Does Hulu’s “Love Story” Over-Romanticize Tragedy?

With Lenny Kravitz’s 1991 hit song “It Ain’t Over ‘til It’s Over” playing in the background, a montage unfolds: Carolyn Bessette and John F. Kennedy Jr. on a golden-hour boat ride on the Cape, a night dancing in their Tribeca apartment and scenes from their intimate, candle-lit wedding on Cumberland Island, Georgia. Except it’s not really John and Carolyn that we’re watching; it’s the first two episodes of FX’s “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette.”

On February 12, 2026, the nine-episode series—which fictionalizes the romance, lives and tragedy of Bessette and Kennedy Jr.—premiered on Hulu. For many audiences, including some Lick-Wilmerding High School students. the show perfectly tapped into the ‘90s New York City allure and Kennedy fascination.

However, for others—such as those close to the family, like Daryl Hannah and Jack Schlossberg—the show was “tragedy-exploiting“ and “appalling” in its depictions of Hannah, Bessette and Kennedy Jr. With Emmy nominations on the horizon, ethical questions remain about fictionalized biopic series such as “Love Story.”

The opening scene of the show foreshadows the final episode: Bessette (Sarah Pidgeon) and Kennedy Jr. (Paul Anthony Kelly) stand together on the tarmac of New Jersey’s Essex County Airport, heading for Martha’s Vineyard. The clip is intended to reflect July 16, 1999, the day that Carolyn Bessette, her sister Lauren Bessette (Sydney Lemmon) and JFK Jr. tragically died while flying over the Atlantic Ocean in a solo-piloted puddle jumper.

Mikey O’Connell, a senior entertainment editor at The Hollywood Reporter, recalled the moment that his family heard the news. “I literally woke up to the sound of my mother screaming at the television…She came into my room crying, and my dad was like, ‘Everyone in the family is alive, but we’re down a Kennedy.’”

From the 1960s to the 1990s, the Kennedy family occupied a unique spot in America’s public eye. For many, President John F. Kennedy—as the first Irish-Catholic president—represented a new era of American politics, making many Americans feel represented in ways they had not before. “[The show] is a little taste of how people worshipped the Kennedys and idealized this version of the ‘American dream,’” Téa Theodosopoulos ’26 said.

Although the opening scene ends as the plane takes off, the show quickly jumps back in time to a period before Bessette and Kennedy Jr. had formally met. That immediate glimpse of the couple’s fate is what many viewers said kept them watching; according to an April 3 article published by Vanity Fair, the show’s finale viewership jumped more than 90% compared to its premiere.

“You see that the ‘Love Story’ is doomed from the second it begins…it started with this ‘we’re going to die’ moment,” Theodosopoulos said. “But it’s also the 90s, New York, Calvin Klein, [JFK Jr.] is like America’s prince…everything was so effortless…it feels just like a fairytale, and that’s what keeps you watching,” she said.

The next three episodes imagine the first glimpses, hushed exchanges and central-park strolls between Bessette and Kennedy Jr. Although Kennedy Jr. was, for a majority of his life, a routinely sought-after subject by paparazzi, Bessette, in the early days, was not.

However, as word of their relationship spread, Bessette’s popularity increased exponentially. The show depicts Bessette’s mental decline as the public—and, namely, the paparazzi—obsess over every aspect of her personal life. In one scene, Bessette is seen watching a news reel on the television of Princess Diana’s tragic 1997 death, physically shaken by the parallels she sees to her own life.

It is this aspect of the show—that is, the fictionalization of Bessette’s private life and character, both of which she notoriously kept guarded—that many critics have taken issue with.

“Carolyn is more of an invention because Carolyn wasn’t known…She was very mysterious and very press-shy, even though she was hounded,” O’Connell said.

The depictions of other characters, namely that of Daryl Hannah (Dree Hemingway)—Kennedy’s on-again, off-again girlfriend throughout the early 90s—have surfaced as subjects of criticism, including from Hannah herself.

“I have long believed that engaging with distortion often amplifies it. But a recent tragedy-exploiting television series about John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette features a character using my name and presents her as me,” Hannah wrote in a March 6 guest essay, published by The New York Times. “The choice to portray [me] as irritating, self-absorbed, whiny and inappropriate was no accident,” she said.

Since the opinion piece was published, the press tour involving both the show’s writers and cast appears to have slowed significantly. While no official statement has confirmed whether the pause was intended to make way for awards season or was in response to Hannah’s article, some have attributed it to Hannah’s piece, in addition to broader criticism.

Although not portrayed in the show, Jack Schlossberg—JFK’s grandson—also noted its fictional nature. “I would just want people who do watch the show to watch it with one letter in mind…and that’s a capital ‘F’ for fiction,” Schlossberg said in a March 9 interview with CBS Sunday Morning.

“Love Story” in particular is, as O’Connell put it, “ripped from the headlines,” which takes a great deal of artistic liberties. Writer and director Conner Hines has shared openly that the show is not a product of intensive interviews or historical analysis. Rather, it is a fictional depiction of moments between Bessette and Kennedy.

However, regardless of the disclaimers, some viewers still expressed feelings that their impressions of Bessette and Kennedy Jr. are, in large part, a reflection of their portrayal in “Love Story.”

“Of course, a small part of me is going to want to take the information I see and believe it at face value,” Maxine Holmes ’26 said. “And yes, I would say a lot of my perception of them is through the show…But I have to remember that it’s not real and a lot of it was dramatized,” she said.

Others took greater issue with the portrayal of tragedy, particularly a moment in American history that many found to be devastating. The final six episodes portray growing emotional distance between Bessette and Kennedy Jr., alongside Bessette’s struggle to exist beyond the label of ‘JFK Jr.’s wife.’

“It’s fictionalizing and romanticizing this real-life family and tragedy,” Theodosopoulos said. “Here are these people who hated all of the attention on them, and we see that in the show…and then they tragically pass away, and we’re now making a big television show of it all.”

As of May 12, 2026, “Love Story” sits on Rotten Tomatoes with a 81% Tomatometer score and 69% Popcornmeter ranking. It also holds the title of FX’s most-watched limited series to ever stream on Hulu and Disney+.

And yet, the question remains for some: are we over-romanticizing tragedy and over-imagining reality in “Love Story”?