Daryl Hannah is defended by one of JFK Jr's family members after she slammed her 'untrue' portrayal in Love Story

John F. Kennedy Jr's cousin Douglas Kennedy has come out in defense of Daryl Hannah after she refuted her controversial portrayal on FX's Love Story series.

Last week Hannah, 65, slammed her depiction as Kennedy Jr's on-off girlfriend in the anthology series about his romance with wife Carolyn Bessette in a New York Times essay.

Douglas has not seen the show, but told Page Six that its angle on Hannah is 'unfortunate.'

'Daryl Hannah was great,' he recalled. 'Whenever I saw her, she was very sweet and had [John's] best interests at heart. I think that's a misrepresentation.'

He is the 10th child of Robert F. Kennedy and wife, Ethel, who is also featured in the scripted show.

While Love Story also shows Bessette intent on earning the acceptance of Ethel and John Jr's sister Caroline Kennedy, Douglas noted, 'Everybody around Carolyn loved Carolyn.'

'It's difficult to capture the intricacies of people's lives in movies or television,' the Kennedy heir stated. 'If you know people, these types of things often fail in capturing the essence of who people were.'

And he remembered his late cousin, who died in a crash alongside Bessette and her sister Lauren Bessette, as 'the leader of my generation.'

Paul Anthony Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon play John Jr. and Bessette in the show, and Dree Hemingway is a dead ringer for Hannah. 

Hannah and John were romantically involved from 1988-1994.

In an explosive essay, she accused the show of characterizing her as 'irritating, self-absorbed, whiny and inappropriate' and insisted that it was 'not even a remotely accurate representation of her life, her conduct or her relationship with John.'

'I have generally chosen not to respond to media coverage of me. I have long believed that engaging with distortion often amplifies it,' she began in the lengthy piece.

'But a recent tragedy-exploiting television series about John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette features a character using my name and presents her as me. 

'The choice to portray her as irritating, self-absorbed, whiny and inappropriate was no accident.'

'Storytelling requires tension. It often requires an obstacle. But a real, living person is not a narrative device,' she continued.

'There is also a gendered dimension to this thinking. Popular culture has long elevated certain women by portraying others as rivals, obstacles or villains. Isn't it textbook misogyny to tear down one woman in order to build up another?'

In the show, Hannah is seen doing cocaine on numerous occasions, with Vogue describing her character as a 'coke-obsessed prima donna' in one review.

Hannah insisted that the 'actions and behaviors attributed to her are 'untrue' and insisted that she has 'never used cocaine in her life or hosted cocaine-fueled parties.'

'I have never pressured anyone into marriage. I have never desecrated any family heirloom or intruded upon anyone's private memorial,' she added, addressing other moments from the show. 

'I have never planted any story in the press. I never compared Jacqueline Onassis' death to a dog's. 

'It's appalling to me that I even have to defend myself against a television show. These are not creative embellishments of personality. They are assertions about conduct - and they are false.'

The actress noted that the show's 'dramatization' has 'real-life consequences' and said she has received 'many hostile and even threatening messages from viewers who seem to believe the portrayal is factual.'