Daryl Hannah broke her silence on how she’s portrayed in Ryan Murphy’s Love Story as the show continues to spark controversy.
“I have long believed that engaging with distortion often amplifies it,” Hannah, 65, wrote in a New York Times essay published on Friday, March 6. “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 portray her as irritating, self-absorbed, whiny and inappropriate was no accident.”
Hannah, who is played by Dree Hemingway on the show, specifically called out a quote given by producers about how she’s an “adversary to what you want narratively” in the show.
“Storytelling requires tension. It often requires an obstacle. But a real, living person is not a narrative device,” she continued. “There is also a gendered dimension to this thinking. Popular culture has long elevated certain women by portraying others as rivals, obstacles or villains. Isn’t it textbook misogyny to tear down one woman in order to build up another?”
The actress argued the show is not “remotely accurate” in its “representation of my life, my conduct or my relationship with John.” Hannah also wanted to clarify the “actions and behaviors attributed” to her, which she found to be “untrue.”
“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 continued. “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.”
Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette is the first installment in Ryan Murphy’s latest anthology and is inspired by Elizabeth Beller’s book Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. Sarah Pidgeon plays Bessette, while Paul Anthony Kelly portrays JFK Jr.
Despite pulling from real events, producers Brad Simpson and Nina Jacobson previously told Us Weekly that the people portrayed on the show were largely not consulted ahead of time.
“You reach out to one person, and then it becomes, ‘Why are you not reaching out to every person?’ We love these characters. We did deep, deep research. It’s based on not just the Elizabeth Beller book but many other artifacts from that time and many other histories,” Simpson told Us last month. “We came from a place of love, but if you foreground one person’s personal story and their version of the truth, then you have to foreground everybody’s, and often they’re in conflict. On all our shows we tried to be true to what we think the characters were and show you what it was like to walk in their footsteps.”
Simpson addressed the mixed reactions to how Hannah was written on the show, adding, “Daryl’s points to John are really what people are sort of missing. They are very relevant when she’s saying that not every woman is going to be able to deal with this level of fame. He didn’t understand. And her warnings about that turned out to be true for Carolyn.”
In her essay, Hannah, who dated JFK Jr. for five years in the ‘80s, pushed back against the narrative around her.
“When so many people watch a dramatization that uses a real name, real-life consequences follow,” she wrote. “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. When entertainment borrows a real person’s name, it can permanently impact her reputation.”
Elsewhere in her response, Hannah noted that her “silence should not be mistaken for agreement with lies,” writing, “Apparently, my discretion makes me a target. For decades, my work has focused on environmental advocacy, documentary filmmaking and animal-assisted therapy for seniors living with dementia and Alzheimer’s. My professional life is built on compassion and responsibility. Reputation is not about ego — it is about the ability to continue doing the meaningful work I love. Like any career, doing good work requires an intact reputation. This is why I am choosing to stand up for myself now.”
Hannah also defended her decision to honor the Kennedy family’s preference for privacy.
“Know that most (if not all) of those claiming to have any intimate knowledge of our personal lives are self-serving sensationalists trading in gossip, innuendo and speculation,” she concluded. “Many people believe what they see on TV and do not distinguish between dramatization and documented fact — and the impact is not abstract. In a digital era, entertainment often becomes collective memory. Real names are not fictional tools. They belong to real lives. Bird cage liners biodegrade. Online lies endure. May love and truth prevail.”
New episodes of Love Story air on FX Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET and stream on Hulu the next day.
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