A whole lot of FX and Hulu’s new series Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette is, by it’s very nature, fiction. Whole chunks of the series (eight were provided to critics, and you can read our review for more) are imagined conversations between the doomed duo, as portrayed by Paul Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon respectively. While that’s par for the course for this sort of series, what’s curiouser is how the opening minutes of the premiere seem to change one extremely crucial detail about how John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette died.
To break down what happens on the series premiere, “Pilot,” and spoilers past this point, we open on July 16, 1999. That is indeed the day that JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, along with Carolyn’s sister Lauren Bessette (played by Sydney Lemmon on the series) died in a plane crash in the Atlantic Ocean while heading to Martha’s Vineyard. But before we get there, Carolyn is getting her nails done while the paparazzi hound her and snap pictures outside the window.
As “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None The Richer plays on the stereo, she asks for a more “safe” color. And JFK Jr., in the offices of George Magazine, writes a note, before being told that Lauren is downstairs. On his computer, he has a flight path to Martha’s Vineyard, and you might notice he has crutches he’s not using while he limps around his office.
JFK Jr. gets changed, exits the office for the last time, while Carolyn is mobbed by the press and heads to a car herself. JFK Jr. and Lauren are stuck in traffic, and it’s clear JFK and Carolyn are on the rocks. They’re fighting about attending a wedding of Rory Kennedy to Mark Bailey, and JFK Jr. has been staying at a hotel.
As the sun is setting, Carolyn arrives, and JFK Jr. is fiddling with his Piper Saratoga plane. “What happened?” he asks. “We were supposed to leave an hour ago.”
She explains that it’s a Summer Friday, and he’s “never been on time a day in your life, but when it inconveniences you–” He cuts her off, they load the bags into the plane, and we’re told that Jay, JFK Jr.’s flight instructor, couldn’t make it (more on that in a moment).
Without beat by beat repeating everything that happens, JFK and Carolyn make up after he says, “I’m sorry. I’m just anxious. I love you. I appreciate you being here.” They kiss, she says, “I love you, too,” and they get into the plane… JFK Jr. in the pilot’s seat, Carolyn and Lauren in the back seat. They put on their headsets, and take off into the summer sky. Seagulls are heard into the background.
Then the show cuts to titles, and we flash back in time to find out how it all began. But here’s the thing: it wasn’t light out when they crashed in real life, and that’s one of the reasons they may have died.
What Really Happened To John F. Kennedy Jr. And Carolyn Bessette?
There are a lot of guesses about what went wrong with the flight that killed the trio, and no real answers. Certainly, Love Story doesn’t give any hints in the premiere (seagulls? maybe?) and the final episode of the season wasn’t provided for critics.
The timing of the whole thing is that they took off from New Jersey at 8:38pm, at around 9:41pm they crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, and around 10:05pm when they didn’t report in, folks started to realize something had gone wrong. Early in the morning of July 17, 1999, the Kennedys reported them missing, a search and rescue operation began… And on July 21, they found the bodies of JFK Jr., Carolyn Bessette, and Lauren Bessette, dead under the water. It was declared they had died on impact.
So, what went wrong? We mentioned Jay — that refers likely to Jay Biederman, JFK Jr.’s flight instructor — who wasn’t there to help. JFK Jr. was inexperienced flying the plane, had no real flight plan, and was flying over open water with no visible landmarks. Additionally, regarding the crutches: he had fractured his ankle in a paragliding accident six weeks earlier, and had his cast removed the day before the fatal flight. He should have been fine to use the pedals, but still, not ideal.
Not only that, but Kennedy was using the wrong frequencies to communicate on the flight (perhaps chalked up to inexperience). And a potential factor, though hard to quantify, is that JFK Jr. and Carolyn had been fighting, so who knows what happened during the flight.
But potentially the biggest factor is that they were flying at night, and due to low visibility and haze led to the official cause of the crash: spatial disorientation. While there are a lot of different ways spatial disorientation can manifest itself, the FAA explains it plainly, stating that spatial orientation is, “Our natural ability to maintain our body orientation and/ or posture in relation to the surrounding environment at rest and during motion. Genetically speaking, humans are designed to maintain spatial orientation on the ground. The flight environment is hostile and unfamiliar to the human body; it creates sensory conflicts and illusions that make spatial orientation difficult, and, in some cases, even impossible to achieve. Statistics show that between 5 to 10% of all general aviation accidents can be attributed to spatial disorientation, and 90% of these accidents are fatal.”
So this wraps us around to our initial question, specifically given it’s light out: did Love Story change the timing on the flight, likely one of, if not the key factor in the crash?
Well… No. The flight was originally planned for 6pm. Sunset on July 16, 1999 in New Jersey was at 8:26pm. As mentioned, the plane took off at 8:38pm, but it wasn’t dusk for another 20 minutes, until 8:58pm. So while we see the plane taking off when it’s light, by the time they’re over the Atlantic Ocean, it’s going to be dark. Granted, it may be a little lighter on screen than one might expect, but that’s simply TV being TV. On the other hand, if you’re wondering what’s up with the seagull noises, they didn’t seem to suck any seagulls into the engine or anything, so I’m not sure what that was all about.
Is the rest of the show accurate? Sometimes. Mostly, it’s fiction about how two people headed for tragedy fell in love. But when it comes to that opening sequence? It all rings pretty true. Unfortunately.
Love Story Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
New episodes of Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette premiere Thursdays at 9pm ET/PT on FX and 9pm ET / 6pm PT on Hulu. The first week will debut three episodes (at 9pm, 10pm, and 11pm on FX), followed by one episode a week until the season finale.
Here’s what we expect from the full list of episodes in Love Story, with premiere dates.
- Thursday, February 12, 2026: Love Story, Episode 1: “Pilot”
- Thursday, February 12, 2026: Love Story, Episode 2: “The Pools Party”
- Thursday, February 12, 2026: Love Story, Episode 3: “America’s Widow”
- Thursday, February 19, 2026: Love Story, Episode 4: “I Love You”
- Thursday, February 26, 2026: Love Story, Episode 5: “Battery Park”
- Thursday, March 5, 2026: Love Story, Episode 6: “The Wedding”
- Thursday, March 12, 2026: Love Story, Episode 7: “Obsession”
- Thursday, March 19, 2026: Love Story, Episode 8: “Exit Strategy”
- Thursday, March 26, 2026: Love Story, Episode 9 *Season Finale*
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