She was widowed twice, found love in Hollywood and peace in New York.
When the cameras stopped rolling and the lights went out, we really have to ask,
what really went on behind the scenes in Jackie Kennedy’s life?
The assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 shocked the world. But the
world would have been even more shocked if they had known what happened next:
JFK's widow began an affair with his brother Robert.
The Kennedys were known for passing women between each other,
even from father to son. So it may have seemed practically normal to Robert. But
how did Jackie Kennedy end up locking herself in hotel rooms with her married brother-in-law?
It was more than a familiarity with each other or the grieving rebound of a widow. Robert understood
Jackie's pain because it was his pain too. They both loved the man lost and could console each
other in a way few other people on the planet possibly could. It wasn't a romantic whirlwind
of a relationship, but an understanding of the other person and what they needed.
Sadly, Jackie experienced a shocking loss for the
second time when Robert was also assassinated on June 5, 1968.
“Suddenly everything had been a liability before.”
After Robert's assassination, Jackie Kennedy saw a pattern beginning to emerge. She feared
there was a plot against the family she'd married into and wondered how
such a vendetta would play out against her children. Would she end up by their
deathbeds staring at yet another bullet wound seeping the life from a person she loved?
Jackie reportedly began to wonder if America was safe for her family, or if she should instead
move overseas to protect them. And she also worried about her children growing up without
a father. Ultimately, Jackie wanted more than protection for her children: she wanted a family.
The Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis wanted Jackie Kennedy long before John F. Kennedy
died, but Robert Kenndy's assassination finally gave him his chance to pounce.
Onassis was used to getting what he wanted, and Jackie was his desire. It was no secret. In fact,
before his death, JFK had ordered the Secret Service to keep Onassis away from his wife.
But to Jackie, Onassis was a rich and powerful man who could ensure her children's safety. The
pair married in 1968 and she became Jackie Kennedy Onassis, better known to the press as "Jackie O."
What Jackie perhaps didn't know about her new husband was that he
was a violent man with a desperate need for control. He kept tight reins on her,
not allowing her to work and expecting the "good wife" he saw in the media. Jackie was
a strong woman but she also feared for her family without Onassis' protection.
Less than eight years after she remarried, though,
Jackie found herself a widow again when Aristotle Onassis died of respiratory
failure in 1975. Losing her husband meant losing the safety she'd married Onassis for.
This time around, though, she took control. After settling with the Onassis family for
a reported $26 million in exchange for not contesting her second husband's will,
which had left all the money to his daughter,
Jackie rejoined the workforce. Before she had married JFK and become First Lady,
Jackie had been a journalist, and in 1975 she became an editor at Viking Press New York City
That job ended in controversy two years later when Viking published a novel about a fictional
plot to assassinate JFK's brother Ted Kennedy. Though Jackie wasn't involved, critics blamed her
for not preventing the book's publication, and she ultimately resigned her position.
It didn't stop her, though. Instead, she took a job at Doubleday, eventually landing the role of
Senior Editor. She helped over 100 books reach publication and worked until she died in 1994.
After JFK's death, Jackie didn't let her tragic losses stop her from enjoying
the arms of other lovers. One of the more enticing affairs was between her and actor
Paul Newman. It was but a one-night stand amid her relationship with Robert Kennedy,
and yet it continues to be the talk of gossip rags.
What makes this affair so salacious isn't Jackie's involvement with Robert at the time,
but Newman's dedication to his wife. Everyone saw Newman and Joanne Woodward
as one of Hollywood's strongest couples. Jackie went from being the nation's First
Lady to the "other woman" in America's new sweetheart couple. Fortunately,
Newman's marriage endured, and the one-night stand was seemingly swept under the rug.
Photographer Ron Galella described following Jackie Kennedy around as one
of the highlights of his career, but for the former First Lady,
it was endless harassment that crossed the line into stalking. He'd stand outside her
home waiting to get a shot of her — following her and her kids. She was under his constant
surveillance. Galella was much worse than the rest of the paparazzi obsessed with Jackie;
he made his pursuit personal, crossing the line into stalker territory.
The photographer referred to her as his "girlfriend" and
described an encounter where she confronted him about his behavior.
"She'd go to Jersey for those hunts with the fox and the horses,
and she felt that I had pursued her like I hunted her. [...] She liked [it]."
Gallela stalked Jackie for years. In 1972 he was slapped with a restraining order.
He was found guilty of violating the order no fewer than four times before he was threatened
with a lengthy prison sentence. In 1981, in order to avoid jail time,
Gallela finally agreed to stop photographing Jackie, at last giving her some peace.
Even during JFK's lifetime, Jackie struggled with depression and contemplated taking her
own life after he sent her to a brutal psychiatric ward following a fight over
his philandering. Following his death, it got worse, as according to friends, Jackie suffered
lingering post traumatic stress, experiencing flashbacks and intrusive unwanted thoughts.
She turned to drugs and alcohol to cope. According to "These Few Precious Days:
The Final Year of Jack with Jackie," both the First Lady and the President took injections of
amphetamines from a man dubbed "Dr. Feelgood" despite warnings the doctor had driven past
patients to mental breakdowns. Following his death, she consumed more; her sister, Princess
Lee Radziwill, ultimately intervened and threw out Jackie's drug supply after a suicidal episode.
Eventually, Jackie went to therapy and stopped taking
drugs altogether. Biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli said,
"She dealt with it head-on, and [the drug use] did not continue in her life
after the late '60s. She just stopped. Pretty typical of the way Jackie would
do such a thing. She just made up her mind and then that was the end of it."
After John F. Kennedy's death, gossip suggested that Jackie Kennedy's sister, Princess Lee
Radziwill, was jealous of the attention her sister was getting. The rumor mill was run
by Truman Capote, known in New York for the herd of socialites he collected, including Radziwill.
And Capote was definitely Team Radziwill, saying,
"She's all the looks, style, taste — Jackie never had them at all,
and yet it was Lee who lived in the shadow of this super-something person."
However, Radziwill denied any feud with Jackie and even kept a photo of the late
John F. Kennedy by her bedside in support of her sister. She told People in 1976,
"It's just the most ludicrous talk in the world that we're rivals. We're exceptionally close and
always have been. We're together very often. In fact, endlessly."
Magazines and newspapers covered Jackie Kennedy as if she were a movie star — the
likes of Elizabeth Taylor. The two were constantly splashed across cover pages,
one to sell a product or movie, the other as the former First Lady. But it wasn't their
jobs the magazines contrasted; instead, it was their images.
The media portrayed Jackie as the quintessential good woman, perfectly poised, well-educated,
and strong. She stood in support of her husband no matter his faults,
demonstrating to women everywhere the "right way" to behave. In contrast, Taylor,
who was divorced and married several times, was portrayed as having none of Jackie's virtues.
Sadly the feud wasn't just a media construct. It turns out there was some truth to it due to
some very private issues between the two iconic women. Taylor's journals revealed
Jackie harbored significant resentment against her because Jackie believed Taylor had seduced
JFK – something Taylor denied, but which other sources claim was true.
It's well known that Jackie Kennedy broke her long-held silence with politicians to invite
the Clintons to a gathering on her friend's yacht after Bill Clinton's presidential
victory. What was less televised was the private luncheon Jackie held with Hillary
Clinton after Bill's inauguration. Hillary later noted the conversation
included some invaluable advice from Jackie on maintaining privacy in her family life.
"I just want to say that every day, this country owes a great debt to Jackie Kennedy."
It's unclear, though, whether Jackie ever told Hillary about Bill's unwanted advances, as the new
President reportedly tried to seduce Jackie at her New York home. And he didn't seem like the kind of
guy who took rejection lightly. According to the book "Bill and Hillary," Jackie told a friend,
"I was flattered that I turned him on so much at my age, but Bill was just like Jack in the
sense that neither of them wanted to take 'no' for an answer. Ever since that day I
prefer not to be alone in the same room with Bill. I fear he's a man who never gives up."
After John F. Kennedy's death, Washington D.C. no longer felt like home to Jackie,
so she moved to New York City. Even during her marriage to Aristotle Onassis,
she maintained her residence there. It seemed New York became her safe place,
a haven where she could hide in the anonymity of the crowds.
The spotlight was a significant burden for Jackie,
making her love her small one-window office at Doubleday where her coworkers treated her like
just another team member. New York became her home, where she could live and finally thrive,
and she regularly became involved in efforts to preserve its architectural history.
Sadly, in December 1993, she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Just a few months later,
she passed away at the age of 64 – tucked safely away at her private home and sanctuary
in New York, surrounded by her loved ones, safe finally from the grueling celebrity spotlight.