A new television drama about one of America’s most famous families is drawing sharp criticism from within the Kennedy clan itself.
According to Fox News, Jack Schlossberg, the son of Caroline Kennedy and grandson of John F. Kennedy, took aim at the Hulu and FX series “Love Story,” which centers on the relationship between his uncle, John F. Kennedy Jr., and Carolyn Bessette.
In an interview with CBS News’ Mo Rocca, Schlossberg dismissed the show as a money-making venture built on speculation.
“Well, if you want to know someone who’s never met anyone in my family, knows nothing about us, talk to Ryan Murphy. I would just want people who do watch the show to watch it with one letter in mind, and that’s a capital F for fiction,” Schlossberg said.
He continued, “The guy knows nothing about what he’s talking about, and he’s making a ton of money on a grotesque display of someone else’s life.”
Schlossberg suggested that Murphy should contribute profits from the series to the causes his uncle supported.
“I would hope that Mr. Murphy would donate some of the millions of dollars of profits that he’s making to maybe some of the causes that John championed throughout his life — justice, maybe he would donate some of that money to the JFK Library to help keep President Kennedy’s memory alive. But he’s not, he’s making money. This is not a documentary, and I’ll leave it at that.”
When asked whether this portrayal differed from other books and films about the Kennedy family, Schlossberg pointed to what he described as a broader climate of misinformation.
“I think in the last year, two years, three years, partly because of RFK Jr., but also partly because Donald Trump has used JFK as sort of a human punching bag, both by renaming the Kennedy Center after himself, by doing a false reinvestigation into the assassination, and dismantling all the programs that he fought for,” he said. “There’s a lot of misinformation now and iconography being used about the Kennedy family, my family, at a time when we really can’t afford to confuse people.”
He added, “We really need to take every breath that we have to try to make things better. So, if Ryan Murphy really cares so much about the Kennedy family, my Uncle John, maybe he would try to do something about getting Trump out of power.”
John F. Kennedy Jr. and Bessette died in a 1999 plane crash.
Executive producer Brad Simpson defended the project earlier this year, calling it a “sincere” portrayal.
“What I hope is that when people watch the show, they will see our sincerity. They will see that we’ve approached this with love, and that we were trying to celebrate the life of Carolyn Bessette and JFK Jr.,” Simpson told The Hollywood Reporter.
“I can understand why somebody could have a reaction before they see it, but I would say, ‘Watch the show,’ because I think they’re going to be surprised at how sincere it is,” he added.
Schlossberg also addressed criticism over his own social media posts, including one involving second lady Usha Vance.
“I think what’s crossing a line is the propaganda that we see issued every single day by the White House and Vance,” he said. “So, what are we going to do, hold back? Hold back on our sense of humor and not tease them, make fun of them back?”
“First of all, I don’t think anyone was seriously thinking that I meant that we did actually have a love child! You can point at anything I posted, I will point you back at a president who shares pictures of himself bombing U.S. citizens with fecal matter. This is a new era we’re living in.”
