Kerry Kennedy Says 'Love Story' Got Ethel Kennedy Wrong on Breakfast, Right on Family
Kerry Kennedy says FX's Love Story got one detail wrong about her mother — breakfast.
Kennedy, 67, the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy, addressed the portrayal in an interview with People published Oct. 7, 2026. She was speaking as the family watches its story retold on television again.
Love Story is an FX limited series, meaning a show planned for one season, chronicling the relationship between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. Sarah Pidgeon plays Bessette, and Jessica Harper plays Ethel Kennedy, according to Town & Country.
The scene in question takes place at Hyannis Port, the Kennedy family's waterfront compound on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. In it, Ethel tells Carolyn that she missed breakfast because she had not signed up in advance.
Kennedy says that never happened. There was no breakfast sign-up sheet, she told People, and her mother would never deny somebody a meal.
She also said she generally avoids shows about her family. They irritate her, she said, and they do not get the people or the accents right.
Still, her verdict on the series was generous. Her understanding, she said, is that Love Story made people like her family, so it is probably a good thing in the long run.
That mixed reaction comes with context. Ethel Kennedy, the matriarch who married Robert F. Kennedy in 1950 and raised 11 children after his assassination in 1968, died in October 2024 at age 96. She was also known as a human rights activist.
Kerry Kennedy has written a biography of her mother titled ETHEL KENNEDY, drawing on her own memories, family recollections and Ethel's personal papers.
What makes this stand out is the balancing act. Kennedy is correcting the record on a small family detail while leaving room for the bigger picture. One invented breakfast rule does not spoil the whole meal.
