JFK Jr. Biopic Is Taking Some Heat

Nephew Jack Schlossberg slams Ryan Murphy's upcoming FX series about his late uncle, wife
Posted Jun 20, 2025 7:21 AM CDT
JFK Jr. Biopic Is Taking Some Heat
Jack Schlossberg arrives at the JFK Library on May 4, 2025, in Boston.   (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

American Horror Story showrunner Ryan Murphy has a new FX biopic coming out on the late John F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife, Carolyn Bessette, who both died in a plane crash off of Martha's Vineyard in 1999, per People. The Kennedy family may not be on board with it, however, at least according to JFK Jr.'s nephew, Jack Schlossberg. "Lately, my news feed has been filled with pictures of my uncle, John F. Kennedy Jr., a great man," Schlossberg, 32, said in a video posted Thursday to his Instagram story, per Entertainment Weekly. "For those wondering whether his family was ever consulted, or has anything to do with the new show being made about him, the answer is no, and there's really not much we can do."

  • The series: American Love Story will profile Kennedy and Bessette's marriage and premature deaths, with the former being played by newcomer Paul Kelly and the latter by The Wilds' Sarah Pidgeon. Naomi Watts will play JFK Jr.'s mother, Jackie Onassis, and Grace Gummer will play his sister, Caroline Kennedy.
  • More from Schlossberg: "For the record, I think admiration for my uncle John is great. What I don't think is great is profiting off of it in a grotesque way." He added: "I hope those making this show about him take seriously what he stood for in his life, all that he achieved in it, and that they donate some of the profits [from] what they're making to the John F. Kennedy Library."

  • Team Bessette: Fans of JFK Jr.'s wife didn't seem too pleased with pictures that Murphy released of Pidgeon in character as Bessette, criticizing everything from the fashion choices to the color of Pidgeon's hair, which devotees say is too light compared to the real Bessette's hair, per Page Six. "Is it too late to recast Carolyn and hire a wardrobe dept that dresses her accurately?? She didn't wear ill fitting inexpensive clothes!" one critic snarked.
  • Murphy: The biopic's creator seems a bit taken aback by the backlash. "Carolyn Bessette is [clearly] a religious figure, and it's a religion of her own," he told Variety. "It's very interesting that people become so inflammatory." He says that the unwanted attention about the Bessette character isn't so different from that directed at the real Bessette from the paparazzi when she was alive: "They're doing to our Carolyn what they did to the real-life Carolyn. It's not fair."
(More John F. Kennedy Jr. stories.)

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