Sarah Pidgeon as Carolyn Bessette and Paul Anthony Kelly as John F Kennedy Jr in Love Story on Disney

‘Unapologetically schmaltzy’: how Love Story became Disney+’s most-streamed drama ever

Series about the lives and deaths of Carolyn Bessette and JFK Jr is ‘prestige television without the usual weight’

Morwenna Ferrier 

Fashion and lifestyle editor

Fri 27 Mar 2026 

The plane vanishes. Families are told. Ashes are scattered. So ends Love Story, Ryan Murphy’s schlocky, glossy nine-part melodrama about the doomed marriage between Carolyn Bessette and John F Kennedy Jr. Yet one thing is clear: the myth of Camelot – or at least this version – still captivates.

Why we fell in love with Love Story: JFK Jr and Carolyn Bessette

 

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Sarah Pidgeon and Paul Anthony Kelly in Ryan Murphy’s hit FX show.

Why we fell in love with Love Story: JFK Jr and Carolyn Bessette

Ryan Murphy’s series about the Kennedy heir and style icon has risen above nostalgia-bait to become a ratings blockbuster

Owen Myers

Tuesday 17 March  2026

On a recent sunny Sunday in New York, Love Story seemed to be everywhere. Fans lined up around the block for tables at Panna II, the twinkly string-lit Indian restaurant where Ryan Murphy’s megahit charmingly – and if we’re being picky, inaccurately – sets John F Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette’s first date. Across town was a JFK Jr lookalike contest, which was rudely organized in Washington Square Park and not in my bedroom. Young women downtown wore hip-hugging pants and clean-girl makeup, and outside a repertory cinema everyone was smoking as though Parliaments were still $2 a pack.

 

Ryan Murphy’s ‘American Love Story’ Casts Sarah Pidgeon as JFK Jr.’s Wife Carolyn Bessette

Joe Otterson
21 March 2025

“American Love Story” at FX has found its first cast member.

 Variety has learned from sources that Sarah Pidgeon has been cast in one of the lead roles for the upcoming anthology series, which was originally announced in 2021. As previously reported, the first season of the series will focus on John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. Pidgeon will star as Bessette.