Everything We Know About JFK Jr.'s Ex-Girlfriend, Daryl Hannah

For those who grew up in the '80s, Daryl Hannah is a familiar name from hits like "Splash," and "Steel Magnolias." Now she's being introduced to a whole new generation through "Love Story," and the first impression is less than flattering. Hannah, who leads a relatively private life, has found herself at the center of Ryan Murphy's miniseries that follows the relationship of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy from its beginning to its tragic, heartbreaking end. Along the way, viewers are given a peek inside Kennedy's relationship with Hannah, who is depicted as a demanding, bratty, and flaky actor with an apparent fondness for cocaine.

In an op-ed in The New York Times, the usually quiet "Roxanne" star spoke in her defense, claiming the show had it all wrong — especially as it pertained to her drug use. "I have never used cocaine in my life or hosted cocaine-fueled parties," she wrote.  Hannah acknowledged that her somewhat elusive lifestyle and refusal to disclose details of her private life may have been to blame — but, as she pointed out, that is no excuse. "But my silence should not be mistaken for agreement with lies," she continued. "Apparently, my discretion makes me a target." So what is the truth about JFK's long-time love, who has remained a bit of a Hollywood enigma all these years? Here's everything we know. 

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Love or hate her, there's something endearingly childlike, awkward, and slightly quirky about Daryl Hannah on-screen. That's no accident. The actor has confessed to battling everything from insecurity to crippling shyness and autism. Hannah was diagnosed with "borderline" Asperger's Syndrome when she was just a child. Against the recommendations of doctors, Hannah's mother chose not to medicate her oldest daughter or lock her up in an institution. "I'm so thankful that she didn't because I'd probably still be there today if she had," Darryl told Dan Rather in an interview on AXS TV. Instead, she withdrew Hannah from school for one year. 

Once she returned to school, Hannah found herself the subject of much bullying. "I was a little odd and incredibly introverted and withdrawn when I was young," she confessed to The Weekly (via Now To Love). "Kids bullied me and that just drove me further into myself. Children can be very cruel when they see someone who doesn't fit in – and unfortunately, that was me. I didn't fit in anywhere." Over the years, Hannah learned to navigate the world despite her condition, but it wasn't always easy, and it may explain why she is reluctant to live her life in the public eye. "Anything that involves meeting or talking to more than a couple of people scares the hell out of me," Hannah explained to the magazine. 

In the movie "Splash," Hannah's mermaid character suddenly finds herself living in a world that is completely unfamiliar to her. In real life, Hannah's childhood was similar. After her parents divorced when she was 7, Hannah's mom, Sue, married Jupiter Industries chairman Jerry Wexler. The family had left behind their basic suburban life in Chicago and were living in immense wealth and privilege. "Suddenly, I had my own huge room and my own bathroom, rather than all three of us sharing my brother's bathroom," she recalled in a Rolling Stone interview. 

For someone who confessed to a lifelong love of fairy tales and fantasy lands, you would think the quiet, shy little girl would have embraced the idea of living one herself. But instead, Hannah said she struggled to accept the new reality, which felt a bit too good to be true. "For a long time, I had what you might call a paranoid or vivid imagination that it wasn't real," she said. Hannah credited the fear that it could all be taken away as the genesis of her strong work ethic. "I think that's part of the reason I had such a desire to work: to make sure that, in case we were ever taken back, I would at least be able to support myself and my brother and sister." Ultimately, Hannah would learn to come to terms with the situation and enjoy the benefits afforded her.

One of the therapeutic ways Daryl Hannah navigated Asperger's was by losing herself in fantasy worlds and performing on stage. Her road to the stage started when her mother enrolled 4-year-old Hannah in ballet classes to correct what she described to Rolling Stone as "flexibility problems." "They told my mother that I should have leg braces, so she just thought that maybe if she put me into dance classes, it would help," she explained. Apparently, it worked, as the tall blonde briefly set her sights on becoming a prima ballerina before burning out at age 11. 

She moved on to more modern, less strict forms of dance, much to the dismay of one of her instructors, former New York City Ballet star Maria Tallchief, and the ex-wife of one of ballet's greatest choreographers, George Balanchine. "Daryl could have been what they call a Balanchine ballerina," Tallchief told Rolling Stone. "She was very talented. I really was sorry that she didn't pursue that."

After her mother married Wexler, Hannah attended Francis Parker, a swanky private school in Chicago. It was there that she began to turn her attention to acting, taking part in school productions. She may not have felt like she fit in with her peers, but she did find a home on the stage. By the time she was in high school, the soon-to-be star was dreaming about living a bigger life on the big screen. 

Daryl Hannah's parents enrolled their aspiring actor in several acting classes (including at Chicago's renowned Goodman Theater), but the experiences weren't a good fit. "I went to every acting school known to man but most of them were complete garbage," Hannah told Australian Women's Weekly (via Now To Love). "They made me more insecure rather than more confident." 

After graduating high school, she applied to USC and was accepted, but academics were the farthest thing from her mind. The beautiful blonde knew that if she wanted to make her dreams come true, Hollywood was the place to be, and USC was merely a vehicle to get her on the West Coast. "[My parents] weren't really thrilled about the idea of my acting, and especially about my going to Hollywood," she told Rolling Stone. 

Undeterred, Hannah packed her bags and left home to try and make it big, living a life that, in her mind, was one big fantasy. "I wanted to go and live in the land of Oz and meet the tin woodsman and the cowardly lion and the scarecrow," she told Australian Women's Weekly (via Now To Love). "I wanted to go to those places. Literally. It wasn't that I wanted to be an actress as such. I wanted to be physically transported to other realities."

Daryl Hannah was transported to other realities in Hollywood — but not in the ways she expected. The wide-eyed Midwest teen was exposed to things she'd never seen before, including drug dealers, wife beaters, and men who tried to lure her with promises of modeling. When she came home one day to discover that she'd been robbed, Hannah packed her bags and headed back to Chicago. "I was very naive, you know," Hannah admitted to Rolling Stone. 

Once the acting bug bites, however, there's not much you can do to stop it, and Hannah eventually returned to Tinsel Town, a little older and wiser. This time around, she started landing roles in films including "Blade Runner" and "Summer Lovers." Then she got the role of a mermaid who takes Manhattan opposite Tom Hanks (who has had a stunning transformation) in "Splash," and everything changed. "It's like a part I'd practiced for my whole childhood, as I'm sure many little girls have," Hannah told People. 

"We were fortunate enough to have a pool when I was young, and so I would just spend all my time basically underwater, pretending." Following "Splash," Hannah became a bona fide star, appearing opposite Steve Martin in "Roxanne" and as part of a powerhouse ensemble cast of women in the blockbuster hit "Steel Magnolias." She began to get a lot of attention off-camera, something Hannah, who still struggled with shyness, found hard to deal with. 

As the public's fascination with Daryl Hannah grew, her private life became tabloid fodder. Her 10-year relationship with the much older singer Jackson Browne was of particular interest. The unlikely couple met when Hannah was still a teen living in Chicago, and over the next decade, their relationship was filled with a lot of ups and downs. A few years before they officially called it quits, rumors began flying linking the stunning Hannah with one Mr. John F. Kennedy, Jr. The usually private Browne spoke out about the gossip and denied there was any trouble in paradise. At a benefit in West Hollywood, he told People, "The stories just aren't true. We haven't broken up. Daryl and I are still together," (per the L.A. Times).

They may have been together when the singer issued the statement, but the celebrity couple was growing apart fast. They ended it in 1992, amid speculation that Browne had become physically abusive to Hannah during a fight in their home. No charges were filed, and Browne denied the accusations. "I'm not going to provide the actual details of what did happen, because it's not anybody's business," he told the L.A. Times. "I know I'm made to be an ogre and I play the role of the heavy in a story that was put out there, but it's not true–and except for saying that, I don't know what else to do."

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support on their website.

When one of the world's most beautiful actors and the most eligible bachelor in America first met, it was by chance. They were in the same place at the same time — on family vacations in the Caribbean. While that sounds like the perfect meet-cute, the couple didn't start dating until a few years later, when they ran into each other again at the wedding of Kennedy's aunt Lee Radziwill to "Steel Magnolias" director Herbert Ross. Suddenly, the stunning couple was spotted everywhere, and it was all anyone could talk about. Whether or not Hannah would become Mrs. JFK, Jr. was the question on everyone's lips — something the actor didn't find amusing. "It's getting really annoying. I get asked about it all the time," Hannah told Entertainment Weekly (via People). "This morning I call up my plumber, and even he asks me. Oh, brother, I'm just trying to get my pipes fixed. Why can't people talk about something else?"

Kennedy and Hannah seemed to be a match made in heaven. They shared many interests, not to mention their good looks, which made them a striking pair. Eventually, though, it wouldn't be enough; the couple called it quits in 1994, around the time Kennedy met the woman who would one day become his wife, Carolyn Bessette. Hannah became involved with fellow actor Val Kilmer and magician David Blaine before settling down with musician Neil Young. 

After a string of high-profile relationships, Daryl Hannah settled down with another older man, musician Neil Young. The two began dating not long after Young's 36-year marriage ended in divorce, and not everyone was happy about it. Young's former bandmate, David Crosby, called Hannah a "purely poisonous predator," (via Rolling Stone), words for which he later apologized on the  Howard Stern Show, claiming he was just concerned for his friend's well-being. Neither Hannah nor Young seemed to care what anyone thought about their relationship, and they tied the knot in 2018. "We didn't pay any attention to that. It doesn't matter. We don't give a s***," Young told Yahoo Entertainment. "We're very lucky to have found each other," he added. "I'm eternally thankful for the opportunity to share my life with her, and she feels the same."

The loved-up pair joins our list of celebrity couples with the biggest age gap, and people who know them have said the two are well-matched, despite their 15-year age difference. "Neil's biggest passion in life is the environment. Daryl is the exact same," a source told People at the time. "They bonded over their activism." They also bonded over their creativity. Hannah directed Young in the sci-fi Western "Paradox," a film she also penned. "Daryl did everything. She wrote the script, she went out to the thrift shops and bought all of the costumes herself," Neil told Yahoo Entertainment. "She is a real artist, and she knows what she wants."

Famed producer Harvey Weinstein made headlines when allegations of his sexual misconduct and treatment of women came to light and became the catalyst for the global Me Too Movement. Multiple actors reported horrifying experiences with the Hollywood heavyweight that included sexually aggressive behavior. Daryl Hannah was among those who went public with their experience, as the Me Too Movement emboldened survivors to seek help following sexual assault.

Hannah worked with Weinstein on the "Kill Bill," movies in the early '00s, but it wasn't until 2017 that the actor shared her story. In an interview with The New Yorker, she alleged that the producer asked to "touch her breasts" and would aggressively beat on her hotel room door, scaring Hannah so much that she once "barricaded herself in her room using furniture." As for why she said nothing at the time, Hannah said, "I am a private person, with a rule of speaking to the press only for professional reasons," but added, "I feel a moral obligation to support the women who have suffered much more egregious transgressions." Hannah stated the "Kill Bill" drama may have also killed her career. "I actually never got a meeting on a movie after 'Kill Bill,' ... not an offer, not a meeting, not an anything," she told Yahoo Entertainment. "I think it was ... maybe tied slightly to the Harvey thing ... he was telling people I was 'difficult' because I kicked him out of my room!"

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

In 2018, Daryl Hannah and Neil Young were enjoying their quiet, private life in Malibu when tragedy struck. The Woolsey Fire raged through the area and claimed several celebrities' homes, including theirs. For Young, it was the second time he had lost his home to a fire. In a post on his website (via Variety), the singer wrote, "Firefighters have never seen anything like this in their lives. I have heard that said countless times in the past two days, and I have lost my home before to a California fire, now another." He added, "Hopefully we can come together as a people to take climate change on. We have the tools and could do it if we tried. There is no downside."

Fortunately, the couple had other properties to retreat to, like the one in the Rocky Mountains that ended up inspiring both a Crazy Horse album and a documentary (directed by Hannah). Young reunited the band after rebuilding a barn on the property that served as a recording studio. "We got some people to restore it back to the original greatness, with ponderosa pines, it's just beautiful, just a beautiful building," Young told The Associated Press via Kark.com. "I felt like it was going to be a great place to make music." The name of the resulting album and documentary? "Barn." 

After the "Kill Bill" movies, Daryl Hannah quietly drifted out of the limelight, not reemerging until the 2021 comedy series "The Now." However, she wasn't just sitting idly twiddling her thumbs. She was out in the world trying to make an impact. An avid activist and supporter of environmental causes, Hannah has been arrested for protesting (check out celebrity arrests you forgot happened) on more than one occasion. In 2012, she was detained and charged with "criminal trespass and resisting arrest," (per People) in Texas for protesting the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. "It is unfortunate Ms. Hannah and other out-of-state activists have chosen to break the law by illegally trespassing on private property," David Dodson, a spokesman for the company, told the Associated Press. 

Although she may not be breaking any more laws, Hannah, along with husband Neil Young, continues to work to support causes they believe in. In her New York Times op-ed, the "Steel Magnolias" star shared that, "For decades, my work has focused on environmental advocacy, documentary filmmaking and animal-assisted therapy for seniors living with dementia and Alzheimer's." That's why the actor found her "Love Story" depiction all the more disturbing." She continued, "Reputation is not about ego; it is about the ability to continue doing the meaningful work I love. Like any career, doing good work requires an intact reputation. This is why I am choosing to stand up for myself now."