Kerry Kennedy says FX’s Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette gets her mother, Ethel Kennedy, wrong in a scene about breakfast at the family’s Hyannis Port compound.
“In my mother’s entire life, there is no way on earth she would ever deny somebody a meal,” Kerry told PEOPLE in an interview published Oct. 8.
In Episode 5, “Battery Park,” Carolyn comes downstairs looking for coffee. Ethel tells her that coffee was served at breakfast, which Carolyn had not signed up for.
Kerry, one of Ethel and Robert F. Kennedy’s 11 children, has not watched the series. Her comments came while discussing her forthcoming biography of her mother.
Kerry Says Her Mother Kept Offering Guests Food
“Oh, there’s no sign-up,” Kerry said. She remembered her mother offering something to eat even to guests who said they had already had a meal. If they had eaten cake, Ethel would suggest chocolate or nuts.
Kerry also described an account she read in a book by someone who worked with her father at the Justice Department. Robert called home to ask whether he could bring 10 people for lunch. The number rose to 20 and eventually 30, with Ethel continuing to welcome the additional guests.
A Producer Said the Breakfast Rule Came From Research
Executive producer Brad Simpson gave a different account of the routine in a Feb. 26 interview with TV Insider. He said the compound had a daily breakfast sign-up and described Carolyn’s early visits as difficult because John had not prepared her for the family’s expectations.
“We pulled this from a lot of research,” Simpson said while discussing the breakfast arrangement and other details used in the episode, including dinner-table questions about current affairs and Ethel’s insistence that the couple sleep in separate rooms.
Jessica Harper, who plays Ethel opposite Sarah Pidgeon’s Carolyn, told Town & Country on Feb. 27 that she prepared by watching Rory Kennedy’s 2012 documentary Ethel. Passages in which Ethel spoke about herself helped Harper study her voice, posture and manner. Harper also saw a connection between Ethel and Carolyn as women entering a famous family from the outside.
Kerry Still Sees an Upside to the Series
Kerry said dramatizations of her family tend to irritate her because they misrepresent both personalities and accents.
She nevertheless understood that viewers had come away from Love Story liking the Kennedys, which she considered a positive result.
Created by Connor Hines, with Ryan Murphy among its executive producers, the limited series follows John and Carolyn’s courtship and marriage. FX identifies Elizabeth Beller’s Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy as its inspiration.
Kerry’s Biography Draws on Ethel’s Private Papers
Ethel Kennedy: The Extraordinary Life and Bold Legacy, written with Maryanne Vollers, combines Kerry’s memories with relatives’ recollections and Ethel’s unpublished writings, according to HarperCollins.
The book traces Ethel’s childhood, her marriage to Robert and life at Hyannis Port and the Hickory Hill estate in Virginia, where the children grew up around visiting politicians, athletes and performers. It also follows her decades of human-rights work.
When Robert was assassinated in June 1968, Ethel was pregnant with their youngest child, Rory, who was born six months later. Ethel went on to found the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Centre to continue his work, according to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
Ethel died on Oct. 10, 2024, at 96. Kerry’s biography will be released Oct. 13, 2026, with a discussion featuring historian Doug Brinkley scheduled at the New York Public Library that evening.