The FX on Hulu limited series, Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette, focuses on the well-known and tragic relationship of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette (played by Paul Anthony Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon). However, the show also explores other couples as part of its storytelling.
While Calvin Klein publicist Carolyn was becoming involved with a prominent political figure—considered one of the most desirable bachelors of the 1990s—her employer’s marriage to Kelly Klein was falling apart at the same time.
Oh my god, it’s just everything with Kelly and Calvin! She totally snaps at him – can you even imagine?! He has the nerve to say Carolyn’s thing with JFK Jr. is bad for the brand, and she comes back with this amazing line – “All due respect, you’re the last person to be lecturing anyone on discretion!” Like, YES Kelly! Tell him! It’s just… perfect. Alessandro Nivola is brilliant as Calvin, and Leila George just owns that scene. I’ve rewatched it like a million times.
His response: “From the beginning you knew what you were signing up for.”
Because IRL, Kelly’s romance with Calvin kicked off with its own meet-cute.
Kelly, fresh out of design training at Ralph Lauren at age 21, interviewed with Calvin Klein, but unfortunately, the position had already been filled.
Months later, they ran into each other at the famous Studio 54 nightclub in New York City. The next day, the man, who was originally from the Bronx, called Kelly and offered her a job as his assistant.
She later told Vanity Fair in March 2008 that meeting Calvin completely transformed her life. She described him as someone who brought energy and excitement into every day, saying it felt like “the lights went on” whenever he entered a room.
She certainly played a significant part in inspiring Calvin. One idea she had was to design men’s underwear for women, pointing out the appeal of comfortably borrowing – and finding something attractive about – a boyfriend’s briefs.
When they started a romantic relationship shortly after she joined his company in 1981—13 years after he founded his fashion brand—many in the fashion world were surprised.
Despite marrying his high school sweetheart, Jayne Centre, and having a daughter, Marci Klein, two years after their wedding in 1964, people still questioned Calvin’s sexuality due to his past relationships with men.
As Kelly explained to Vanity Fair, finding love makes gossip and rumors seem unimportant.
And it’s not as if Calvin hadn’t addressed his sexuality in his own oblique way.
Calvin Klein remembered the 1985 Obsession ad campaign, specifically the model Josie Borain, whom he described as having a subtly androgynous but sophisticated look. He told Vanity Fair that the photograph featured numerous arms and hands around Borain, intentionally blurring the lines between genders and quantity. The goal, he explained, was to be provocative and capture the spirit of the era, which was openly focused on sex and drugs.
He explained that he’s lived out many of his fantasies, having had relationships with both men and women. He’s been in love with women, married them, and built a family. He believes his life experiences have shaped his perspective and that he embodies what he expresses in his work, for better or worse.
He just didn’t love putting so much of himself out there.
He once told Playboy magazine in 1984 that he preferred maintaining a bit of an enigma. He believed it was more enjoyable to have a reputation while still keeping some things private – a little mystery, he said, wasn’t a bad thing.
Particularly when you’ve experienced the worst parts of living a public life.
In 1978, Marci, age 11, was tricked into leaving a bus in New York City by someone who used to babysit her. Soon after, Calvin delivered the $100,000 ransom and retrieved Marci from a stranger’s apartment.
Marci, now a TV producer with experience on Saturday Night Live, told Vanity Fair that when she saw him, she immediately ran to him and embraced him tightly. She said it was the safest she’d ever felt.
But as for her father, he told the mag, “That was a nightmare that changed our lives a great deal.”
So, his desire for a bit of privacy is understandable.
After ten years of marriage following their wedding in Rome in 1986, he and Kelly announced they were separating with a public statement. They said they would live separately but hoped to remain close friends.
Shortly after selling his company to Phillips-Van Heusen for $400 million in 2003, Calvin openly discussed a public setback he experienced at a New York Knicks game, just weeks after the sale, with his partner Barry Schwartz.
He later told Vanity Fair that he felt overwhelmed by what the future held, which led to his decision to seek treatment at the Meadows clinic in Arizona. He’d been anticipating a change for years, feeling he’d accomplished everything he set out to do and was ready for something new. However, when the time came, he found it incredibly difficult to cope. Eventually, he managed to regain control of his life, as he had done before.
In the years following, he added, “It’s been the best time in my life.”
Before that, he dated model Nicolas Gruber for two years. The famous designer even threw a lavish 21st birthday party for Gruber at Indochine in New York City in 2011, inviting many of his celebrity friends, including Anna Wintour, Donna Karan, Vera Wang, Alec Baldwin, and Andy Cohen.
Nicolas explained to New York Magazine’s The Cut in 2013 that he and his future partner met through friends. He’d been in New York for a modeling photoshoot while on leave from the Army, with three months left in his service. They started talking, and a relationship developed.
By the time Nicolas spoke with the magazine, he and Calvin had already gone their separate ways. Since then, Nicolas has been very private about his personal relationships.
Since 2016, Calvin has been happily with his partner, 37-year-old model Kevin Baker.
Although Calvin hasn’t spoken publicly about his relationship with Kevin—whose twin brother Joel is also a model—the two have subtly promoted their romance through their actions, almost like a marketing strategy.
The couple first appeared together at a luxury conference in Mumbai, India, in March 2016. Since then, they’ve been seen at high-profile events like the Broadway premiere of American Psycho and a fashion show, and have traveled to exclusive locations including the Hamptons and St. Barts.
The couple, who have homes in both New York and Los Angeles, were recently spotted leaving a gym together in Los Angeles.
Calvin achieved success in both his career and personal life by trusting his instincts.
He emphasized in a 2016 conversation with i-D that discovering who you are is key. He advised not listening to others telling you what to do, but instead following your own instincts. Even if you doubt yourself, trust your own judgment over what others say – that’s really important, he said.
You can definitely see that determination in Love Story, but stick around to find out which scenes were created just for the television version.
In the movie Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette, Carolyn (played by Sarah Pidgeon) advises Annette Bening (played by Megan Channell) to wear a Calvin Klein suit to the Bugsy premiere instead of the dress the designer chose for her.
It’s unknown if she created that outfit for Annette Bening, who later married Warren Beatty, but a 1996 New York Times article revealed Carolyn was the preferred salesperson for Calvin Klein’s famous customers, including Diane Sawyer and Blaire Trump.
According to Paul Wilmott, who was Calvin Klein’s VP of public relations at the time, she expertly helped customers choose clothes, offering advice on what suited them and how to create complete outfits. He noted that she was incredibly successful, selling millions of dollars worth of clothing over the years.
In a memorable scene from Love Story, Carolyn demonstrates her marketing skills by advising Calvin (played by Alessandro Nivola) to feature Kate Moss in an advertising campaign.
As someone who’s followed fashion for years, I always admired Carolyn’s eye for talent. She really discovered Kate Moss early on, and together, they were instrumental in shaping the iconic Calvin Klein image of the ’90s. It was a brilliant pairing!
In the movie Love Story, Calvin brings Carolyn and John together at a charity event in 1992, and they immediately feel a connection. However, Carolyn playfully declines to give Calvin her phone number, reminding him that she works in the same place he does.
“He was simply bored,” Carolyn explained to her friends at the nightclub, just as Michael Bergin, who her friends playfully called the “sexy doorman” (and was played by Noah Fearnley), arrived.
John suddenly appeared at Calvin Klein and requested a private fitting with Carolyn. He then invited her to dinner, and when he left, her coworkers were completely shocked and excited.
According to Elizabeth Beller’s 2024 biography, Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy first met in the spring of 1992. He was at Calvin Klein for a private fitting, and her coworkers were reportedly very excited. John then invited Carolyn to join him at a gala, but she initially declined an invitation to an after-party after mistakenly believing another woman was his date, as MJ Bettenhausen told Beller.
Carolyn and Michael, a former hotel doorman and model, had a casual relationship starting in the fall of 1992, but it wasn’t consistent, according to Beller’s book.
In his 2004 book, The Other Man, Bergin claimed he was sexually involved with Carolyn throughout her entire relationship with John, even until her death. However, according to Beller, many of Carolyn’s friends doubted this claim.
In the movie Love Story, Carolyn is waiting at an Indian restaurant for John. After about 20 minutes, just as she’s about to leave, he arrives riding his bicycle.
He accidentally leaves his car unlocked while on a long date, and it gets stolen. This means he has to walk Carolyn home instead.
He said he wished he hadn’t felt so rushed as we reached my door, and then he kissed me. It was sweet. He nervously asked if he’d see me again, and I told him I really enjoyed our night together, hoping that meant he knew I wanted to see him again too. It was a perfect ending to a lovely evening.
In real life, John and this person likely had a first date, and it’s possible John biked there and was a little late. However, the cozy scene of them connecting over drinks was probably staged for the show.
Daryl Hannah (played by Dree Hemingway) is at John’s apartment when he returns home. He’s just been telling his cousin and best friend, Anthony Radziwill (Erich Bergen), that all he wants to do is call Carolyn.
He’s planning to take Daryl to a wedding in October 1993 hosted by his cousin, Edward Kennedy Jr., which his mother, Jacqueline Kennedy, doesn’t approve of. Meanwhile, Carolyn discovers through a tabloid magazine that the man pursuing her is actually getting back together with his famous ex-girlfriend.
John continued to send Carolyn flowers, and eventually confessed to her at an event that he was struggling because he believed she disliked him. Carolyn responded by saying she didn’t know him well enough to feel any hatred towards him.
The unexpected meeting was a striking way to introduce the actress from Splash in Love Story, but producers didn’t consult with Daryl, who has been married to Neil Young since 2018.
Producer Nina Jacobson explained to Gold Derby that they focus on understanding characters deeply, rather than starting with pre-defined storylines or external expectations. She said it’s difficult to achieve genuine character development when prioritizing specific outcomes, so they generally avoid that approach except in unusual circumstances.
According to Jacobson, Daryl acts as a challenge to what the story needs, but the writers still make sure to highlight her understanding of the celebrity lifestyle, something Carolyn lacks.
When John walks in and sees Daryl hanging out with her eccentric friends, it’s a clear signal that big changes are coming. She ultimately breaks up with him, forcing him to think about what he truly desires.
Daryl promised to pick up her dog, Hank. However, John was taking Hank for a walk when someone stopped him for an autograph. He accidentally dropped the leash, and tragically, Hank was hit by a taxi and killed. John then traveled to Los Angeles to deliver Hank’s ashes to Daryl.
According to the 2024 book JFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biography by RoseMarie Terenzio and Liz McNeil, John F. Kennedy Jr.’s friend, Sasha Chermayeff, shared that John’s dog, Hank, ran into traffic in Central Park and was hit by a car in May 1994.
According to his friend Steven Gillon, he traveled to Los Angeles to bury a dog. While he was there, his mother’s health suddenly declined. He felt angry that Daryl had made him attend a pet’s funeral when his own mother was seriously ill with cancer.
In the movie Love Story, Jackie (played by Naomi Watts) leaves a voicemail for John while he’s flying, and then collapses at home. This scene was created for dramatic impact, but it’s also meant to emphasize how seriously ill she was after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in December 1993. She passed away on May 19, 1994.
John and Carolyn hadn’t seen each other since the disastrous gala until they ran into each other at a fundraiser on May 18, 1992.
They quickly connected and dated all summer, but then drifted apart for nearly two years, as described in Beller’s book. It wasn’t until after Jackie passed away that they finally became a lasting couple.
According to executive producer Brad Simpson, the couple’s relationship was more complicated than what could be shown on the show. He told USA Today they had to move the story forward and felt viewers wouldn’t want to watch the ups and downs of a relationship that was constantly starting and stopping.
When he brings Carolyn home to his loft for the first time, John realizes he forgot his keys.
Although it looked good on television, John in real life was often forgetful, frequently misplacing his keys and wallet. This habit later made Carolyn hesitant to fly with him by himself after he earned his pilot’s license.
Beyond that hint of what’s to come, John doesn’t mention to Carolyn that the party he invites her to is actually a formal birthday dinner for his sister, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg.
When John’s behavior worries Carolyn, his wife, Caroline (Grace Gummer) quickly explains that he’s just forgetful, not intentionally rude or bringing unexpected guests.
John introduced Carolyn to his sister on her 37th birthday, November 27, 1994. According to Carole Radziwill’s memoir, What Remains, the get-together at Carolyn’s Park Avenue apartment was a party, not a formal dinner.
The former Real Housewives star, who attended with Anthony and was excited to see Carolyn, described her friend entering the private room looking incredibly happy and unapologetically herself, and acting warmly and spontaneously.
Caroline embraced John and greeted Carolyn with a warm “So nice to meet you,” according to Carole. Afterwards, Carolyn’s friends offered polite smiles before turning their attention back to John.
Beller’s book, Once Upon a Time, reveals that initial impressions of Carolyn and Caroline disliking each other were incorrect. Someone who saw them having lunch described them as genuinely enjoying each other’s company, with lively conversation and plenty of laughter.
After playing touch football with friends, John discovered a letter in his gym bag suggesting Carolyn had used her boss, Calvin Klein, to arrange a meeting with him because she was interested in a relationship. When Carolyn visited later, John confronted her about the letter, and she was upset he would think so little of her, immediately leaving his place.
After what felt like a long wait, he finally came to her apartment and admitted he’d made a mistake. This honest conversation led to him telling her he loved her for the very first time.
According to Beller, John received a letter describing Carolyn’s active social life and relationships early in their dating history. After receiving it during the summer of 1992, he abruptly ended their relationship. Carolyn then refused to accept his apologies for over a year.
John proposed to Carolyn while they were in a rowboat, following a trip to Hyannis Port where she’d just met his family for the first time. This included his aunt, Ethel Kennedy, played by Jessica Harper, who is the clear leader of the family.
Carolyn said she needs some time to consider it, explaining they have several important things to talk over first.
In 1994, for Labor Day weekend, John brought Carolyn to his family’s vacation home. He did sign up to help with breakfast while they were there, but he didn’t ask her to join him.
Terenzio says John proposed to Carolyn while they were on a trip to Martha’s Vineyard over the Fourth of July weekend in 1995. He cleverly proposed by saying, “Fishing is so much better with a partner.”
I was so fascinated by this detail! He actually proposed with a diamond and sapphire eternity band, and on the show, JFK Jr. says it was his mother’s. But the real story is even more touching. John actually had Maurice Tempelsman, a close friend of Jackie’s, design a ring that resembled her famous emerald and sapphire ring – the one she called her ‘swimming ring.’ Apparently, he gave Carolyn both rings, which is just so romantic, according to what Terenzio reported.
According to a friend of John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy made him wait around three weeks before she responded to a proposal. While author J. Randy Taraborrelli wrote that she never explicitly said yes, she did start wearing an engagement ring and told friends they were planning a wedding. However, in an interview, a different source recalled Carolyn telling her they became engaged over the holiday weekend.
Whether it was before or after they started dating, the couple was engaged for several months before their well-known argument in Washington Square Park in 1996.
Carolyn had a close relationship with her boss, Calvin Klein, and was also good friends with his wife, photographer Kelly Klein.
In the movie Love Story, Kelly (played by Leila George) challenges Calvin when he says Carolyn can’t continue working for him because her engagement to JFK Jr. – which was highly publicized with a cover story in the New York Post – might be disruptive.
Kelly retorted, “Honestly, you’re hardly one to talk about keeping secrets,” and Calvin replied, “You knew what you were getting into from the start.”
The designer invited Kelly to join her at a gala that evening, hinting that it would be their last time together – a clear sign they were breaking up.
Calvin and Kelly announced they were separating in August 1996. According to columnist Liz Smith, they released a statement saying they remained good friends and had decided to live separately, with mutual respect, and hoped to resolve any differences. Their divorce was finalized in 2006.
At 83 years old, Calvin has been with his partner, 46-year-old model Kevin Baker, for a decade.
In the movie Love Story, Carolyn skips John’s press conference where he introduces George magazine. At the event, he reveals the first cover, which features Cindy Crawford playfully dressed as George Washington.
She watched the news from home, understanding John had no option but to deny he’d proposed. She worried the rumors about her rejecting him would distract from the important news about George.
Carolyn intentionally avoided the launch event on September 7, 1995. Terenzio, responsible for publicly denying John was engaged after a photo of Carolyn’s ring caused rumors, explained that John and his partner, Michael Berman, believed her presence would be a distraction, and that she didn’t mind not being there.
As a longtime observer of their relationship, I remember Sasha Chermayeff, a close friend of John’s, pointing something out in an interview that really stuck with me. She felt that Carolyn was deeply upset by John’s initial refusal to publicly acknowledge their engagement. It was, Sasha said, the moment Carolyn first realized what life with John would really be like – a pattern of him controlling the narrative, and her having to accept it. It felt like a key turning point, a glimpse into the dynamic that would define their relationship.
In the fifth episode, Carolyn and John have a heated fight while walking their dog, but the episode concludes with Carolyn happily accepting John’s marriage proposal, despite their earlier conflict.
The highly publicized fight between the couple on February 25, 1996, became well-known, and many details – like John appearing to take off Carolyn’s engagement ring, John crying on the curb, and their argument over the dog, during which Carolyn famously said, “You’ve got my ring, you’re not getting my dog!” – were widely reported in the news.
The show centers around a fight stemming from John’s frustrated reaction to Carolyn rejecting his proposal—he angrily claims everything would be fine if she’d just said yes—even though they had actually been engaged for around five months. The scene takes place before Carolyn formally accepts his proposal; she tries on the ring privately and indicates she’s open to marriage, but hasn’t given him a definitive answer yet.
In her interview, Terenzio remembered that she and her partner often argued because she felt John was being used by his friends.
At a wedding, they found themselves seated beside a New York Times reporter who was covering the event for the “Vows” column. According to Terenzio, Carolyn believed it was wrong to put a friend in that position. While she regretted the argument, she was also upset with John, feeling she’d been trying to shield him from being exploited.
Following a public argument between Carolyn and John, Ethel extends an invitation to her future niece-in-law, hosting her at her estate in Virginia, Hickory Hill.
Let me tell you something I learned from a truly remarkable woman, Ethel Kennedy. She once shared with Carolyn a really tough truth about life and relationships. She said, ‘Once trust is broken, it’s incredibly hard to get it back, and people will be quick to judge you from then on, which is just awful.’ She went on to say that men can be incredibly challenging – they’ll hurt you, frustrate you, and push you to your limits. Her advice? Don’t let them win. Don’t give them the satisfaction. It’s a powerful reminder that protecting your own peace of mind is paramount, even when it’s incredibly difficult.
Ethel had Carolyn flown to her home, where, according to J. Randy Taraborelli’s 2019 book, The Kennedy Heirs, she told Carolyn to ignore the negativity and persevere.
I remember hearing from someone who was with Carolyn that Ethel Kennedy once shared something really powerful with me. She said being a Kennedy wasn’t always easy, but she figured out how to cope. She told me she started looking in the mirror every morning and simply telling herself, ‘I am enough.’ Just those three words. She said it sounds simple, but eventually, it really sunk in – she was enough, and no one, not even her famous family, could ever take that feeling away from her. It’s something I’ve carried with me ever since.
Ethel cautioned Carolyn against losing her temper publicly again, as described in the book. She warned that these men were quick to anger and urged Carolyn not to let them provoke her into behaving badly in front of everyone.
Carolyn tells her sister-in-law, Lauren Bessette (played by Sydney Lemmon), that she’s considering asking her to be her maid of honor. She explains that Lauren seemed upset about being left out of the wedding planning process.
Carolyn believes her sister feels left out. She worries that if this isn’t addressed, it could damage their relationship and create lasting resentment, which she doesn’t want to carry into her marriage.
Lauren says, “This will mean nothing to her. And it would have meant everything to me.”
John asked Carolyn to invite Caroline to be the maid of honor. He hoped this would mend things after his sister reacted badly to an incident in the park – she blamed Carolyn and even questioned whether they should get married. John believed it was the best way to resolve the conflict.
I was really surprised when Carolyn came to Calvin to quit, just two weeks after everything happened at the park. She explained she was worried her personal stuff was starting to affect her work, and honestly, you could tell Calvin was a little shocked too – he said he felt totally blindsided by the news.
He described her as “a bright light” and assured her she would be well taken care of with Narciso Rodriguez – a former colleague – designing her wedding gown. Once she’s gone, he tidies up his design portfolio, and we briefly see a dress sketch tucked away in a drawer.
“Calvin was very upset” when Carolyn quit, a colleague told Beller. “He felt left behind.”
In the movie Love Story, Calvin finds out about the dress because Carolyn was previously pictured with the designer Narciso Rodriguez and another Caroline. However, in real life, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy quit her job before she started seriously planning her wedding.
Ann Freeman (played by Constance Zimmer) fears Carolyn is losing her identity in her marriage. She expresses this worry privately to her daughter, but surprisingly reveals the same concerns to everyone during a toast at the rehearsal dinner.
Ann described John as overwhelmingly loving and admitted she was concerned for Carolyn. She wondered how anyone could stay grounded around someone with such a powerful personality. Ultimately, Ann hopes Carolyn can rely on John when she needs him.
John quietly tells his future mother-in-law that her daughter means everything to him.
Although the exact words aren’t known, John’s friend Robert Littell wrote in his memoir, The Men We Became, that Ann voiced concerns about the marriage, suggesting it might not be good for their daughter.
And John, he wrote, was “visibly stung by his mother-in-law’s remarks.”
Littell mentioned that while he and a few other guests continued the party on the beach, Carolyn had already gone to bed a long time earlier. This meant the story in Love Story—where John and Carolyn fall asleep together on the beach and go swimming naked the morning of their wedding—was created to make the scene more romantic.
Carolyn faced a real wardrobe emergency when she discovered she’d have to pull Narciso’s zipperless dress over her head after her makeup was already finished.
Gogo Ferguson, the designer of the couple’s unique rattlesnake-rib wedding bands, shared in an interview that dressing Carolyn felt incredibly delicate, like applying cream to her skin. Narciso, meanwhile, was meticulously adjusting the dress to ensure a perfect fit. Terenzio noted that Narciso even had to reopen and resew the neckline, and they carefully covered Carolyn’s head with a scarf to protect her hair and makeup.
Gordon Henderson, a friend of the bride and the designer of the groom’s tuxedo and the groomsmen’s suits, shared with Town & Country that he also offered a handkerchief to help the groom feel his best. He explained that when a friend is getting married, you want to do everything you can to ensure they have a happy and satisfying experience.
In Beller’s Once Upon a Time, Carolyn needs to completely redo her hair and makeup after she gets dressed.
The ceremony didn’t begin until 7 p.m., later than the originally planned 5 p.m. John was delayed because he couldn’t find his shirt, and since the First African Baptist Church, built in the 1800s, didn’t have electricity, they had to use candles.
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2026-03-06 11:21