John F. Kennedy Jr. Staffer Savages Ryan Murphy's 'Love Story' For Getting Almost EVERYTHING Wrong About Tragic Political Heir
The new series is already catching flack.
Feb. 25 2026, Published 6:40 p.m. ET
A former staff writer for John F. Kennedy Jr.'s magazine, George, has revealed she despised Ryan Murphy's new FX series on the political heir and his wife, Carolyn Bessette, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Hulu's new series Love Story: John F. Kennedy and Carolyn Bessette has already been slated by fans of the pair as tasteless.
'Dreck That They'd Both Have Hated'
Murphy dramatized the tragic romance between JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette.
It charts the romance between JFK Jr., who died in 1999 aged 38, and Bessette, who was 33 when she died alongside him in a plane crash. George journalist Lisa DePaulo has now added her voice to the chorus of disapproval that has met the series.
She said in a lengthy takedown of the show about how she even struggled to watch the series: "This is a touchy subject for those who actually knew John and Carolyn. Do you purposely and deliberately not watch, assuming Love Story – Ryan Murphy's latest extravaganza dramatizing their relationship and tragic death – will be dreck that they'd both have hated?"
DePaulo added about why she decided to view the show: "I worked for John at George… So, I gathered my tissue boxes, and I did cry – before it started. That choked-upness that comes at any John trigger, and there are so many."
"JFK airport can do it to me. But the lead-up to this series has been a nonstop bombardment. Then it started. And first, I was p-----. The opening of the pilot, obnoxiously named 'Pilot' (get it?), is focused on their normal-for-them lives before they get to the airport."
Debunking the Nail Polish Myth
The show recycled a debunked trope about Bessette’s nail polish causing the flight delay.
"John is at the office, talking to staff, handwriting a personal note," she continued her takedown. "Yeah, he would do that. Then, Murphy recycles that old debunked trope, first promulgated by Ed Klein in Vanity Fair (as John used to say, 'He had one lunch with my mother and has been dining out on it ever since'), that they were late taking off because Carolyn kept getting her toenail polish changed to the perfect shade of lavender.
"In Love Story, it's her fingernail polish, and it's red, though Carolyn never wore nail polish on her fingers, and certainly not red (red was for lipstick.) But that s--- doesn't bother me in a fictionalized miniseries. What does bother me is the implication that her vanity caused the crash. As Klein's source has explained numerous times, she left the salon before 5 o'clock. The plane took off at 8:15. Jeesh. Let it go."
Naomi Watts' 'Cartoon Character' Backlash
Naomi Watts portrays Jackie Kennedy as an 'off-the-charts' cartoon character.
She added the depiction of Jackie Kennedy in the show was also hated.
DePaulo added, "It was the Jackie depiction that had me howling. Naomi Watts did such a spectacular job playing Babe Paley in Murphy's previous miniseries (that I mostly loved), Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, that I expected big things from her Jackie. I did not expect a cartoon character that was too off-the-charts to even be considered camp, from her first scene, where she is at her dining-room table in her Fifth Avenue apartment, imperiously ringing a dinner bell to summon the help.
"But the hilariously bad Jackie scene comes in episode three. You know that great portrait of President Kennedy that hangs in the White House, the pensive one where he is glancing down, the one Jackie actually did approve? Well, Murphy has it in her apartment. And one night, all alone in a dark room (where's Maurice, you damn fool?!), and knowing she is dying, she puts Camelot on the record player (well, it was 1994), lifts up the painting in her fragile state, and dances with it to Camelot. Are you f------ kidding me, Ryan Murphy? Of all the zillions of Jackie stories in circulation for 70 years, some of them true, this is what you pull out of your a--?"
Daryl Hannah Portrayal Questioned as Mannerisms Praised
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Writer Lisa DePaulo admitted the lead actor captured JFK Jr.'s distinct walk and mannerisms.
The feature writer also hit out at the show's "beef" with Daryl Hannah, who once dated JFK Jr.
She said: "And what's his beef with Daryl Hannah, who comes across as a certifiable ditz? Clingy, dim, goofy, stoned. Was/Is she that much of a flake? I never met the woman, but I can't imagine that John, who was preternaturally attracted to smart, strong women, could have lasted five minutes, let alone five years, with Murphy's Hannah. It's all so comical that even when John accidentally gets her dog killed (which, apparently, is true), I didn't cry."
DePaulo admitted the show does get JFK Jr.'s "mannerisms" right – including "the way he walked, the way he locked up his bike, or forgot to lock up his bike."
She added, "That was real. And the lateness. That was real, too. He also, in most scenes, though not all, captures his voice. John had a distinctive way of speaking, the cadence, the intonation. When he sounded like him, I got chills."
