Love Story Leads 2026 Emmy Nominations in Limited Series Race

Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette star Sarah Pidgeon is for sure living the fairytale right now.

With a brand new Emmy nomination under her belt for her role of Carolyn Bessette in the FX limited series, to go with her previous Tony nomination for Stereophonic, Pidgeon spoke to Deadline from Paris, where she’s attending Couture Week as a Chanel Ambassador and on a girl’s trip with her sister. It’s also the day after her birthday.

“I feel buzzy and just very grateful and so proud to be a part of the show,” she said. “I feel very, very honored to be recognized along by so many incredible talented actors. I think I’m just wrapping my head around it… I think I’m just trying to metabolize the really happy, wonderful news.”

She continued, “While life has, I guess, changed a lot, being able to be with my family and celebrate with my family and people that have been cheering me on and who have believed in me for longer than I even believed in myself, it just has felt very special and full circle. I keep talking about how lucky I am, but I feel very out of body and very, very grateful.”

The Connor Hines-created, Ryan Murphy-produced Love Story stars Paul Anthony Kelly and Pidgeon as JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette and documents the trajectory of their romance from their meeting in 1990s Manhattan to the tragedy of the plane crash that took their lives and that of Carolyn’s sister Lauren.

Aside from Pidgeon’s Lead Actress nomination and the show’s nom in the Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series category, Supporting Actress Constance Zimmer was also nominated for her role as Carolyn and Lauren Bessette’s mother Ann Messina Freeman. Naomi Watts also stars as Jackie Kennedy, with Grace Gummer as Caroline Kennedy and Alessandro Nivola as Carolyn’s boss, Calvin Klein.

Pidgeon called Zimmer’s nomination “so wonderful,” adding, “when I found out that she was going to play my mom, I just felt like how lucky to be able to spend time with her, let alone share a scene with her. And she’s so talented, she’s so grounded. Everyone is so deserving on it and I’m so glad that Love Story got recognized because of the work that everyone put in just so tirelessly and it really was a labor of love. And from this now, I have this real family that grew from working on this… It’s a symphony, it’s an orchestra. None of this is like a solo.” She also gave a shout out to her co-star Kelly who “made the time go by so fast. He’s so charming. He’s so talented.” And to Gummer, saying “I wish we had so many more scenes together, she’s just a force to be reckoned with.”

Last time we spoke for our Deadline Emmy magazine cover story, Pidgeon was mid-shoot on Honeymoon With Harry, in which she stars alongside Kevin Costner and Jake Gyllenhaal as Gyllenhaal’s fiancée. Now that Australian shoot is wrapped she said. “It was a wonderful end of the shoot. Getting back to Australia was really fun. I love shooting there and Jake and Kevin are great. I haven’t seen anything yet. I don’t know when it comes out, but I think it’ll be a really special film and I was really glad that I got to be a part of that.”

She said of working with Costner and Gyllenhaal: “Getting to see their dynamic as Kevin and Jake and then getting to see their dynamic as their characters was just very entertaining to watch… Kevin had some amazing, amazing stories. I did a lot of listening and just tried to absorb all these amazing tales that they had.”

She also addressed some recent speculation that she may have plans to work with Lena Dunham. Pidgeon said she had long admired Dunham’s work. “Girls is one of my comfort shows. I read [Dunham’s recent memoir] Famesick. I actually listened to a lot of it on audiobook. I think that I’m constantly tipping my hat to Lena Dunham. I think she’s so incredibly talented. I mean, Hannah Horvath and Girls, the first episodes, I think she is definitely one of the voices of our generation. And I feel very lucky to have been able to meet Lena a few times and I would of course love to, I would jump at the chance to work with her.”

The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards is on Monday, September 14 and the Creative Arts Emmy Awards is over two nights — Saturday, September 5, and Sunday, September 6.