Viewers who are familiar JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s story have probably wondered why Carole Radziwill isn’t in Love Story—and it’s a good question.
Radziwill‘s absence has been somewhat perplexing. As The Real Housewives of New York star recounted in her memoir What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship and Love, she was married to John’s cousin Anthony (played on the show by Erich Bergen); Anthony and John were best friends, and Carole and Carolyn became very close as well.
Carole was present at John and Carolyn’s wedding, and the two women confided in one another as Carolyn dealt with marriage struggles and Carole dealt with Anthony’s cancer; he would end up dying just three weeks after the plane crash that killed the other couple. Strangely, though, Carole isn’t depicted or even mentioned in the show; if you weren’t paying attention, you might not know Anthony had a wife.
But there’s a simple, poignant reason why Carole Radziwill isn’t in Love Story, explained executive producer Brad Simpson: he wanted to give airtime to the plane crash’s most overlooked victim. “A decision we made was to really focus on creating Lauren, [Bessette’s] sister, as a character because she was often an afterthought in all of this. And so we thought it was important that, when Carolyn needed a confidant, it be her sister because they were very close,” he told TV Line. He continued, “There were tons of people in their lives that we weren’t able to include, including some of John’s closest friends, but we decided to make Lauren her closest confidant, and then Anthony [JFK, Jr.’s] closest confidant, right?”
I do!Eric Liebowitz/FX
Lauren Bessette is played by Sydney Lemmon on the show. She was on the plane because John and Carolyn were supposed to drop her off before continuing on to a Kennedy family wedding. Much like how Ron Goldman’s death is often forgotten when recalling the case of OJ Simpson and Nicole Brown, Lauren Bessette’s death tends to get less attention, given the higher profile of the plane’s other two occupants.
This storytelling decision—centering the victims in the plane crash—also avoids the complications shows can run into when they depict the living. Daryl Hannah, very much alive, did not like how she was portrayed on the show. Radziwill, for her part, hasn’t addressed her absence, but did give the show her tacit approval, writing on her Substack that she wouldn’t be watching, but encouraged others to, as long as they didn’t then DM her about it.