Brooke Shields shared a surprisingly intimate detail this week about her brief relationship with the late John F. Kennedy Jr., whom she described as her "crazy, crazy crush." Appearing on "Watch What Happens Live" on Thursday, Shields spoke briefly about the son of former President John F. Kennedy, who was the subject of a recent FX and Hulu series, "Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette."
Shields Opens Up About Her Relationship with JFK Jr.
When asked if the two had their own "love story," however, the actor said that wasn't quite the case. "We dated, but I never slept with him. I don't know if that counts," she told host Andy Cohen. "It counted for me!" While their relationship was never consummated, Shields seemingly has only positive memories of the experience. "He was lovely to meet," she added.
Kennedy and Shields were romantically linked in the media in the 1980s, after being introduced at a ski resort in Aspen, Colorado. In a 2023 interview with Howard Stern, Shields said Kennedy had told her that she "looked like his mother," former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Later on that same trip, the pair shared a smooch that Shields described as "the best kiss I've ever had in my life," adding: "The lips are beautiful, the face is amazing, and the body and the person."
Kennedy's Later Life and Legacy
Kennedy would go on to marry Carolyn Bessette, a fashion publicist, in 1996. Three years later, the couple was killed when the private plane Kennedy was piloting crashed off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Public interest in Kennedy and Bessette-Kennedy has surged following the release of "Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette" in February. The show is based on Elizabeth Beller's 2024 book "Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy," and stars actors Paul Anthony Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon as Kennedy and Bessette-Kennedy, respectively.
Shields, who can currently be seen on Acorn TV's "You're Killing Me," was only mentioned in passing on "Love Story." Still, she had a personal connection to the series as her 23-year-old daughter, Rowan Henchy, worked on it as a production assistant. "I loved it," she told Cohen. "I thought the acting was amazing."
Contrasting Opinions on the Series
Interestingly, Shields' take on "Love Story" differed from that of another one of Kennedy's famous exes, actor Daryl Hannah. In March, Hannah published an essay in The New York Times in which she blasted the "tragedy-exploiting" series as "textbook misogyny," zeroing in on how she was portrayed on-screen by actor Dree Hemingway. "It's appalling to me that I even have to defend myself against a television show," the "Splash" actor wrote. "These are not creative embellishments of personality. They are assertions about conduct — and they are false."
