By Katherine Tinsley
6:35pm PDT, Jul 23, 2025
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Ryan Murphy's
American Love Story follows the epic romance between
John F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife,
Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, but the project has received a great deal of backlash since their nephew,
Jack Schlossberg, publicly criticized it.
Keep reading to see what the Emmy-winning writer-director had to say about the negative response from fans…
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Ryan Murphy discussed Jack Schlossberg's response to the project while making a guest appearance on Gavin Newsom's podcast. "That was an odd, dark moment for me," he said. "I thought it was an odd choice to be mad about your relative that you really don't remember." (Schlossberg was 6 when John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy died.)
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Ryan Murphy went on to defend his work, noting that the Kennedy clan has inspired many other unauthorized projects over the years. "There've been over 88 things, movies and television shows about the Kennedys. Not one has ever been authorized by the family. I never even thought they wanted to do that. So ours is based on a book that's very sympathetic to both people," he said, adding that the series isn't a "takedown" but a "love story."
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Ryan Murphy noted that his upcoming series about John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy — who died in a 1999 plane crash — isn't focused on their ties to the White House. "It's about youth taken too soon and idealism, things that we need more of in politics," he told Gavin Newsom, adding that he was "not prepared for what was the sort of the Kennedy firestorm."
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Jack Schlossberg took to his Instagram Story to slam American Love Story. "Lately, my news feed has been filled with pictures of my uncle, John F. Kennedy Jr., a great man," Schlossberg said in a since-expired video. "For those wondering whether his family was ever consulted or has anything to do with the new show being made about him, the answer is no — and there's really not much we can do."
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Ryan Murphy seemingly shrugged off Jack Schlossberg's comments. "I try to have some humility about it," he said. "The days of civil discourse are over. It's very hard, and you either get into the muck or you try and rise above it. I found that hard to do, but I did it. And I just have a better attitude about it, I think, than I did before I started. I'm thankful for the criticism, because if you're smart, you listen to critical voices and you say, 'Okay, great.' And we fixed it. We rolled up our sleeves and we listened to people and corrected it."
