Carole Radziwill does not appear in “Love Story” because the showrunners wanted to emphasize Carolyn Bessette’s close relationship with her sister Lauren Bessette.
“There were a lot of people we couldn’t include, like some of John’s closest friends, but we decided to include Lauren’s (Carolyn)’s closest friend and Anthony’s (John F. Kennedy Jr.)’s closest friend,” producer Brad Simpson told TV Insider on Monday.
“You know, we’re trying to cram a lot into 43 minutes,” he added. “People’s lives are full and rich. There are a lot of people out there and decisions have to be made.”
The “Real Housewives of New York” star had been married to Anthony Radziwill, Kennedy Jr.’s late cousin, since 1994 and died of cancer in 1999, just three weeks after the tragic plane crash that killed Kennedy Jr., Carolyn and Lauren.
Anthony, played by Eric Bergen, is featured heavily in the Hulu series and is considered Kennedy Jr.’s right-hand man. In real life, he and Carol were very close to both Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn, but she was left out of the series in order to “really focus” on building Lauren’s character.
Simpson also told the outlet that his decision to focus on Lauren was because she “often takes a back seat to all of this.”
After the series, starring Paul Anthony Kelly as Kennedy Jr. and Sarah Pidgeon as Carolyn, premiered last month, Carroll admitted on his Substack that he wouldn’t watch the show, but said others should watch it to “fall in love” with Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn “like everyone else did at the time.”
But she also cast some light on the show, writing, “Stories are still being told. Reinvented and embroidered. Filled with details no one will ever know, by people who weren’t there and don’t care about the truth.”
And Carroll, 62, isn’t the only one criticizing the series for inaccurate portrayals.
Kennedy Jr.’s ex-girlfriend Daryl Hannah wrote a scathing New York Times essay slamming the Ryan Murphy-produced show, which highlights Kennedy Jr.’s romance with Carolyn before he fell in love with her.
“I have long believed that when we interact with distortion, we often amplify it,” she begins. “However, a television series that exploits the recent tragedy involving John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette features a character using my name and introducing her as me.”
“The choice to portray her as irritable, self-centered, whining and inadequate was no accident.”
Jack Schlossberg, Kennedy Jr.’s nephew, called the series “grotesque” in an interview on “CBS Sunday Morning” earlier this month.
Asked about the show, Schlossberg said, “If you want to know someone who has never met any of my family and knows nothing about us, talk to Ryan Murphy.”
“This guy has no idea what he’s talking about and he makes a lot of money by making a grotesque version of other people’s lives.”
“Love Story” airs every Thursday (9 p.m. ET) on FX and Fridays on Hulu.
