Sunday, April 11, 2021

How did Jackie Kennedy feel about JFK's numerous affairs?

JFK was the son of prominent Bostonian Joe Kennedy who was heavily involved in Massachusetts politics. Joe secured import rights from distillers in Scotland during prohibition and brought liquor into the US for “medicinal purposes”. Joe Kennedy later sold Somerset Importers to mobsters Longy Zwillman and Joseph Reinfeld, because he was investing in the political future of his sons. Joe was determined that one of his children would be President.

Joe Jr. died in WWII, so it fell to the second oldest son John to carry the political banner for the Kennedy clan. John’s playboy ramblings were problematic in the 1950s and the 1960s political arena. Joe decided that John should wed to provide a more acceptable candidate to the American people. Jack Kennedy and Jacqueline met in exclusive Hyannis Port. Jackie then broke off her engagement with John Husted because he wasn’t rich enough. Jackie’s own father lost his wealth and Jacqueline constantly feared that he would be unable to pay her boarding school tuition growing up. She decided that when she married it would be to a rich and powerful man

The patriarch of the Kennedy family felt Jackie would be a good match politically because;

a) Both were Catholic

b) Came from prominent families

c) Jacqueline held no political ambitions and Jack was provided an attractive social companion.

d) Everybody gets what they wanted

So the two were wed, but that did not stop JFK from his philandering.

Jackie contemplated divorce before Jack became president. In 1956 Jack was across the Atlantic incommunicado while Jackie miscarried. Bobby Kennedy stepped in and took care of all of the funeral arrangements. Jackie wanted out of the marriage. “I just can’t see myself spending the rest of my life with Jack Kennedy. It’s not going to happen”, she confessed. Jackie met with her father-in-law who promised to pay her a million dollars not to divorce Jack. She suffered from depression and remained bitter throughout the marriage. She even contemplated suicide to get out of her circumstance.

Although Jackie remained with Jack, she spent more time with his brother Robert. She feared Jack would bring an STD to their bed and told Joe Kennedy if he did her father-in-law would have to shell out twenty million dollars for her to stay in the relationship. In social circles, Jack and Jackie were cool to each other but put on a happy front for photographers. JFK provided a canvas for Jackie, like decorating the White House, and two children. He did not curb his sexual appetites and his trysts in Las Vegas with Hollywood friends as President were legend. She was finally freed from her Camelot prison in 1963 but had already endured the emotional costs of her marriage.

Sources: “Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Life Beyond Her Wildest Dreams”, ”A Woman Named Jackie”, “Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: The Untold Story”, ”Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years”, ”Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot”

Biographers and Subject Matter Writers: Porter, Prince, Leaming, Bradford, Heyman, Klein, and others.

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