Ryan Murphy’s new series reveals shocking details about the couple’s final days—and some are actually true.
‘Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette’ premiered February 12, 2026 on FX and Hulu, depicting the romance between the late president’s son and his enigmatic wife. The nine-episode series stars Paul Anthony Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon, and while it dramatizes many moments, USA TODAY’s fact-check confirms several key details about their troubled final week.
In the premiere episode, which opens on July 16, 1999—the day of their deaths—JFK Jr. tells sister-in-law Lauren that he’s staying at a hotel, not the Tribeca loft he shared with Carolyn. “It’s not like she’s begging me to come home,” he admits in the series.
Fast Facts:
- Hotel: The Stanhope Hotel (confirmed true)
- Fight Date: Tuesday, July 13, 1999
- Issue: Carolyn didn’t want to attend Rory Kennedy’s wedding
- Truce: Wednesday lunch at the Stanhope with Lauren
- Fatal Flight: Friday, July 16, 1999
- Crash Details: Plane dropped from 2,200 to 1,100 feet in 14 seconds
According to Elizabeth Beller’s book “Once Upon a Time,” Kennedy Jr. was indeed staying at The Stanhope Hotel in his final days. The couple had a “heated fight” on Tuesday, July 13, 1999 about attending his cousin Rory Kennedy’s wedding. Carolyn “felt she’d done her share of Kennedy events for the time being,” Beller writes, while John was losing patience.
The series accurately portrays a Wednesday lunch at the Stanhope where Carolyn, John, and Lauren reconciled. This meeting “signified a truce of sorts,” according to the book. In the show’s airport scene, the couple bickers about her tardiness and his family before John apologizes: “I love you. I appreciate you being here”.
Why It Matters
While executive producer Brad Simpson acknowledges “competing narratives” about many aspects of their relationship, the final days appear well-documented. The couple died when Kennedy’s Piper Saratoga crashed into the ocean, killing him at 38, Carolyn at 33, and her sister Lauren at 34. The series, which blends fact with dramatization, aims to show a couple “very much in love, but plagued with just impossible obstacles,” according to director Connor Hines.
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