Carolyn Bessette’s heartless betrayal of Calvin Klein: What you’ve heard about their relationship is lies. The truth about what she did to the man who made her exposes a ruthless cruelty

It may be titled ‘Love Story,’ but Ryan Murphy’s biopic of two long gone icons known merely by their acronyms – JFK JR and CBK – is as much a ‘fashion story.’

Front and center in this sartorial tale is, of course, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, whose pared-down style epitomized the meticulous minimalism that defined New York City in the 1990s.

The show has resulted in an explosion of interest in that sleekly chic aesthetic – with social media identifying in painstaking detail each bag, blouse, sweater, headband, dress and shoe beloved by the fallen fashion star. Yet few obsessing over ‘Love Story’ seem to recognize the other powerful narrative at work in Murphy’s miniseries – that of Bessette’s style godfather, designer Calvin Klein.

Now 82, increasingly frail and often found trailing behind his 36-year-old model boyfriend Kevin Baker, the once unquestioned emperor of New York chic is, like the eponymous brand (Klein sold his company in 2022), a faded presence.

‘Love Story’ reminds us that Klein was once at the center of New York society and is now noticeably absent.  

In Murphy’s fictionalized retelling, Klein – despite his celebrity – is as besotted with Bessette as she is with the Kennedy heir. But the Klein-Bessette constellation was not a romantic one.

Their own ‘meet cute’ moment occurs over a stylistic disagreement, when Carolyn audaciously questions a gown that Klein had chosen for Annette Bening to wear to the Hollywood premiere of the 1991 flick, Bugsy.

Rejecting a black floor-length sheath dress and then a slinky satin slip number – both clearly meant for a star slimmer than Bening – Carolyn steers the actress towards a tailored men’s-styled suit, which she assures will be a ‘fun nod to the film noir gangster genre’ celebrated in the film.

The moment proves decisive – not just for Bening who wore the outfit to much acclaim – but for Carolyn, whose adept reading of the celeb-meter won her Klein’s affection, formal seat in Klein’s office inner circle and eventually an invite to a gala where Klein introduces Bessette to JFK Jr.

Murphy has done some creative acrobatics here – it is not clear that Bessette actually styled Bening for the premiere and she and Kennedy did not meet in a glitzy fashion fundraiser but instead when he came into the Calvin Klein showroom to buy a suit. But the director’s intentions are still clear. Bessette becomes for Klein a muse for all time, and his pursuit of her is as vigorous as that of her future husband.

For the majority of ‘Love Story’s’ first five episodes, the designer and Bessette exist in creative lockstep. She dazzles Klein with her ingenious marketing strategies (including her endorsement of little-known British model Kate Moss) and Klein responds with adoring reverence for his employee’s ability to dress with taste, while lacking a trust fund.

The two create a collaborative dynamism that helps each attain unimaginable success: his in opening the New York City flagship on Madison Avenue in 1995 that caused every other major designer to follow — and her in securing the hand of the ‘Sexiest Man Alive,’ as JFK Jr was dubbed by People magazine in 1988.

The restraint of Klein’s offices forms a backdrop for this partnership. As the camera wafts down barely designed hallways, and empty, expansive conference rooms, Klein’s studio feels like a womb in which Carolyn’s confidence and fashion credentials are refined and solidified. 

And as she transitions from the simplicity of the all-black turtleneck and trouser ensemble that opens the show into the imaginatively pinned men’s white button down borrowed from her boyfriend’s Tribeca closet a few episodes later, Bessette evolves into a voice for the entire Klein ecosystem.

Love Story portrays Klein as lovestruck by Carolyn, but the reality was probably as much the reverse.

During the seven years Bessette worked at the company, both the designer and the brand jointly explored not only minimalist clothing, but the sexual and gender fluidity that became hallmarks of their campaigns – and Klein himself. While Bessette thrived at the company, she was not truly Calvin’s muse. That position was unquestionably held by Klein’s wife Kelly whom he married in 1986.

It was Kelly – and not Carolyn – who came to personify the idealized version of the Calvin Klein woman.

Starting out as a design assistant in 1981 when she was just 21, Kelly’s romance with Calvin captivated a fashion world who frankly assumed he was gay. Calvin made grand gestures to his bride – showering her with jewels, including pearls that had once belonged to the Duchess of Windsor. The two graced the red carpet as fashion superstars – their style and relationship integral to the company’s public image and bottom line.

Only Ralph Lauren could challenge Klein and Kelly for the crown of American fashion kingship. Perched alongside his wife Ricky, Lauren walked many of the same red carpets and battled the same fashion critics who often reduced Lauren’s aesthetic to little more than polos for the country club set. 

Lauren’s own early 1990s marital storms, including a rumored entanglement with model Kim Nye, allowed Klein to lead as an improbable symbol of the American (family and fashion) dream.

At least for a moment.

But time has not been nearly as kind to Klein as it has to Lauren.

As Murphy correctly conveys, in tandem with Bessette’s rise came Klein’s descent. She left the company in 1996 and took with it, consciously or not, more than a little of its star dust. The same year Calvin and Kelly separated — though they would not divorce until 2008.

Perhaps, most stinging of all, Bessette notably snubbed her former mentor when she chose one of his design assistants, Narciso Rodriguez, to create her wedding dress.

She wore the resulting showstopper in a candlelight ceremony in Cumberland, Georgia, witnessed by just 30 of the couple’s closest family and friends. The one image released of the nuptials launched Rodriguez’s solo career and he went on to dress many of America’s most famous women, including Michelle Obama.

Bessette rarely wore Calvin Klein after her marriage – instead turning towards Prada, Yohji Yamamoto and even occasionally Versace for her adventures in Camelot.

In 2002, with his marriage in ruins and his fan base fading, Klein sold his brand to Philip-Van Heusen Corp for roughly $430 million – and retired from fashion. His demise was a victory for his rival, Lauren – who assumed fashion grandee status, which he’s maintained ever since.

At his latest fashion show just last month, the frail, 86-year-old Lauren earned mixed reviews for the clothes but was showered with a standing ovation for his status as an American industrial icon.

No such salute was on the cards for Calvin Klein who in 2025 – for the first time in two decades – attended a runway show for his brand. The company had not presented at New York Fashion Week since 2018, which made this a serious potential comeback moment.

Kelly was there, as were iconic house models, Kate Moss and Christy Turlington. The buzz was only heightened by the internet already obsessing over ‘Love Story’s’ production. Unfortunately, the actual Klein collections have failed to restore the brand’s relevance.

Although Klein offered no formal assistance (or response) to Murphy’s project, his former wife has not been shy about endorsing the show — her Instagram recently featured a series of previously unpublished images of Carolyn Bessette at her innocent, ingenue best.

Kelly is unlikely to be pleased, however, with her portrayal as a minor player in a company she helped make a cultural phenomenon. She’s probably even less happy being branded in ‘Love Story’ as a ‘curator’ rather than the professional photographer she’s styled herself for decades.

But no matter how imprecise, the portrayal of the Calvin Klein crowd – more than 35 years after CBK first arrived to his offices – is a significant first step in securing Klein’s rightful place in the history of New York fashion. Bessette and Kennedy may tragically be gone, but as ‘Love Story’s cult-like success confirms, their inimitable star-power will never go out of style.