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John P. Marquand
While studying abroad in Paris, a youngJackiereportedlylost her virginity to Marquand, the son of a French novelist, in an elevator. According to author J. Randy Taraborrelli, who wrote the 2018 book,Jackie, Janet & Lee, Jackie’s sister Lee Radziwill revealed the secret to their mother, Janet Auchincloss, to “curry favor.”
“Jackie, when she was a teenager, lost her virginity to somebody in Paris in an elevator,” he told PEOPLE Now in January 2018. “It wasn’t the most romantic experience, but it was a good one for her, and she was really happy that she had it.”
The family matriarch soon forbade Jackie from dating Marquand based on his family’s net worth.
02of 07John Husted Jr.GettyJackie’s first engagement was to John Husted Jr., a stockbroker she met after attending Vassar College. The pair set a date in June 1952, but at the couple’s engagement party, Janet learned that John made just $17,000 a year (about $160,000 in today’s money).“How did I not know this?” Jackie reportedly asked, to which her mother countered, “You tell me.“Later, when Jackie took Husted to the airport, she simply slipped the engagement ring he’d given her off her finger and dropped it into his jacket pocket.“She was ice cold,” Husted recalled, according to Taraborrelli. “Like we never knew each other.”
02of 07
John Husted Jr.
Getty
Jackie’s first engagement was to John Husted Jr., a stockbroker she met after attending Vassar College. The pair set a date in June 1952, but at the couple’s engagement party, Janet learned that John made just $17,000 a year (about $160,000 in today’s money).
“How did I not know this?” Jackie reportedly asked, to which her mother countered, “You tell me.”
Later, when Jackie took Husted to the airport, she simply slipped the engagement ring he’d given her off her finger and dropped it into his jacket pocket.
“She was ice cold,” Husted recalled, according to Taraborrelli. “Like we never knew each other.”
03of 07
John F. Kennedy
National Archive/Newsmakers
“My brother really was smitten with her right from the very beginning when he first met her at dinner,” John’s younger brotherTed Kennedyclaimed in Sarah Bradford’s 2000 book,America’s Queen.
As a politician, he was on the rise. However, as a husband, he left a good deal to be desired; Jackie had made her peace with the fact thatJFK was going to be unfaithfulto her, wrote Taraborelli inJackie, Janet & Lee.
Although they had four children, onlyCaroline KennedyandJohn F. Kennedy Jr.survived and 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.
Thenlife fell apart on Nov. 22, 1963, when JFK, then the 35th president of the United States, wasassassinated during a parade in Dallaswhile Jackie was seated beside him in the car.
According to Taraborelli, Jackie was depressed following JFK’s assassination. She reportedly confessed to feeling “bitter against God” in private letters to priest Joseph Leonard andasked questions of suicideto Father Richard McSorley, such as whether or not “God would separate her from her husband if she killed herself.”
04of 07
Jack Warnecke
Ron Galella/WireImage
Jackie knew the notable architect before her husband’s death, but they grew closer in 1963 when she hired him to design JFK’s new tomb. Theydiscussed marriage, but one day, Jackie got a disturbing phone call from Warnecke.
“There’s something I have to tell you,” he told her, according to Taraborrelli. “I’m in a little trouble. I think I’m … I’m … $650,000 in debt.”
05of 07
Lord Harlech
Harry Morrison/Penske Media/REX/Shutterstock
But, less than a year later, the former first ladymarried Aristotle Onassis, a Greek shipping magnate 23 years her senior, in a decision that surprised many. In a heart-wrenchingletter that surfaced at an auction in 2017, Jackie wrote to Lord Harlech, revealing why she turned down his marriage proposal and decided to start her life anew with Onassis.
“If ever I can find some healing and some comfort — it has to be with somebody who is not part of all my world of past and pain,” she said. “I can find that now — if the world will let us.”
06of 07Aristotle OnassisBettmann ArchiveThough Jackie’s sister Radziwill also dated the shipping tycoon, when Onassis invited Jackie to join him in Skorpios in 1967, she wentwithout telling her sister.He swept her off her feet, just as he had done to Radziwill years earlier. If Radziwill crossed their minds, from all accounts, Jackie and Onassis didn’t discuss her, Taraborrelli wrote in his book. By the time Jackie returned, she was clear that she wanted to explore at least thepossibility of a future with Onassis.Radziwill learned about the couple’s pending nuptials from her ex, who called her to extend a personal invitation. Radziwill was angry and upset when she arrived in Greece in October 1968. However, she saw her sister, Jackie, laughing. Radziwill tried to remember the last time she’d seen her sister truly happy.In her unearthed letter to Lord Harlech, Jackie wrote that Onassis was “lonely” and wanted to protect her from loneliness.“He is wise and kind. Only I can decide if he can, and I decided,” Jackie wrote.Thus, Jackie married Onassis on Oct. 20, 1968, becoming “Jackie O” and one of the richest and most glamorous women in the world. Themarriage only lasted six and a half yearswhen Onassis died on March 15, 1975, of respiratory failure. However, the couple had been having trouble in the months leading up to Onassis' death.
06of 07
Aristotle Onassis
Bettmann Archive
Though Jackie’s sister Radziwill also dated the shipping tycoon, when Onassis invited Jackie to join him in Skorpios in 1967, she wentwithout telling her sister.
He swept her off her feet, just as he had done to Radziwill years earlier. If Radziwill crossed their minds, from all accounts, Jackie and Onassis didn’t discuss her, Taraborrelli wrote in his book. By the time Jackie returned, she was clear that she wanted to explore at least thepossibility of a future with Onassis.
Radziwill learned about the couple’s pending nuptials from her ex, who called her to extend a personal invitation. Radziwill was angry and upset when she arrived in Greece in October 1968. However, she saw her sister, Jackie, laughing. Radziwill tried to remember the last time she’d seen her sister truly happy.
In her unearthed letter to Lord Harlech, Jackie wrote that Onassis was “lonely” and wanted to protect her from loneliness.
“He is wise and kind. Only I can decide if he can, and I decided,” Jackie wrote.
Thus, Jackie married Onassis on Oct. 20, 1968, becoming “Jackie O” and one of the richest and most glamorous women in the world. Themarriage only lasted six and a half yearswhen Onassis died on March 15, 1975, of respiratory failure. However, the couple had been having trouble in the months leading up to Onassis' death.
07of 07
Maurice Tempelsman
Time Life Pictures/DMI/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
With Tempelsman — a still-married diamond merchant — Jackie seemed to have found that rarest of gems: a genuine soulmate to carry her through the final years of her life. She shared her family, her home, her conversation and her laughter with him.
“With Maurice,” attorney Samuel Pisar, an old acquaintance of the couple, told PEOPLE, “everything slowed down.She was at peace with him.” The two met in the 1950s when Maurice arranged a meeting between JFK and representatives of the South African diamond business.
They were together for 12 years beforeher death in May 1994. At her funeral, Tempelsman — who’d shuttled her to and from doctor’s appointments and remained at her side through her bout with cancer — gave a eulogy.
source: people.com
