March 11, 2026, 8:31 a.m. ET
“Love Story” star Dree Hemingway didn’t want to upset Daryl Hannah.
The actress, 38, who portrays Hannah in a buzzy FX series chronicling the life and death of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, revealed in a new interview that she wrote her a note before filming. Hannah, a onetime love interest of JFK Jr., has since slammed the show as “false” and “tragedy-exploiting.”
“It was really just a love note to her saying how much I admired her, how much I’ve admired her as an actress and a woman, prior to even being cast as Daryl, how much I really just fell in love with her as a human being,” Hemingway said of the note, in a recent interview with Nylon. “I watched interviews and that feeling of really spending time with somebody you’ve never spent time with, but researching.”
“That was really the note, and just not like ‘Hey, I want to meet you or talk to you.’ Just, like, ‘It was really an honor of my lifetime to be able to portray you and research you,'” Hemingway continued.
Though the actress conceded she “would have loved to directly have spoken to her,” she added, “I also didn’t want to intrude in any way. I didn’t want to make her feel awkward if that were something that she didn’t want to do or something.”
Hemingway, who said Hannah has not yet responded to her letter, emphasized in the interview that the Ryan Murphy-led show was meant to be a “dramatization,” not a strict portrayal of fact, and that she understood how seeing your life appear onscreen might be troubling.
“I also think [she needs] her own time,” she told Nylon. “The show’s just come out; I’m sure there’s a lot to digest there.”
As for Hannah, in an op-ed published by the New York Times Friday, March 6, the actress and philanthropist let her feelings be known, panning the series as a gross glamorization of a personal tragedy. She took particular aim at her own portrayal, claiming it was both untrue and sexist.
“The choice to portray her as irritating, self-absorbed, whiny and inappropriate was no accident,” Hannah, 65, wrote of her character in the show. “Storytelling requires tension. It often requires an obstacle. But a real, living person is not a narrative device.”
“The actions and behaviors attributed to me are untrue. I have never used cocaine in my life or hosted cocaine-fueled parties. 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. It’s appalling to me that I even have to defend myself against a television show,” she continued. “These are not creative embellishments of personality. They are assertions about conduct — and they are false.”
The actress and current environmental activist said her choice to speak out now had less to do with ego and more to do with a desire to keep doing the work she loves without having to face a tarnished reputation. Despite decades of dogged interest in the Kennedy family, Hannah, who dated JFK Jr. for several years, said most of what exists in popular media is false.
“The Kennedy family is also notoriously private, and I have always honored their right to privacy,” she wrote. “Know that most (if not all) of those claiming to have any intimate knowledge of our personal lives are self-serving sensationalists trading in gossip, innuendo and speculation.”
In an interview with Page Six, JFK Jr.’s cousin, Douglas Kennedy, also argued Hannah’s portrayal was false and “unfortunate,” telling the outlet: “Daryl Hannah was great. Whenever I saw her, she was very sweet and had [John’s] best interests at heart. I think that’s a misrepresentation.”
