The finale of FX'sLove Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessetteended the only way it could have — by depicting thefatal plane crashthat ended the lives of JFK Jr., his wife Carolyn, and Carolyn's sister Lauren on July 16, 1999.
But the crash occurred roughly halfway through the episode, leaving the back half to explore how the Kennedy family grieved alongside the world. For many, JFK Jr.'s death was yet another example of the "Kennedy curse," a myth born out of the sudden tragic deaths that have haunted the political dynasty for more than 80 years.
In addition to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the family has endured drug overdoses, infant mortalities, terminal illnesses, and freak accidents, such as the 1997 death of Michael LeMoyne Kennedy, who died after skiing into a tree.
Numerous Kennedys have died in plane crashes, including Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. in 1944, Kathleen Kennedy in 1948, the parents of Ethel Kennedy in 1955, and, of course, JFK Jr. in 1999. Ted Kennedy, too, survived a 1964 plane crash that killed two others.
In 1969, after theChappaquiddick incidentderailed his presidential hopes, a 37-year-old Ted, then the senator of Massachusetts,spoke at a press conferenceabout whether "some awful curse did actually hang over all the Kennedys." JFK Jr.'s death, too, gave way to dozens of op-eds over which the idea of a Kennedy curse hung like a storm cloud.
While nobody specifically mentions a "curse" onLove Story, the tragedies of the Kennedy dynasty are directly addressed in the final episode. Below, we dig into how it's explored — and what the Kennedys have said about it since JFK Jr.'s death.
How does theLove Storyfinale address the Kennedy curse?
Following the crash, JFK Jr.'s older sister Caroline Kennedy (Grace Gummer) meets with Ann Marie Messina (Constance Zimmer), the mother of Carolyn andLauren Bessette.
As Ann laments the existential agony of losing her daughters, she asks, "How do you live in a world that doesn't make any sense? How do you even get out of bed?"
This prompts Caroline to tell the true story of a 1975 incident in which shenearly died in an explosionwhile staying at the home of a member of Parliament. She was 17 at the time, and a bomb exploded under a car in which she was meant to depart.
As Caroline tells it inLove Story, the only reason she and the M.P. survived was because they were running late. "I agonized over that for so many years. I couldn't understand why so many bad things had happened to people in my family, but for whatever reason I was spared that day a bomb went off," she says, addressing her family's tragic history.
"The only thing I really gleaned from that experience was that there is no rhyme or reason as to why some of us get to stay here a little longer. All we know is that time doesn't belong to us. Nothing is promised."
She goes on to explain that she's "not someone who lets people in very easily," saying, "I don't know if it's because I question their motives, or maybe it's because I have this feeling that the less people I know, the less people I'll inevitably have to grieve."
Later, Caroline finds some comfort in Ethel Kennedy (Jessica Harper), who recalls the death of her own parents in a plane crash before sharing some words of wisdom about persevering through grief.
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"I know I'm not a Kennedy by blood, but you and I are alike in a lot of ways," she tells Caroline. "We take pride in our resolve and our independence. It's why we're so averse to pity in all its forms. It's not enough we have to survive all this loss. We have to ensure we're not defined by it. It's exhausting."
Ethel continues, "I understand the urge to retreat even further, to get away from the prying eyes and the concerned whispers. But privacy doesn't always ensure peace. If it did, I'd have vanished a long time ago. We are Kennedy women, and we're still here. And that can't be for nothing."
How have the Kennedys addressed the curse in real life?
It's exceedingly rare for members of the Kennedy family to address the curse publicly, but Ted's sons Ted Jr. and Patrick rejected the idea in a2009 interview onLarry King Live, which was conducted in the aftermath of Ted's death from brain cancer.
"You don't buy the idea of a curse?" King asked.
"No. No," Patrick replied. "Obviously my dad had a sense of spirituality that transcended his ability to face these problems, you know, in a way that would have otherwise paralyzed the normal person."
"The Kennedy family has had to endure these things in a very open way," added Ted Jr. "But our family is just like... every other family in America in many ways."
In 2019'sThe Kennedy Heirs,author J. Randy Taraborrelliquotes Eunice Shriver, a sister of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, as saying, "I've come to believe that it's not what has happened to our family that has been cursed as much as it's the fact that we've never been able to deal with it privately. There's little dignity found in living your life in so public a fashion, and that's especially true of our children. However, this burden is one we Kennedys have carried for generations. If there's a curse, it's surely it's that."
Taraborrelli discussed the curse in a2019 interview with PEOPLE. "Generally, [the Kennedys] did not believe in the curse," he said. "It was Ted Kennedy who came up with the concept of the curse after Chappaquiddick... And after that, the Kennedy curse became this sort of wide-ranging explanation for a lot of things that were happening. But when things got rough for them, I think they slipped into wondering if maybe there really was some kind of curse."
Steve Gillon, a Kennedy historian,said "there's no such thing as a Kennedy curse" in RoseMarie Terenzio and Liz McNeil's bookJFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biography.
"They take risks that most other people would not take," he said. "John's uncle Joe took on what was a suicide mission in World War II. His aunt Kathleen flew into a thunderstorm. His father rejected the advice of the Secret Service and refused to put a bubble top on his car. Robert, without any Secret Service protection, plunged into crowds during the sixties when there are already three leaders assassinated, including his brother. John was a risk-taker."
He continued, "John is solely responsible for the death of his wife and her sister. He bears the responsibilities of his recklessness that night — it was his poor judgement."
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