FX’s new anthology series Love Story, produced by Ryan Murphy and created by Connor Hines, has reignited national fascination with John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, one of the late twentieth century’s most magnetic couples. Premiering on February 12, 2026, the show draws inspiration from Elizabeth Beller’s 2024 book Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and stars Paul Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon in the lead roles. The series offers a sweeping, intimate look at a romance that once captivated America—and whose tragic end still haunts the public imagination nearly three decades later.
From the outset, Love Story doesn’t shy away from the couple’s fate. The opening scene is set aboard the ill-fated 1999 plane ride that claimed the lives of John, Carolyn, and her sister Lauren Bessette. But before that harrowing moment, the narrative rewinds to 1992, the year John and Carolyn first crossed paths. According to biographer Elizabeth Beller, their initial meeting happened in a Calvin Klein fitting room, where Carolyn, then a rising publicist at the iconic fashion house, was tasked with helping John select clothing. Beller recounts, “Calvin—along with his wife, Kelly Klein, and ... assistant MJ Bettenhausen—decided it should be [Carolyn], the most effervescent person on the sales floor, who would show John the selection of clothing.” Carolyn reportedly gave John her number, setting the stage for a modern-day fairytale.
Yet, as Love Story and multiple sources note, their romance did not immediately blossom. At the time, John was entangled in an on-again, off-again relationship with actress Daryl Hannah—a relationship that, according to John’s former executive assistant RoseMarie Terenzio, overlapped with his early interactions with Carolyn. Terenzio told Town and Country, “Carolyn wasn’t sitting by the phone waiting for his call—it was the opposite. For the first time, he was getting a taste of his own medicine. And that intrigued him.” Carolyn and John maintained casual contact, each dating other people, until 1994 when they reconnected in earnest. Their relationship deepened, but still, the shadow of John’s past with Daryl Hannah lingered. A photo of John and Daryl holding hands at a movie premiere, published in the Daily News, prompted Carolyn to cut off contact. It was only after the death of John’s mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, that Carolyn reached out to him again, and the two finally committed to each other.
By 1995, romance was in full bloom. John proposed to Carolyn in July of that year on a fishing boat in Martha’s Vineyard, as recounted by his former assistant RoseMarie Terenzio in People. He told Carolyn, “I want you to be my partner.” Carolyn, ever cautious, took three weeks to accept the proposal. Their engagement, kept secret for six months, culminated in a wedding that was the epitome of privacy and minimalism. On September 21, 1996, they wed at the First African Baptist Church on Georgia’s secluded Cumberland Island. The ceremony saw just 32 to 40 guests, including John’s sister Caroline Kennedy as matron of honor. The image of Carolyn in her custom crepe silk slip dress by Narciso Rodriguez became iconic, and as former Harper’s Bazaar editor Kate Betts told Vanity Fair, “It crystallized that trend [minimalism] in fashion. That was her aesthetic, and her wedding dress was a very, very bold expression of that minimalism.”
The couple’s quest for privacy defined much of their married life. After their wedding, Carolyn refused to interact with paparazzi, who camped outside their Tribeca apartment and followed her relentlessly. Her silence only fueled negative portrayals in the tabloids, which branded her an “ice queen” and “manipulative.” According to The List, John once pleaded with reporters, “I just ask [for] any privacy or room you could give her as she makes that adjustment. It would be greatly appreciated.” Biographer Elizabeth Beller told Entertainment Tonight, “She saw fame as the thief of joy, especially when she really got into it, and there was no way to know that they would be under that much duress by the paparazzi.”
Behind closed doors, the couple faced the same pressures as any other, albeit magnified by public scrutiny. “They would love hard and fight hard. But they were very much in love,” Ariel Paredes, granddaughter of Jacqueline Kennedy’s former assistant, told People. In their final months, John and Carolyn reportedly attended marriage counseling, grappling with stressors ranging from the impending death of John’s cousin Anthony Radziwill to the financial struggles of John’s magazine, George. Liz McNeil, coauthor of JFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biography, described “an incredible amount of stress” on the couple. Still, as Terenzio explained on Katie Couric’s podcast, “They were looking for a house outside the city because they were talking about starting a family. The way I look at it, they had a couple of weeks of fighting and not being on the same page, but they were going to look at this house outside of New York, they still wanted that appointment with the real estate agent. I think the fact that they decided to do marriage counseling was a sign that they wanted this to work.”
The series’ production design, helmed by Alex DiGerlando, meticulously recreates the era’s aesthetic. DiGerlando told Architectural Digest that Calvin Klein’s minimalist NYC headquarters, where Carolyn worked until 1996, anchored much of the show’s look. JFK Jr.’s Tribeca loft was recreated with concrete countertops and glass brick, while Jackie Kennedy’s Fifth Avenue apartment was reconstructed using Sotheby’s auction catalogs for reference. Even the Kennedy Compound, central to the family’s mythology, was brought to life on Long Island with careful attention to detail, from flagpoles to white pebble driveways.
Tragedy struck on July 16, 1999, when John piloted a Piper Saratoga plane with Carolyn and Lauren Bessette to Martha’s Vineyard for a family wedding. The plane plummeted from 2,200 to 1,100 feet in just 14 seconds, crashing into the Atlantic. Experts believe John experienced spatial disorientation while flying over water at night. All three died on impact, their bodies recovered five days later. On July 22, their ashes were scattered at sea from the Navy USS Briscoe, and a memorial service was held the next day at New York’s Church of St. Thomas More.
Today, the story of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy continues to resonate, not just as a tale of glamour and tragedy, but as a reminder of the complexities behind the public facade. FX’s Love Story offers a window into their world, blending meticulous historical detail with the enduring mystique of a couple who, despite everything, simply wanted to live—and love—on their own terms.