JFK’s grandson is running for Congress. Who is Jack Schlossberg?
JFK’s grandson is running for Congress. Who is Democratic social media star Jack Schlossberg?
Jack Schlossberg is doubling down on his criticism of the popular show “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette.”
The 33-year-old son of President John F. Kennedy’s only surviving daughter, Caroline Kennedy, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who aspires to represent New York, slammed the Ryan Murphy-produced FX series for dramatizing his late uncle’s life in an interview on “CBS Sunday Morning” on March 1.
“If you want to know someone who has never met anyone in my family and doesn’t know anything about us, talk to Ryan Murphy. I want people who watch the show to watch the show with one letter in mind, which is the capital ‘F’ of fiction,” Schlossberg told correspondent Mo Rocca.
He added: “This guy has no idea what he’s talking about and yet he makes a lot of money by making a grotesque version of other people’s lives.”
Mr. Schlossberg suggested Mr. Murphy donate the proceeds to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum “to support the causes that John championed throughout his life,” or “to keep President Kennedy’s memory alive.”
“He’s making money. This isn’t a documentary. We’ll leave it at that,” Schlossberg said.
He fired one last shot by saying, “If Ryan Murphy really cares that much about the Kennedys, my uncle John, he might try to do something to remove Trump from power.”
USA TODAY has reached out to a rep for the show and Murphy for comment.
“Love Story,” the first installment of Murphy’s anthology, and its breakout stars Sarah Pidgeon (Carolyn Bessette) and Paul Anthony Kelly (JFK Jr.) have taken the internet by storm since its Feb. 12 release. The limited series, inspired by Elizabeth Beller’s biography Once Upon a Time: The Fascinating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, will air Thursday on FX and the next day on Hulu.
Ryan Murphy ‘wasn’t ready’ for Kennedy family backlash
Director Schlossberg has been vocal about the problems with Love Story since 2025, at one point commenting on a first look photo of the cast released in June: “Hey Ryan – great praise for John, but maybe you should consider donating the proceeds to the Kennedy Library.”
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston is “dedicated to the memory of our nation’s 35th president” and “depicts the life, leadership, and legacy of President Kennedy,” according to its website.
Murphy responded at the time, “Absolutely.”
Murphy acknowledged on California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s podcast the following month that Schlossberg’s criticism was a “strange, dark moment.”
“What I wasn’t prepared for was something like the Kennedy fire, which I thought was very strange,” Murphy said. “It’s a very relatable piece, by the way. It’s a love story, not a takedown. It’s a story about untimely youth and idealism, which we need more of in politics.”
He continued: “It’s a family member speaking out. I took that with a grain of salt. It’s the younger generation.” Murphy also said that of all the movies and shows about the Kennedy family, “none of them were approved by the family.”
“I had no idea they would want that,” Murphy said.
Executive producer Brad Simpson insisted in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year that Love Story was made with “honesty” in response to real-life tragedy. (JFK Jr., Bessette, and his sister Lauren died on July 16, 1999, when a plane piloted by Kennedy Jr. crashed.)
“For all of us who produce television programs based on real events, we need to consider our ethical obligations to families and approach it with love and kindness,” Simpson said.
EP Nina Jacobson confirmed in an interview that the team has had no contact with the Kennedy family.
“Generally speaking, we don’t engage with people who are public figures because we either feel obligated to respect what they’ve asked you to do, ‘Please portray me this way, but not that way,’ or we feel you have a competing version.”
Pigeon sympathized with Schlossberg and said, “He has a right to share how he feels about it.”
He added: “We approached this with integrity and respect, and I think we were successful. But we also understood that these were not just real people, they had families and friends who are still with us, and their legacy continues to reverberate and live on through them.”
The final episode of “Love Story” is scheduled to air on March 26th.
Contributor: Jay Stahl, USA TODAY
