How Accurate Is ‘American Love Story’? The Real Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy vs. The Show
The new Ryan Murphy series doesn't premiere until early next year, but it already has people talking
Over 25 years after Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s tragic death, the NYC It Girl and fashion publicist turned wife of one of America’s most famous and handsome men remains an eternal source of cultural fascination. Bessette-Kennedy’s eternally chic ’90s minimalist style has found a new generation of fans on social media, and everything from the specific brand of headbands she favored to her preferred shade of lipstick has earned renewed scrutiny in recent years.
With the recent announcement of American Love Story, an upcoming FX show about the life and death of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr., conversation around the famous couple has reached a height not seen since the ’90s. The series, created by prolific showrunner Ryan Murphy, isn’t set to premiere until February of next year, but the early photos from the show have been generating a lot of conversation—and it hasn’t all been positive, to say the least!
Read on to see what people have been saying about American Love Story and get a sneak peek at how Sarah Pidgeon, the actress playing Bessette-Kennedy, compares to the real-life woman who we lost far too soon.
The controversial costumes of ‘American Love Story’
As soon as photos of Sarah Pidgeon and Paul Kelly, the actor playing JFK Jr., in costume were released, the internet made its opinions known, with countless social media users criticizing the photos for featuring a supposedly inaccurate take on Bessette-Kennedy’s famous fashion, and some critics even saying her outfits looked more like fast fashion than the high-end brands she favored.
In a Variety interview, Ryan Murphy responded to the negative comments, saying, “Carolyn Bessette is clearly a religious figure and it’s a religion of her own. It’s very interesting that people become so inflammatory,” and noting that the costumes from the photos were used for camera testing and are not necessarily representative of the outfits that will be worn in the finished episodes.
Murphy also said that he has a 10-person “style advisory board” that has been helping him and the show’s costume designer, Lou Eyrich, source costumes and ensure their accuracy. Murphy revealed to Variety that his team has bought some of Bessette-Kennedy’s actual clothing, and said, “We have multiple pairs of Manolo black heels and sandals from 1992 to 1999. We have the Manolo boots she wore in black and brown. We have her Prada tall boots. We have her Prada bags. We have the Birkin No. 40 that we have taken to a specialist to scruff it up so it looks identical to the one she would wear half-open on the subway.”
Given that the show doesn’t air until next year, how spot-on the costumes will be remains to be seen. On top of the costume debate, in a Vogue article, Besette-Kennedy’s hair colorist, Brad Johns, blasted Pidgeon’s haircolor in the photos as “Totally wrong, the opposite of what we were going for,” and Murphy expressed his dissatisfaction with the piece, noting that Vogue never reached out for comment and the magazine claimed the pictures showed Pidgeon’s real hair when she was actually wearing a wig.
JFK Jr.’s family has also aired out their frustrations with the upcoming series, as his nephew, Jack Schlossberg, just claimed Murphy is “profiting off” his uncle’s life “in a grotesque way” and has been sharing Instagram posts registering his dissatisfaction after Murphy made the unfounded claim that Schlossberg didn’t remember his uncle since he was a child when he died. He also stated that the Kennedy family hasn’t consulted on the show and is not involved with it in any way.
How the Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy of ‘American Love Story’ compares to real life
Sarah Pidgeon is a rising star who received acclaim for her performance as the Stevie Nicks-like frontwoman of a ’70s rock band in the 2024 Broadway play Stereophonic. She was then in the cast of the shows The Wilds (2020 to 2022) and Tiny Beautiful Things (2023) and appeared in the films Lazareth (2024), The Friend (2024) and I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025). American Love Story is sure to raise her profile even further.
Pidgeon has been frequently photographed filming the upcoming show on location in New York, and she’s well aware of the discourse every time a new image of her in character appears. As she told Variety, “I know how special Carolyn is to me and I understand how widely beloved she is, so this role comes with a lot of responsibility—and I’m not surprised that people have strong opinions about it. That’s what makes her such an interesting person. I mean, not only how she dressed, but the woman who worked at Calvin Klein and the person that JFK Jr. fell in love with. She’s a human being beyond just these pictures. She really resonates with a lot of people, and she certainly does with me.”
“I think that she is an incredibly generous person and she’s incredibly confident,” Pidgeon continued. “I don’t know if I necessarily always carry myself in that way, but it’s been really empowering to channel those elements of Carolyn. I could talk for a while about everything there is about her. It’s been really, really fulfilling and incredibly special to do it on camera.”
Pidgeon knows she has some big shoes to fill, and while photos of her in character have gotten people talking, we’ll reserve any judgment until the show comes out next year.
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