Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette star Paul Anthony Kelly recently welcomed his first baby together with his wife, Syd Widziszewski-Kelly.
Kelly, 37, confirmed the news during an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show on Monday, February 23.
“You simply became a dad!” host Kelly Clarkson said, to which the actor replied, “I did, yeah. Thanks a lot.”
After Clarkson, 43, asked Kelly whether adjusting to fatherhood has made him more “drained,” he admitted, “Just a little bit, yeah. That’s, like, an understatement, of course.”
The model didn’t reveal the name or sex of his newborn.
Kelly previously shared that Widziszewski-Kelly, whom he married in May 2023, had been on account of give birth on Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy‘s birthday.
“Once we finish filming, my wife and I would like to return home and begin nesting,” he told Interview in November 2025. “The child is available in January. Originally the child was estimated to return January 7, which was Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s birthday.”
Paul Anthony Kelly and Syd Widziszewski-Kelly Paul Anthony Kelly/Instagram
Kelly also recalled how Widziszewski-Kelly had informed him they were expecting around the identical time that he landed his star-making role as John F. Kennedy Jr.
“February comes around, and I felt pretty good about it, but casting said they were reading other gentlemen for it. I used to be like, ‘OK, that’s advantageous. Whatever,’” he told the magazine. “Just a few months go by, and near the top of April I got an email from my agents. Casting desires to see me again to do one other tape. Twenty minutes later, I got one other email and so they’re like, ‘We’re just going to go straight to the producer callback.’ We’re in Portland. That’s our home base now, my wife and I. So I do the Zoom, and right before we’re about to go for dinner for our second wedding anniversary, she tells me we’re pregnant. May 1 was an enormous day.”
The creator of FX’s Love Story has no regrets about not consulting the Kennedys before making John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette‘s romance the main focus of the brand new scripted FX series. “As a author, it’s more healthy and effective to have far from the material,” EP Connor Hines told Variety on Friday, […]
Kelly continued, “The following day I got a phone call from my agent: They need to see me for a chemistry read with Sarah [Pidgeon], who was already forged as Carolyn, the next week. The stipulation was I needed to have my green card before then. The phone call got here on Friday. Saturday I got my green card. Sunday I booked my ticket.”
Kelly and Pidgeon, 29, portray Kennedy and Bessette-Kennedy in Love Story, which premiered on February 12. The limited series also stars Grace Gummer as JFK Jr.’s sister, Caroline Kennedy, and Naomi Watts as his mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
Kelly said on The Kelly Clarkson Show on Monday that he almost gave up on attempting to break into acting right before he booked Love Story.
“I’d been going after it for 12, 13 years, and it was just attending to the purpose where I used to be auditioning loads, wasn’t really moving forward with anything and was like, ‘OK, cool. It’s not for me,’” he reflected. “After which I had this excellent opportunity.”
Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette airs on FX Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET. Episodes stream the following day on Hulu.