Carole Radziwill Absent from FX's 'Love Story' Series

The team behind the show explains the decision to exclude JFK Jr.'s close friend and cousin's wife from the dramatized portrayal.

Mar. 17, 2026 at 12:12am

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While the FX series 'Love Story' has generated much discussion around its portrayals of the relationship between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, one notable absence has been Carole Radziwill, Bessette's close friend and the wife of JFK Jr.'s cousin Anthony. The show's producers have now explained their reasoning for not including Radziwill as a character, citing the need to focus on developing Bessette's sister Lauren as a key confidant.

Why it matters

Radziwill was a close part of the inner circle surrounding Bessette and JFK Jr., having been married to Anthony Radziwill, JFK Jr.'s cousin and best man at their wedding. Her exclusion from the dramatized 'Love Story' series has sparked conversation about the creative decisions behind which real-life figures are included or omitted from the show's narrative.

The details

The producers of 'Love Story' have explained that with so many people in the lives of Bessette and JFK Jr., difficult choices had to be made about which characters to focus on. They decided to prioritize developing the role of Bessette's sister Lauren as a key confidant, rather than including Radziwill as a character. Radziwill herself has commented that she is at peace with the various dramatizations and misrepresentations of the real-life story, no longer worrying about 'false narratives' or 'bent truths'.

  • The 'Love Story' series about JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette is currently airing new episodes on FX on Thursdays.

The players

Carole Radziwill

A former cast member of 'The Real Housewives of New York City' who was close friends with Carolyn Bessette and married to John F. Kennedy Jr.'s cousin Anthony Radziwill.

Brad Simpson

The producer of the FX series 'Love Story' who explained the decision not to include Carole Radziwill as a character.

Carolyn Bessette

The wife of John F. Kennedy Jr. whose relationship is the focus of the FX series 'Love Story'.

John F. Kennedy Jr.

The son of former President John F. Kennedy whose relationship with Carolyn Bessette is dramatized in the FX series 'Love Story'.

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What they’re saying

“People's lives are full and rich. There's tons of people in them, and you have to make decisions. And a decision we made was to really focus on creating Lauren, [Bessette's] sister, as a character because she was often an afterthought in all of this. And so we thought it was important that, when Carolyn needed a confidant, it be her sister because they were very close.... There were tons of people in their lives that we weren't able to include. We're trying to pack a lot into 43 minutes.”

— Brad Simpson, Producer, 'Love Story' (TV Insider)

“Sitting here now, we know how it ended. And yet the story keeps being told. Reinvented. Embroidered. Filled with details no one could possibly know, by people who weren't there and don't care about the truth. We think we own our stories. We don't. Not in life, and certainly not in death.”

— Carole Radziwill (Carole Radziwill's Substack)

The takeaway

The exclusion of Carole Radziwill, a close friend of Carolyn Bessette and part of the inner circle around her and John F. Kennedy Jr., highlights the creative decisions and limitations faced by the producers of dramatized portrayals of real-life events and relationships. While Radziwill has expressed acceptance of the various interpretations, her absence underscores the challenges of accurately capturing the full scope of people's lives in a limited television format.