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Following his American Horror Story, American Crime Story, and American Sports Story franchises, prolific producer Ryan Murphy is returning with American Love Story, a new spin-off anthology series centered on romances that captured the world’s attention. The first installment’s focus? Eternal style icon Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and her husband, John F. Kennedy Jr. Here’s everything we know about it so far.
Who will play Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy in American Love Story?
Sarah Pidgeon, the American actor and rapidly rising star whom you might recognize from Prime Video’s The Wilds, or as the younger version of Kathryn Hahn’s character in Hulu’s Tiny Beautiful Things, is taking the lead as the impossibly glamorous Bessette-Kennedy. It’s sure to be the 28-year-old’s splashiest onscreen part to date, though she did recently earn a Tony nomination for her Broadway debut in David Adjmi’s Stereophonic, and is also due to star in the I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot alongside returning favorites Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt. With her stellar acting chops, immaculate style, and the uncanny resemblance between the pair, this certainly looks like impeccable casting.
Who will play Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in American Love Story?
The same is true for the part of Jackie, Bessette-Kennedy’s mother-in-law, which will be taken by none other than Naomi Watts. (Coincidentally, Watts and Pidgeon have already worked together on Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s 2024 drama The Friend.) A veteran of the Ryan Murphy televisual universe, who starred in Netflix’s The Watcher and received both Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for her recent portrayal of Babe Paley in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, Watts is a natural fit to play Paley’s fellow socialite and New York stalwart. She joins a long list of famous faces who have taken on different eras of the former first lady’s life, from Katie Holmes in the 2011 miniseries The Kennedys to Natalie Portman in 2016’s Jackie.
It may be a little while yet before we see Watts in Jackie’s signature pearls and pillbox hats, but before then, make sure to look out for the double Oscar nominee in another breathlessly awaited Murphy-helmed project: All’s Fair, the glossy legal drama in which she’ll co-star with Kim Kardashian, Glenn Close, Sarah Paulson, Niecy Nash, and Teyana Taylor.
And what about John F. Kennedy Jr.?
The show’s central trio was completed with newcomer Paul Kelly, who will be taking the part of John F. Kennedy Jr., the son of JFK and Jackie and the husband of Carolyn. Murphy and his casting team reportedly auditioned more than 1,000 actors before selecting Kelly.
Indeed, Ryan Murphy proved just how canny a choice that was on June 13, when he posted a thrilling first glimpse of Pidgeon and Kelly in costume as Carolyn and John Jr. to his Instagram. While a blond-tressed Pidgeon was dressed in a CBK-worthy mustard leather trench with a black mockneck top, black pants, and low black pumps, Kelly appeared in a few different ensembles. Where in his picture with Pidgeon he sports a dark suit and natty patterned tie, he’s a bit more bohème in one solo, clad in a gray button-up shirt, open black vest, jeans, and a beret—a look that eagle-eyed Kennedyites will recogize from real paparazzi images.
Murphy also gave fans a sense of the series’s production timeline and release date. “FIRST LOOK!” his Instagram caption read. “Here are some stills from our LOVE STORY camera test. We started shooting this week in New York City and can’t wait until you see the romantic and tragic love story between America’s prince, JFK Jr., and fashion icon Carolyn Bessette—out Valentine’s Day week of 2026. I am thrilled to introduce you to Sarah Pidgeon as Carolyn and Paul Kelly as John F. Kennedy Jr. Over a thousand actors auditioned for each of these roles, and we absolutely found the perfect choices.”
Who else will be in the cast of American Love Story?
Deadline broke more casting news on June 6, revealing that Grace Gummer would play JFK Jr.’s older sister, Caroline Kennedy; Sydney Lemmon, known for her roles on television (in Helstrom and Fear the Walking Dead) and on Broadway (in Max Wolf Friedlich’s Job), would play Carolyn’s sister, Lauren Bessette; and Alessandro Nivola would play Carolyn’s longtime employer, Calvin Klein.
What, exactly, will be the plot of American Love Story?
Carolyn Bessette, born in upstate New York and raised in Connecticut, was a fashion publicist who worked at Calvin Klein, and met John F. Kennedy Jr., then an attorney and prominent publisher, in 1992, when he was still dating Splash star Daryl Hannah. He and Bessette got together two years later, were engaged by 1995, and for their secret 1996 wedding, she chose a minimalist white slip dress by Narciso Rodriguez, her friend and colleague at Calvin Klein, making the designer a household name overnight.
Once Carolyn and John were married, the media maelstrom around them intensified, with the paparazzi trailing them at every turn. Within a few years, rumors began to take hold that their union was rocky and a divorce could be on the horizon. Then, in 1999, John, Carolyn, and her older sister, Lauren, died following a plane crash off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard after John, who was piloting the aircraft, lost control of it. Carolyn and John were only 33 and 38, respectively.
Per Deadline, the John and Carolyn-focused first season of American Love Story will see “what started out as a beautiful union for the young couple, widely regarded as American royalty, [begin] to fray under the stress of the relentless microscope and navel gaze of tabloid media. The pressures of their careers and rumored family discord ended with their tragic deaths when his private plane crashed into the ocean on a hazy summer night off the coast of Massachusetts.”
In a 2024 interview with Variety, Ryan Murphy’s frequent collaborators, executive producers Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson, described this story as one which “really resonates right now. It’s amazing. A lot of younger women are looking to [Carolyn] as sort of a representational icon of a certain period of time that’s really fascinating, and hopefully, we’ll be able to bring that to the screen.”
