Daryl Hannah Defends Herself From Love Story Portrayal

Daryl Hannah, the Splash star who dated John F. Kennedy Jr. in the early ’90s, is not feeling the Love Story. She published an op-ed in the New York Times today that decries Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette’s representation of her. “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,” she writes in the piece. “The choice to portray her as irritating, self-absorbed, whiny and inappropriate was no accident.” She quotes executive producer Nina Jacobson, who told Gold Derby, “Given how much we’re rooting for John and Carolyn, Daryl Hannah occupies a space where she’s an adversary to what you want narratively in the story.” “But a real, living person is not a narrative device,” Hannah says in response. “Isn’t it textbook misogyny to tear down one woman in order to build up another?”

On the show, Hannah is played by actress Dree Hemingway. Per Jacobson’s Gold Derby interview, part of the goal of the show is to portray “respect to the fact that [Hannah] does have a fluency with this world that Carolyn doesn’t have.” Still, there are a lot of plot points that Hannah takes umbrage with. “I have never used cocaine in my life or hosted cocaine-fueled parties,” she writes. “I have never pressured anyone into marriage. I have never desecrated any family heirloom or intruded upon anyone’s private memorial. I have never planted any story in the press. I never compared Jacqueline Onassis’ death to a dog’s.” 

Hannah adds that the show has already caused real-life consequences for her. “In the weeks since the series aired, I have received many hostile and even threatening messages from viewers who seem to believe the portrayal is factual,” she writes. “When entertainment borrows a real person’s name, it can permanently impact her reputation.” She ends the piece by hoping that “love and truth prevail.”