Actress Daryl Hannah accused the creators of the series "Love Story" of distorting the facts about her affair with John F. Kennedy Jr.
Actress Daryl Hannah has slammed director Ryan Murphy's highly rated miniseries "Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette," in which she was portrayed as a cocaine-using villain and antagonist to the main character, who tries to disrupt a funeral.
Hannah dated Kennedy on and off for five years in the early 1990s, which, according to media reports, displeased his mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. About two years after their separation, John married Bessette.
In an essay for the New York Times, Hannah, who had never previously spoken publicly about her romance, stated that her character was intended as a threat to the romantic relationship between the two leads. But this, she said, "doesn't even remotely correspond to her relationship with John," even though many people believed what they saw on screen, failing to distinguish fictional dramatization from documented facts.
She specifically denied numerous scenes depicted in the series, including a scene where she throws a party with friends using cocaine from a Kennedy family heirloom. "I have never used cocaine or thrown a cocaine party in my life. I have never coerced anyone into marriage. I have never desecrated family heirlooms or interfered with anyone's funeral," Hannah wrote.
The 65-year-old actress also commented on the scene where her character compares the death of Jacqueline Onassis to the death of her dog, saying she didn't do it.
Hannah accused the show's creators of misogyny, claiming the show pits women against each other for dramatic tension. "Tension is necessary for storytelling. But a real, living person is not a narrative device. There's also a gendered aspect to this. Popular culture has long elevated some women while portraying others as rivals, obstacles, or villains. Isn't that classic misogyny—putting one woman down to elevate another? I'm horrified that I even have to defend myself against a television show," she said, noting the impact the project has had on her reputation and that she has received numerous threatening messages since its release.
The actress emphasized that she always respected the Kennedy family's right to privacy and did not comment on her affair with John. However, she hinted that her real relationship with Jackie Kennedy wasn't as bleak as depicted in the series. Moreover, Jackie even gave the actress advice. "She told me that although tabloids, magazines, and newspapers often sell ridiculous lies, the next day they are nothing. At the time, I found great comfort in these words. But today they are no longer true," Hannah noted.
Kennedy and Hannah met in the early 1980s while vacationing with their families on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten. They reconnected in 1988, when they both attended the wedding of a relative of his. They finally broke up in 1994 amid rumors of an impending wedding. About two years later, John Kennedy Jr. married Calvin Klein PR executive Carolyn Bessette. Both died on July 16, 1999, in a plane crash in the Atlantic Ocean. Kennedy, 38, was piloting the plane, but made an error in poor visibility, causing the plane to spin and crash into the ocean at high speed. Carolyn was 33 years old, and her sister was also with them. The bodies of all three victims were found five days after the crash.
As for Hannah, she married for the first time in 2014 at the age of 57. Her chosen one was musician Neil Young. The couple has no children.
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