Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette's ninth and final episode aired on March 26
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The finale revisits the couple's tragic ending, when they died in a plane crash — that John was flying — alongside Carolyn's sister, Lauren Bessette, on July 16, 1999
Although it explores the tragedy and the aftermath, several details were different from the real-life events
Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessettehas come to an end.
The FX series — starringPaul Anthony KellyasJohn F. Kennedy Jr.andSarah PidgeonasCarolyn Bessette— has been chronicling the couple's relationship over the course of nine episodes, from theearly days of their romanceto their1997 weddingand even theirmarital struggles.
The show came to a close on March 26 with its ninth and final episode, which detailed the fatal ending to John and Carolyn's love story. The couple, as well as Carolyn's sisterLauren Bessette, died on July 16, 1999, when a plane that the political heir was flyingcrashed into the Atlantic Oceanshortly before 10 p.m.
As viewers know, showrunnerRyan Murphymade it clear at the beginning of each episode that while the series is inspired by real-life events, there are also some fictionalized elements throughout the show.
Here's everything to know about whatLove Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette's final episode, "Search and Recovery," got right and wrong.
Were John and Carolyn really in couples therapy?
The couple were having relationship struggles prior to their deaths, and much like in the show, they did attend some marriage counseling sessions.
"Neither John nor Carolyn wanted to end their relationship — their goal was to fix what was broken," John's former assistant RoseMarie Terenzio shared in her and PEOPLE editor-at-large Liz McNeil's 2024 book,JFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biography. "They did marriage counseling. It was right at the end."
As it plays out in the show, John was adamant about not getting divorced, as Gary Ginsberg, who was with him the night before his death, told the authors.
"When one of his cousins was getting divorced a few years earlier, before he married Carolyn, John turned to me — we were on a plane, I remember — and he said, 'I never want to get divorced,' " Ginsberg recalled in the oral biography.
Did Carolyn really move into the front seat of the plane before it crashed?
The show sees Carolyn move from the backseat of the plane with Lauren to the cockpit with John, where they share a sweet moment shortly before the crash.
When the three of them were recovered from the ocean floor by Navy divers five days after the crash, John, Carolyn and Lauren were all strapped in their seatbelts in the aircraft wreckage. It hasn't been reported that Carolyn had been in the cockpit, but a member of the Coast Guard said at a press conference that their bodies were all found "near and under" the fuselage, still strapped in, perThe New York Times.
While the increase of the fog and the eventual veering off course occurs over the span of nearly two minutes in the show, it was much quicker in real life.
"It was 17 seconds from the time they began to divert from their flight path to the time they impacted the ocean," Jeff Guzzetti shared in McNeil and Terenzio's oral biography.
Did the President really inform the Kennedy family of John, Carolyn and Lauren's deaths?
In the show, it's then-PresidentBill Clintonwho informs theKennedy familywhen the plane had been recovered and they had been confirmed dead.
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According toCNN, Clinton had spoken to Caroline and was in "frequent contact" with John's uncle, former Sen.Ted Kennedyin real life, but it wasn't reported that he informed the family of their deaths.
Did the media really blame the crash on Carolyn's nail appointment making her late?
Following their deaths, Carolyn and Lauren's mom,Ann Freeman(Constance Zimmer), and John's sisterCaroline Kennedy(Grace Gummer) share a heartbreaking conversation about their losses. Ann also expresses outrage at media coverage that blamed the crash on Carolyn — claiming she delayed takeoff by "getting her nails done" — rather than because John took off despite not being "equipped to fly at night."
In reality, the narrative about Carolyn's nail appointment causing the delay didn't emerge until years later.
In 2003,Vanity Fairpublished an excerpt from Ed Klein's book,The Kennedy Curse: Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years.Klein interviewed Manhattan hair colorist Colin Lively, who sat next to Carolyn at the salon that day, about the series of events before she left to the airport, and made it seem as though she was "delayed" arriving to the plane because of how she acted at the nail salon.
According to Klein's book, Lively said that Carolyn was repeatedly answering calls and "impatiently" told one person, 'I told you—I'm getting a pedicure.' "
The hair colorist allegedly told Klein that Carolyn made the nail technician redo her nails three times, and told someone on the phone, "The more times you call me, the longer it's going to take!"
However, Lively later clarified his remarks during a 2003 interview with PEOPLE, saying that Carolyn left the salon no later than 5 p.m., nearly three hours before the plane took off.
Lively also explained that Carolyn asked the nail technician to only redo one of her big toes, "not the whole pedicure."
There are mixed reports as to when the three of them were initially supposed to leave for the airport, however Elizabeth Beller wrote in her 2024 book,Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, that all three of them were delayed by traffic.
Did the Kennedy and Bessette families really argue over burial arrangements?
There were disagreements over burial arrangements in both the show and in real life.
As conveyed in McNeil and Terenzio's oral biography, there was a meeting about the funeral with Carolyn's family, but Caroline and Ted sent their respective spouses,Ed SchlossbergandVictoria Reggie, in their place. Terenzio shared that she believes the Bessette family found that "disrespectful," as "Caroline should have been there," as Freeman expresses in the show.
Ted initially wanted John to be buried at the family plot in Brookline, Mass. However, Lauren wouldn't have been able to be with them since she wasn't a Kennedy, and Freeman didn't want her daughters separated.
Ultimately, they decided on aburial at sea. The Bessette family then released a statement thanking those who assisted in the exhaustive search for their children — and acknowledging their cremation decision.
"John F. Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette were true soul mates, and we hope to honor them in death in the simple manner in which they chose to live their lives. We take solace in the thought that together they will comfort Lauren for eternity," the statement read, perThe New York Times.
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