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In a striking response, actress Daryl Hannah has criticized her portrayal in the TV series “Love Story,” centered on John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, labeling it as “false” and a prime example of “textbook misogyny” through an opinion piece published by The New York Times on Friday.
“I find it shocking that I’m required to defend myself against a television portrayal,” Hannah expressed in her op-ed. “These are not creative liberties taken with my personality; these are claims about my behavior — and they are simply untrue.”
The FX series, directed by Ryan Murphy, chronicles the relationship between Kennedy and Bessette, who wed in 1996 and tragically perished in a plane crash three years later.
In the series, a character portrayed by Dree Hemingway is named after Hannah and is depicted as the actress, who was romantically involved with Kennedy from 1988 to 1994.
“The actions and behaviors ascribed to me in the series are not accurate,” Hannah clarifies. “I have never used cocaine or hosted parties involving the substance. I have never pressured anyone into marriage, nor have I disrespected any family heirloom or intruded on private mourning rituals. I have not planted stories in the media, nor have I ever compared Jacqueline Onassis’ passing to a dog’s death.”
She criticized that her portrayal in the show as “irritating, self-absorbed, whiny and inappropriate,” saying it was both inaccurate and “no accident.” Nina Jacobson, one of the producers of the series, has argued that Hannah’s character is a necessary “adversary” to the main storyline of the romance between Bessette and Kennedy.
Hannah responded that she understands that “storytelling requires tension” but argued that “a real, living person is not a narrative device.”
“When entertainment borrows a real person’s name, it can permanently impact her reputation,” she said.
“Popular culture has long elevated certain women by portraying others as rivals, obstacles or villains,” Hannah said. “Isn’t it textbook misogyny to tear down one woman in order to build up another?”
Though the show is inspired by Elizabeth Beller’s book, “Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy,” Hannah argued many people can’t distinguish fiction from fact, making them see her portrayal as a true representation of her real character.
Hannah said since the show premiered on Feb. 12, she has received a string of “hostile” and “even threatening” messages from viewers.
She said she was advised by Onassis before she died that while publications often sold “ridiculous lies” about public figures, few people continued caring about them the next day. Hannah said she found “great comfort and consolation in those words” but argued that they “no longer hold true” in the digital age where social media preserves and digs up stories from the past forever.
“A dramatized portrayal can become, for millions of viewers, the definitive version of a real person’s life,” she said