Love Story star Sarah Pidgeon has said she would have been “crippled with anxiety” had she known how successful the show would become while making it.

The actress, 30, portrayed the late Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy in the series, which charted her romance with John F Kennedy Jr.

Speaking to ELLE UK, Pidgeon said: “Had I understood what the show would become while we were filming it, I would have been crippled with anxiety.

“When I heard that the first cuts were coming together, I broke out in hives. It suddenly became a reality that people were going to see it.”

The star also discussed how her life has changed since appearing in the show, where she starred alongside acting newcomer Paul Anthony Kelly.

She said: “My life, compared with all previous years, has been very abnormal this year. I’ve been travelling to different places. I’ve been working a lot.

“I’m attending couture shows, doing photoshoots and going on late-night television. It’s so different from anything I’ve experienced.

“It’s been a big change… (My friends) were like, ‘Jesus, I’m just seeing the same picture of you over and over again (on social media algorithms).’ I told them, ‘I’m sorry, I’m bored of it too’.”

Pidgeon also said she no longer googles herself since being thrust into the limelight, adding: “There’s probably a conversation happening about me somewhere that I don’t need to listen to.”

The actress will receive the Modern Muse award at the ELLE Style Awards 2026.

Kennedy, the son of US president John F Kennedy, began dating Carolyn, a fashion publicist, around 1994.

They married in 1996 and died in a plane crash in July 1999, which Kennedy, a qualified pilot, had been flying. He was 38 and she was 33 at the time of their deaths.

The October issue of ELLE UK is on sale from September 3.