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President John F. KennedyandJackie Kennedywere America’s golden couple throughout much of the ’50s and into the early ’60s, ahead of the president’s 1963 assassination. For all the glitz and glamour that surrounded them, their marriage was riddled with plenty of hardship, from JFK’s alleged and highly publicized affairs to Jackie’s difficult pregnancies.
Jackie reportedly had a more realistic view of the situation. “Jackie later says she determined of their relationship, ‘Such heartbreak would be worth the pain,’ " wroteJames PattersoninThe House of Kennedy.
They would still go on towed in 1953, with four children in total being born to the couple, though only two —Caroline KennedyandJohn F. Kennedy Jr.— ever left the hospital. Tragically, in 1956 Jackie gave birth to theirstillborn daughter, Arabella, and the couple’s fourth child, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy,died just 39 hoursafter birth.
Others, however, say that John’s assumedcheating was a source of contentionfor the couple. “There were many senators and people who worked for the president who were really well aware of the conversations that Jackie had with JFK, in which she made it really clear that she knew what was going on,“Jackie, Janet and Leeauthor J. Randy Taraborrelli told PEOPLE. “She wasn’t naive to it. They did have many conversations about it, and she did tell him that she was sick of it and she didn’t like it.”
As one of the couple’s friends told PEOPLE, “At the end of the day, Jack came back to Jackie — and that was it. They loved each other.”
Proof of Jackie’s love and care for John, in the form of hand-written letters and meal plans, wentup for auctionin July 2023. The letters included intricate instructions for her and the then-Senator’s meals, including a note that instructs that John “can eat nothing fried.”
Here’s a look back at John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy’s relationship.
1952: John F. Kennedy meets Jacqueline Bouvier
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June 24, 1953: John F. Kennedy announces his engagement to Jacqueline Bouvier
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While the coupleannounced their engagementon June 24, 1953, the circumstances surrounding John’s proposal are still up for debate.
The Omni Hotel in Boston claims that the senatorpopped the questionat table 40 in its restaurant, Parker’s. The hotel’s blog also claims that the politician got down on one knee to present Jackie with her now-famous 2.88-carat emerald-cut diamondengagement ringfrom Van Cleef & Arpels.
Another account, however,claims that the event took placeat Martin’s Tavern in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., with former ambassador Marion Smoak claiming to be an eyewitness. According to Smoak, it was a quiet event. “After the senator proposed, and she accepted, the news ran through the restaurant,” he recalls. “That night we didn’t know his future and what it would bring. In hindsight it was great fun to witness a part of history.”
July 1953: John F. Kennedy and Jaqueline Bouvier appear on the cover ofLifemagazine
The twosome were featured on the magazine’s cover next to the headline “Senator Kennedy Goes a-Courting” in July 1953. In the photo, they are seen on thedeck of a sailboatnear Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
September 12, 1953: John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy are married
Two years after meeting, John and Jackietied the knotat St. Mary’s Church in Newport, Rhode Island. The affair was one to remember, with roughly 600 diplomats, senators and social figures in attendance for the ceremony and 900 at the reception. Jackie’s stepfather,Hugh D. Auchincloss, gave her away, and Archbishop Cushing of Boston performed the rites, which included a special blessing from the pope.
September 1953: John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy go on their honeymoon
The couple left their wedding to the fanfare of rice and confetti and headed to Acapulco, Mexico, where they wouldspend their honeymoon. They later traveled to Santa Barbara, California, where they stayed in a 2,700-square-foot retreat atSan Ysidro Ranch.
September 12, 1954: Jackie Kennedy writes a poem for John F. Kennedy
1955: John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy suffer a miscarriage
JFK’s friend andadviser Ken O’Donnell revealed to biographer Steven Levingston thatJackie had a miscarriagethree months after becoming pregnant in 1955.
Jackie, Janet and Leeauthor J. Randy Taraborelli claimed that it was one of two times thatJackie considered divorce, but that her sister,Lee Radziwill, talked her out of it.
1957 or 1958: Jackie Kennedy writes a love letter to John F. Kennedy
In 2018, a three-page handwritten letter from Jackie to John circa 1957 or 1958went up for auction, offering a rare glimpse into the couple’s relationship.
“I know everyone says married couples should never separate — as you get off the same wavelength … but I think it is usually good when we go away from each other as we both realize so much,” Jackie wrote. “You are an atypical husband … so you mustn’t be surprised to have an atypical wife … I can’t write down what I feel for you, but I will show you when I am with you — and I think you must know.”
1958: John F. Kennedy allegedly has an affair with Diana de Vegh
In 2021,Diana de Veghclaimed in an essay for Air Mailthat shebegan an affair with Johnas a 20-year-old college student after their paths crossed at a benefit dinner in 1958. According to de Vegh, she even dropped out of college and moved to Washington, D.C. after he was elected president.
De Vegh said that their connection eventually fizzled out and it took her “years to recover” from the romance. “The man with whom I believed I was having a love affair did not want to connect certain dots,” she wrote. “In fact, he wanted me to be as isolated as possible, alone on the vast sea of his attention.”
January 2, 1960: John F. Kennedy announces his presidential candidacy
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Senator Kennedyannounced his intent to run for presidenton Jan. 2, 1960. “For 18 years, I have been in the service of the United States, first as a naval officer in the Pacific during World War II and for the past 14 years as a member of the Congress,” he said in a statement. “In the last 20 years, I have traveled in nearly every continent and country — from Leningrad to Saigon, from Bucharest to Lima. From all of this, I have developed an image of America as fulfilling a noble and historic role as the defender of freedom in a time of maximum peril — and of the American people as confident, courageous and persevering. It is with this image that I begin this campaign.”
1960: Jackie Kennedy helps John F. Kennedy campaign for president
November 8, 1960: John F. Kennedy is elected President of the United States
John narrowly defeatedRichard Nixonon Nov. 8, 1960, in a hotly contested election, making Jackie the incumbent first lady of the U.S.
November 25, 1960: John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy welcome son John F. Kennedy Jr.
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Just two weeks after JFK was elected president, Jackie gave birth to a son,John F. Kennedy Jr.JFK Jr. later went to law school in New York City and worked as a journalist.
January 20, 1961: John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy become president and first lady
On Jan. 20, 1961, John became the 35th president at age 43, making Jackie first lady at age 31.
February 23, 1961: Jackie Kennedy begins a historic White House redesign
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As first lady, Jackie was an ambassador of goodwill and a staunch supporter of the arts, and she also createda committeeto help her restore and preserve the White House in what would ultimately become “the most historic redesign of the White House in history.”
Her efforts were chronicled in aCBS television specialwhich aired on Feb. 14, 1962, in which she gave viewers a glimpse of the $2 million project.
June 5, 1961: John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy meet Queen Elizabeth II
In the summer of 1961, the pair traveled to England for the christening of Jackie’s niece,Anna Christina Radziwill. During their visit, Buckingham Palace held a banquet in their honor — an event that was recreated inseason 2 ofThe Crown. Ambassador Angier Biddle Dukerecalled the meeting fondlyin an oral history interview with the JFK Library. “The QueenandPrince Philipwelcomed us at the top of the stairs in a small room where we all had a glass of champagne — or something — before dinner,” he said. “Instead of having a receiving line, the Queen took the President and Prince Philip took Mrs. Kennedy around the room … It was a delightful evening.”
Dinner presented challenges, however; newly titled Princess Lee Radziwill and her husbandPrince Stanislas Radziwillof Poland, both divorcées, were in attendance — something traditionally shunned at state dinners.
According to Sarah Bradford’s bookAmerica’s Queen, Jackie found the Queen “pretty heavy going.” Writer Gore Vidal recalled his friend Jackie saying, “The Queen had her revenge … No[Princess] Margaret, no[Princess] Marina, no one except every Commonwealth minister of agriculture they could find.”
1962: John F. Kennedy allegedly has an affair with intern Mimi Alford
Former White House press office internMimi Alford(née Beardsley), in her 2012 bookOnce Upon a Secret, claimedthatin 1962 she began an affairwith the president, even having sexual encounters in the bedroom he shared with Jackie Kennedy. “I think he did take advantage — I was so young,” Alford wrote of that first intimate encounter. “But I liked feeling special.”
May 19, 1962: Marilyn Monroe sings “Happy Birthday” to John F. Kennedy
Marilyn Monroefamouslysparked suspicions of a romantic relationshipwith John in May 1962 when she sang a sultry rendition of “Happy Birthday” to the president at his 45th birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden.
Monroe’s “instability posed a constant threat” to the president, according toDark Side of Camelotauthor Seymour Hersh.
Former secret service agent Jerry Blaine told PEOPLE that he was with JFK during two known encounters that John had with Monroe. Blaine said he “never saw any evidence of an affair,” but didn’t know “what happened behind closed doors.”
August 7, 1963: Patrick Bouvier Kennedy is born to John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy
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Amid talk of John’s affairs, a third child, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, wasborn to the couple five and a half weeks earlyon Aug. 7, 1963. He weighed just 4 pounds, 10.5 ounces and was delivered via cesarean section.
August 9, 1963: John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy mourn son Patrick
Patrick was buried in Brookline, Massachusetts, but later transferred to a grave next to John and his stillborn sister, Arabella.
August 14, 1963: John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy leave the hospital together
“After the death of Patrick, the other agents and I noticed a distinctly closer relationship, openly expressed, between the president and Mrs. Kennedy,” Jackie’s secret service agent, Clint Hill, wrote in his memoir,Mrs. Kennedy and Me.
Hill noted the importance of their holding hands during their exit. “It was a small gesture, but quite significant to those of us who were around them all the time,” he said. “Prior to this, they were much more restrained and less willing to express their close, loving relationship while out in public. The loss of Patrick seemed to be the catalyst to change all that.”
September 12, 1963: John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy celebrate their 10-year anniversary
For the couple’s 10th anniversary, John reportedlygave his wife an Egyptian snake braceletafter a lengthy stint in his bedroom spent contemplating the gift.
November 22, 1963: John F. Kennedy is assassinated next to Jackie Kennedy
November 25, 1963: Jackie Kennedy attends John F. Kennedy’s funeral
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According to Jackie’s secret service agent Clint Hill, whowrote about JFK’s funeralin his booksMrs. Kennedy and MeandFive Presidents, the first lady viewed her late husband’s casket the day before the service, clipping a small lock of his hair in remembrance.
The following day, Jackie rode in silence directly behind the funeral caisson with the couple’s young children, the attorney general, acting presidentLyndon B. Johnson and his wife. She chose to walk the stretch between the White House and the Cathedral of St. Matthew, where the funeral mass took place.
Lifereported that the widowreturned to John’s grave at midnightto adorn it with flowers.
November 29, 1963: Jackie Kennedy invites aLifemagazine reporter into her home
Just four days after John’s burial, Jackie invitedLifereporter Theodore H. White to her home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, in an effort to shape John’s public legacy. “She wanted to be sure he was remembered as a great president,” former secret service agent Clint Hilltold PEOPLE.
During the interview,Jackie compared John’s presidencyto King Arthur’s reign, referencing a song from JFK’s favorite musical,Camelot. “‘Don’t let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot,’ " she quoted, before adding, “There’ll be great presidents again — and the Johnsons are wonderful, they’ve been wonderful to me — but there’ll never be a Camelot again.”
1963: Jackie Kennedy mourns the death of John F. Kennedy
Jackie was reportedly depressed following the death of John, confessing to feeling “bitter against God” in private letters to priest Joseph Leonard and reportedlyasking questions of suicideto Father Richard McSorley, such as whether or not “God would separate her from her husband if she killed herself.”
Jackie, Janet and Leeauthor J. Randy Taraborrelli claimed Jackie was “constantly crying” andself-medicating with alcohol and pills. “She often threatened suicide,” the author told PEOPLE. “She couldn’t sleep; she had nightmares.”
By the late ’60s, however, Jackie had reportedly begun seeking therapy and stopped her self-destructive behavior. “She dealt with it head-on, and [the drug use] did not continue in her life … She just stopped,” Taraborrelli added. “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.”
1964 to 1967: Jackie Kennedy goes on dates
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Taraborrelli revealed in his book that in 1964Jackie Kennedy began dating architect Jack Warnecke, whom she had hired to design John’s eternal flame memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. By 1966, the pair even reportedly discussed marriage while vacationing in Hawaii.
October 20, 1968: Jackie Kennedy marries Aristotle Onassis
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Jackie tied the knot for a second time with Greek shipping magnateAristotle Onassis.
As for Onassis, Taraborrelli claimed his marriage to Jackie was one of convenience. “I think from Onassis' point of view, it was an acquisition,” he said. “Not that he didn’t love Jackie but I don’t think he was in love with her, nor she with him. Jackie said it best — that he rescued her from the darkest time in her life. He protected her and her children.”
Jackie’s former live-in assistant, Kathy McKeon,expressed similar sentimentsin her memoirJackie’s Girl. “‘Is this what she wants?‘I couldn’t help but wonder. She and Mr. Onassis seemed like friends, not a couple,” McKeon wrote.
Onassis diedin March 1975 of respiratory failure.
January 1994: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis is diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
In 1994, Jackiewas diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of cancer affecting the lymphatic system, and began chemotherapy treatment.
May 19, 1994: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis dies
Then-presidentBill Clintongave a statement in the wake of her passing. “Jackie Kennedy Onassis was a model of courage and dignityfor all Americans and all the world,” he said. “More than any other woman of her time, she captivated our nation and the world with her intelligence, her elegance and her grace. Even in the face of impossible tragedy, she carried the grief of her family and our entire nation with a calm power that somehow reassured all of us who mourned.”
Jackie waslaid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, next to her children Arabella and Patrick and first husband JFK.
source: people.com
