A Valentine's Day streaming series brings back the tumultuous romance between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette

“In the eyes of the American public, he had almost royal status. An entire country watched him grow up, from a child to a bachelor adored by the public and a true media phenomenon. She was a star,” says the description for the new series “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette,” streaming on Disney+ the day before Valentine's Day.

As the title of the series shows, it revolves around the relationship and then the highly publicized marriage between the son of the iconic American president and Carolyn Bessette, a former Calvin Klein sales assistant who rose to the position of executive director and confidante of the brand founder.

Kennedy Jr. was born just 17 days after his father was elected President of the United States and spent his early years in the White House. After President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, a photo of 3-year-old JFK Jr. saluting the American flag in which his father's casket was draped before it was carried into the casket came to symbolize America's heartbreaking loss, as People magazine recently recalled.

Historian Steven M. Gillon later wrote in “America's Reluctant Prince,” his 2019 biography of JFK Jr., that Jackie Kennedy had only one regret about raising her son: “Jackie told those close to her that she regretted naming John after his father.”

The historian explained in an interview with People magazine that she “realized that this only added to her burden. The irony is that in trying to honor her husband, she unwittingly made her son's life more difficult.”

The loss of his father marked John's entire life. He rarely spoke about the assassination, and although he became a successful lawyer and journalist, he referred to his father's death as “the single fundamental fact of my life”.

The series tells the story of one of America's “golden couples”.

JFK Jr. was one of the world's most coveted bachelors before he married, even named People magazine's “Sexiest Man Alive” in 1988, and his mother and older sister had strong opinions about the women he dated.

But Jackie never met Carolyn, despite the fact that she and her son were extremely popular with the public and the press, and were often followed by the paparazzi when they went out. Seeking privacy, the couple held a very low-key, top-secret wedding ceremony in 1999, just three years before tragedy struck.

“The series follows the complex and heartbreaking journey of a couple whose intimate love turned into a national obsession,” notes Disney+ in the description it published for the new series. The role of Kennedy Jr. is played by Paul Anthony Kelly, a relatively unknown Canadian model and actor, chosen for his striking physical resemblance to the son of the US president.

Carolyn Bessette is played by Sarah Pidgeon, an American actress whose career has been on the rise in recent years, after leading roles in the drama series “The Wilds” on Amazon Prime Video and the comedy series “Little Joys of Life” streaming in Romania on Disney+. Well-known British actress Naomi Watts plays Jackie Kennedy.

A new series from the “goose with the golden eggs” of Disney+

“Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette” is a new original production of FX, the American television that in recent years has produced such titles as “Shogun”, which shattered the record previously held by “Game of Thrones” at the 2024 Emmy Awards Gala; “The Bear,” the highly acclaimed comedy series that reached its fourth season last year; “Alien: Earth,” the production that marked a double premiere for the long-running sci-fi franchise; or, most recently, “The Lowdown” – considered one of the best series to come out in 2025.

FX, one of the many names in Disney's expanding portfolio, has helped the company's main streaming platform expand its lineup of popular series beyond its famous franchises such as “Star Wars” and Marvel, or productions aimed at the whole family or children.

The new FX series is created by Connor Hines (the writer of the series “Space Force” on Netflix) and produced, among others, by Ryan Murph, considered by some analysts to be the most influential television producer in Hollywood after his work on numerous well-known series earned him six Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes and two BAFTA Awards awarded by the British film industry.

The first 3 episodes of “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette” were simulcasted on Disney+ on February 13th. Since in the United States the series is also broadcast on TV on FX, a new episode appears one week apart, every Thursday in the USA, respectively every Friday in Romania on Disney+, due to the time zone difference.