“I respect her,” Hemingway said of the actress and John F. Kennedy Jr. ex who wrote that the FX series portrays her as an “adversary.”

Love Story star Dree Hemingway responds to Daryl Hannah’s essay blasting the show

"I respect her," Hemingway said of the actress and John F. Kennedy Jr. ex who wrote that the FX series portrays her as an "adversary."

By Leigh Blickley

March 16, 2026 11:36 a.m. ET

Dree Hemingway; Daryl Hannah. Credit:

Stephanie Augello/Getty; Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty

Dree Hemingway says she understands Daryl Hannah's reaction to Ryan Murphy's new limited series *Love Story.*

"I respect her," Hemingway told *Entertainment Tonight* when asked about the scathing response to *Love Story *that Hannah published in *The New York Times*. "It's a sensitive thing to play somebody, a real person, and, I mean, all I can speak to is me as an actress. But, I love her. I *love* her" — sentiments Hemingway previously expressed in a letter to Hannah.

Hemingway plays Hannah on the FX series, which dramatizes the whirlwind romance and untimely deaths of Hannah's ex John F. Kennedy Jr. (Paul Anthony Kelly) and his wife Carolyn Bessette (Sarah Pidgeon).

"I'm just so honored to be a part of this incredible show that has touched so many different walks of life," Hemingway told *ET*. "So, it's exciting! I'm really thriving and I'm really happy."

*Love Story *has received raves from fans and critics since its debut in February, but Hannah is less than pleased with her onscreen characterization.

Dree Hemingway in 'Love Story'.

See the cast of 'Love Story' side-by-side with the real Kennedys and Bessettes

5 details 'Love Story' gets wrong about JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette's romance

In a *New York Times* essay published on March 6, the actress wrote, "I have generally chosen not to respond to media coverage of me. I have long believed that engaging with distortion often amplifies it. But a recent tragedy-exploiting television series about John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette features a character using my name and presents her as me. The choice to portray her as irritating, self-absorbed, whiny and inappropriate was no accident."

Hannah said the show presents her as an "adversary" to JFK Jr. and Bessette's romance and is "not even a remotely accurate representation of my life, my conduct or my relationship with John," whom she dated on and off between 1988 and 1994.

"The actions and behaviors attributed to me are untrue," she asserted. "I have never used cocaine in my life or hosted cocaine-fueled parties. I have never pressured anyone into marriage. I have never desecrated any family heirloom or intruded upon anyone's private memorial. I have never planted any story in the press. I never compared Jacqueline Onassis' death to a dog's... These are not creative embellishments of personality. They are assertions about conduct — and they are false."

The *Kill Bill *actress insisted that the show has had "real-life consequences" as viewers have accepted storylines as fact. Show creator Connor Hines said there was no collaboration with the Kennedy family — who have voiced their own displeasure with *Love Story** *— or any subjects of the series in an effort to "as objective as possible."

Hannah, however, said she has suffered the effects of that decision.

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"In the weeks since the series aired, I have received many hostile and even threatening messages from viewers who seem to believe the portrayal is factual," she wrote. "Many people believe what they see on TV and do not distinguish between dramatization and documented fact — and the impact is not abstract. In a digital era, entertainment often becomes collective memory. Real names are not fictional tools. They belong to real lives."

John F. Kennedy Jr. and Daryl Hannah in 1993.

Brooks Kraft LLC/Sygma via Getty

Hannah added that her silence "should not be mistaken for agreement with lies," and in a direct message to readers, stated: "Know that most (if not all) of those claiming to have any intimate knowledge of our personal lives are self-serving sensationalists trading in gossip, innuendo and speculation."

Hines, meanwhile, has said it's all about entertainment and engagement for him and *Love Story*'s famed executive producer.

"I think [Murphy] has a dedication to his audience and that our ability to entertain them is a privilege that shouldn’t be wasted," Hines told *The Hollywood Reporter*. "He just has his finger on the pulse in that he’s well aware that when people are watching a show, they could be turning the channel at any moment or picking up their phone. We have a responsibility to keep people engaged."

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