, a typical though privileged member of his generation, but the role he played his whole life was that of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr, the son of a slain president.'
Kennedy's nephew, Jack Schlossberg, now running for Congress in New York, shared memories on social media, including being the ring bearer at Kennedy's wedding and the day he died. 'I remember Wyclef singing at his funeral,' he wrote.
The series also portrays Kennedy's relationship with actress Daryl Hannah unfavourably, depicting her as needy and narcissistic. Journalist Emma Specter wrote in Vogue that 'if I were Hannah, I'd consider suing'.
