Love Story, which premiered on February 12, dives headfirst into the courtship and eventual marriage of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. But before JFK and Jackie O’s son fell for a mysterious Calvin Klein PR maven, he was entangled in another, high-profile, and highly volatile relationship with a beautiful blonde: movie star Daryl Hannah.
According to People, America’s prince and the Blade Runner actor first met in the early 1980s, when their families were both vacationing in the Caribbean on the isle of St. Martin. Years later, in 1988, the pair had another fateful meeting when Kennedy’s aunt, Lee Radziwill, married director Herbert Ross. Ross had recently directed Hannah in Steel Magnolias, set to come out the following year. That chance reencounter kicked off one of the most tumultuous and talked-about relationships of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
John F. Kennedy Jr. and Daryl Hannah photographed in New York City on June 17, 1994.Shutterstock
When they began dating, Kennedy was in the midst of completing his law degree at NYU—and already a public figure due to his family bona fides. In 1988, he was named People’s fourth-ever Sexiest Man Alive. Meanwhile, Hannah was a rising starlet, breaking through as the violent and acrobatic Pris in Ridley Scott’s 1982 science fiction classic, Blade Runner. Hannah established herself as a versatile actor in hit films like Roxanne (1987) with Steve Martin; Wall Street (1987) with Michael Douglas; and, perhaps her most iconic role, as Madison, a mermaid who falls for Tom Hanks in Ron Howard’s Splash (1984).
As an aspiring lawyer and a famous actor, Kennedy and Hannah may have seemed to have little in common. But according to People, both were outdoorsy, with a fondness for skiing and camping. Kennedy also had acting aspirations of his own, treading the boards often as an undergraduate at Brown University. He even starred in an Off Off Broadway production of Irish playwright Brian Friel’s Winners at the Irish Arts Center in 1985. In Love Story’s first episode, Paul Anthony Kelly’s Kennedy suggests that Jackie O (played by Naomi Watts in the series) didn’t find acting to be a suitable career for her son, and prevented reviewers from attending the run. While there’s no evidence this actually happened, the play only ran for six performances, and he started pursuing law school soon after. You do the math.
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Kennedy and Hannah’s relationship captured the attention of both tabloids and the public. The couple was featured on the cover of People in 1993 with the headline “John F. Kennedy Jr. and Daryl Hannah: America’s most eligible bachelor finally meets his match.” “It’s getting really annoying. I get asked about it all the time,” Hannah told Entertainment Weekly that same year of her relationship with Kennedy. “This morning I call up my plumber, and even he asks me. Oh, brother, I’m just trying to get my pipes fixed. Why can’t people talk about something else?”
At the same time, the couple sometimes put on a bit of a show for the crowd. In 1993, a neighbor of the pair—now reportedly living together in Hannah’s apartment on the Upper West Side—told People that she had seen Kennedy and Hannah dancing one night on their rooftop. Hannah was barefoot, wearing a shirt as a nightgown, and Kennedy was clad only in his boxers. “They were doing this little love play,” said the neighbor. “He was tickling her, and she’d run away. Then he’d catch her, and they’d dance around. Even if you didn’t know who they were, you’d be entranced.”