Molly Ringwald Portrays Johnny Carson’s Ex-Wife Joanne in ‘Feud’ & Says She Was a Social Outcast

Lauren Novak February 16, 11:25 am

Molly Ringwald attends FX's — Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Molly Ringwald is one of the stars portraying iconic actors and socialites in Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans. Ringwald plays Joanne Carson, Johnny Carson‘s second wife. She was a good friend of Truman Capote and Ringwald said that it seems they basically became outcasts together in high society. Capote had an interesting reputation but Joanne stayed close with him despite anything that came out in the press.

Ringwald said, “She and Truman were kind of outcasts together. After she divorces Johnny Carson, my character is kind of thrown out of this sort of inset in Los Angeles. Joanne was really his last friend and kind of the only person that really seemed to love him unconditionally and really supported his writing, even though he had written some things about her. I think she was one of the few people that said, ‘Well, it doesn’t really matter that much.’ He’s a writer and she just really seemed to understand that, as opposed to these other women who were really scandalized and so insulted.”

During visit to the Daily News, Joanne Carson gestures as she recalls famous authors Truman Capote's last days at her California home. She spent the final hours with Capote. She cooked for him, laundered his clothes, even made his favorite bread pudding. He always returned to Joanne, because he knew he could find solitude at her home in Bel-Air, Ca. Capote, died in the room he prepared for himself when he helped design Joanne's house, shortly after she split with Johnny Carson

John Roca/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

Capote wrote “La Côte Basque, 1965” and outed affairs and even alleged that Ann Woodward killed her husband. This forced the “Swans,” the women he had become close to in New York, to kick him out of their inner circle. Joanne, however, stood by his side. He had a writing room in her home and passed away there in 1985, ten years after the scandalous article came out.

Molly Ringwald walks the runway at the Batsheva fashion show during February 2024 New York Fashion Week: The Shows at Starrett-Lehigh Building on February 13, 2024 in New York City

Rob Kim/Getty Images for NYFW: The Shows

Ringwald has been keeping busy promoting the new show and channeling the ’80s. She is part of the Brat Pack stars of the 1980s teen movies and paid homage to that during a recent fashion show. The 55-year-old walked in the Batsheva show for New York Fashion Week wearing a purple dress with big shoulders and a matching belt, which looked very ’80s! For her second look, she wore an all-black, more modern number.