It’s one of the hottest TV shows out at the moment, but not everyone is a fan of Ryan Murphy’s new series, Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr & Carolyn Bessette. The hit show – available in NZ on Disney+ – tells the beautiful but tragic story of the young couple, who died in a plane crash (that JFK Jr piloted) in 1999. JFK Jr was just 38, while his wife Carolyn was 33 – her sister Lauren (34) tragically also died in the crash. The series covers their love story, but also touches on some of JFK Jr’s previous relationships – including one with Daryl Hannah. She says the show has got it all wrong though – with it’s rather disturbing portrayal of her…
Actress Daryl Hannah has broken her decades-long silence about her relationship with John F. Kennedy Jr.
The 65-year-old actress criticised the series Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr & Carolyn Bessette, the first instalment of Ryan Murphy’s collection of love stories.
The show portrays JFK Jr’s relationships with the actress as well as Carolyn Bessette, who he married in 1996.
But the Kill Bill star says the character based on her bears little resemblance to reality in a scathing essay for The New York Times.
“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.
“The actions and behaviours attributed to me are untrue.”
The show claims Daryl hosted a cocaine-fueled party with her friends using a priceless Kennedy family heirloom for the drug use.
“I have never used cocaine in my life or hosted cocaine-fuelled parties,” she said.
“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 dogs,” she added.
The Blade Runner actress said it’s “appalling” she had to “defend” herself “against a television show. “These are not creative embellishments of personality. They are assertions about conduct and they are false,” she said.
Daryl noted her portrayal reflected a bigger issue in how women are depicted in popular culture.
“Isn’t it textbook misogyny to tear down one woman in order to build up another?” she asked.
A Love Story That Wasn’t Meant to Be…
Daryl and JFK Jr met in the early 1980s and went on to have an on-again, off-again relationship that lasted for several years.
The pair reconnected in 1988 at the wedding of John’s aunt, Lee Radziwill, to director Herb Ross, who had previously collaborated with Daryl on Steel Magnolias.
According to JFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biography, theirs was a “volatile” relationship that began when they were with other people.
The couple ultimately split in 1994, shortly before Kennedy began his relationship with Bessette.
The actress has mostly avoided speaking publicly about the romance in the decades since. “I have long believed that engaging with distortion often amplifies it,” she said.
“But a recent tragedy-exploiting television series about John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette features a character using my name and presents her as me. The choice to present her as irritating, self-absorbed, whiny and inappropriate was no accident.
“But my silence should not be mistaken for agreement with lies.”
Daryl reiterated that dramatised portrayals can become the accepted version of events and harm their life.
“When entertainment borrows a real person’s name, it can permanently impact her reputation,” she wrote.
Daryl has focused much of her life on environmental advocacy and documentary filmmaking.
She married musician Neil Young in 2018.
This article was reproduced with permission from 9Honey. To read the original article, click here.
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