From The Crown to Love Story, Hollywood’s enduring fascination with the Windsors and the Kennedys has cemented their mythos for the next generation—but at what cost?

By Caroline Hallemann

“All history is gossip,” President John F. Kennedy once said. Or he might have said it. It’s an apt turn of phrase for a man whose own legacy has become equal parts myth and truth, but it’s difficult, perhaps fittingly so, to find the original source of the quote. (Some even attribute it to Oscar Wilde.)

As much as J.F.K. is remembered for his life, his accomplishments, and his tragic murder, there are few people alive today whose memories of him remain unaltered by a carefully curated version of history. At this point, he’s become a symbol of what could have been, of lost potential. He remains the ultimate what-if: What if he hadn’t died? In a way, he didn’t. READ ON