Love Story: JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Premiere: Fact vs. Fiction

Is it really a great love story if it doesn't end in tragedy? Shakespeare and Ryan Murphy would say no, and the latter is resurrecting one of the greatest examples with Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, the first season of a new FX anthology series launching with the pair of doomed celebrity lovers that captivated the nation before and after they died in a plane crash in July 1999.

It's been 27 years since the son of a slain president and the woman who captured his heart went down in a plane crash with her sister off Martha's Vineyard, so revealing the end of this story isn't really a spoiler. Rather, it's a warning that a happy ending will elude any viewers who take the journey back to the 1990s for this story of the beauty and the prodigal son.

ALSO READ: Love Story review: Nothing Is Illuminated in FX's Saga of Carolyn Bessette and JFK Jr.

In the three-episode premiere, now streaming on FX on Hulu, free-spirited Carolyn Bessette (Sarah Pidgeon) and afloat political playboy John F. Kennedy Jr. (Paul Anthony Kelly) cross paths at a time in their lives where they couldn't be more different. He wants stability or something like it to impress his mother Jackie Kennedy Onassis (Naomi Watts) and tame the media firestorm following his every move, while she wants a career unencumbered by the commitments of romance. But as fate would have it, they find a bit of both — and a whole lot more — in each other when they tumble into a whirlwind romance that only ignites new fires in their worlds.

The first three episodes set the tone for this compulsively watchable new series. But how accurate is it to real life? The disclaimer at the top of each episode confessing that some things have been fictionalized for dramatic purposes suggests fact and fiction coexist in this retelling, but which one prevails? From the meet cute to the hair, what does Love Story get right and where does it rewrite history?

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Where did JFK Jr. and Carolyn meet?

In the series, Carolyn — who at the time is working as a salesperson for the Calvin Klein brand — is brought right to John by Calvin Klein himself (Alessandro Nivola) during what she refers to as the "Amazon party." She's introduced to him as the "VIP Whisperer" by her fashion maverick boss, and John is immediately desperate to hold her attention, even as she plays it cool. The room is watching them, but their eyes are locked on each other. It's a familiar refrain from these two, who, over the course of their relationship, always manage to find each other in a room, even when they might not want to.

However, in real life, it is believed they first met at Calvin Klein's offices in 1992, where she worked her magic as the aforementioned personal shopper for the stars and sold the man with plenty of suits even more suits. She supposedly gave him her number that day and he wasted no time using it, according to Elizabeth Beller's book Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. (In the show, she did not give him her number when he asked.) After that, the pair are said to have attended the Don't Bungle the Jungle II gala (likely the Amazon party featured in the series), and dated on and off for the next few years.

So really, the series flips these two encounters. TV Kennedy has to work a little harder to earn those digits, after Carolyn plays it cool at the gala and simply leaves him with a "you know where I work." Indeed he does, and he comes calling for that new suit he definitely, totally needs.

Did Carolyn's hair really look like that?

This may seem like a superficial question, but it has nevertheless been a source of contention since the first photos of Pidgeon and Kelly were dropped by Murphy in June 2015 in a now-deleted Instagram post. The photos caused a firestorm among those who had the images of Bessette and Kennedy burned into their brains by nonstop media coverage in the 1990s. Chief among the complaints was that Pigeon's hair just… didn't look right. The creators seemed to be going for the bright blonde look that history remembers Bessette having, even though it wasn't quite as severe as the first-look images suggested. Clearly the controversy got back to the creators because in the early episodes of the series, her hair is a dirtier blonde with darker roots, messier waves and comes off as less like staring directly into the sun. It should be noted that this is a very specific moment in her life around 1992-94 when she meets John. She's living a more obscure existence, as evidenced by the freer hairstyle, before she went for a sleeker look after marrying into an American dynasty. In other words, we dodged a blonde bullet (for now), folks!

Did JFK Jr. fail the bar exam twice?

Imagine how embarrassing it would be to not only take a test in front of America, but then fail it twice and have to see your results on the cover of newspapers? It couldn't have been easy for Kennedy to see those headlines, but they were true. Whoever came up with "The Hunk Flunks… Again" for The Daily News probably took themselves out for a nice dinner that day, but it was yet another example of the media's ceaseless fascination with the president's son — as seen in the first episode of the series.

Mercifully, he did migrate from his fated path following in his family's legal footsteps to a career in publishing, writing pieces for The New York Times before launching his own publication, George Magazine, in 1995. A mockup of the magazine's famous first issue, with Cindy Crawford dressed as George Washington on the cover, is teased in Episode 2.

Was Daryl Hannah really a big part of JFK Jr.'s life?

Yes! While Kennedy was linked to everyone from Madonna to Sarah Jessica Parker to the aforementioned Crawford, it was Splash star Daryl Hannah who stands as the most substantial Hollywood star in his life. From around 1989 to 1994, Kennedy and Hannah were on and off again. They were photographed together all over the place, inciting mobs of onlookers when they dared venture out into public together. But the relationship wasn't as perfect as it seemed.

When the series picks up, the couple were running on fumes. She was back and forth from Los Angeles. He was trying to get his legal career off the ground after a few public missteps. And then there was the Carolyn of it all. But they just couldn't quit each other. As the series suggests, images of the two were unavoidable even when they weren't doing well. Who could blame Carolyn for thinking they were back together? At one point, JFK Jr.'s chief of staff RoseMarie Terenzio revealed in the documentary JFK Jr.: The Final Year that Bessette's mother even sent her a letter with one of those articles saying, "'Carolyn, please get on with your life. Love, Mom.' With a sad face." So yes, Daryl Hannah is a major part of this story, and Dree Hemingway is rightfully blowing minds playing the actress in the series.

While Love Story hits hard on the belief that Kennedy's mother actively disapproved of Hannah's influence over Kennedy, and even went as far as to avoid them when she visited, others say that was not the case, including Hannah's stepmother. Yet his mother was, in a way, part of the permanent downfall of their relationship.

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Did Daryl Hannah's dog die while JFK Jr. was walking him?

Sadly, this one is very true. Hannah's beloved dog was staying with Kennedy after one of the pair's many splits when he got loose while Kennedy was taking him out for a walk in New York City. The dog was struck by a car and killed, leveling a devastating blow to the already fragile relationship for Kennedy and Hannah. But more than a few people point to what happened next as the death knell for their story together. Kennedy flew across the country with the dog's ashes to attend a funeral for it at Hannah's insistence. While very sweet, the pooch's passing came as Kennedy's mother's health was in freefall. When he returned from the prolonged trip, she was mere days away from dying and Kennedy is said to have never forgiven Hannah for robbing him of those precious final moments — as seen in the series' second and third episodes.

Did Jackie Kennedy Onassis' lead to JFK Jr. and Carolyn getting together?

Yes and no on this one. Kennedy and Bessette were already ensnared in each other's orbit by the time America's Widow, as she calls herself in Episode 3, passes away. But as with any two people who care about each other, the tragedy of his mother's death in May 1994 drove Kennedy into Bessette's arms. In turn, Carolyn seems to have let down some of the walls she built to protect herself from Kennedy's chaotic life, and the two were together from that point on.

However, the fact that they had known each other for two years at this point and he never introduced his future wife to his mother while he still could was said to have been a sore subject for the couple that they never truly got over. So in the end, Jackie Kennedy Onassis lingered long after her death, even within her son's marriage.

Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette is now streaming on FX on Hulu. New episodes air on Thursdays at 9/8c on FX.