HIGH SOCIETY’S VERY ODD COUPLE
She was the most famous woman in the world following the assassination of her husband. He was a vulgar Greek tycoon. But 50 years ago today Jackie Kennedy married Aristotle Onassis
the most difficult times in her life, shortly before JFK’s assassination. Pregnant five times, only two of her children, John Jr and Caroline, had survived. Her first pregnancy had resulted in a stillborn child, while Arabella and Patrick died soon after birth.
In October 1963 Jackie was grieving for Patrick while coping with fame, responsibility and her husband’s many infidelities. Her sister Lee was married to Prince Stanislas Radziwill and the couple had befriended Onassis. (To the embarrassment of the Kennedy clan, who feared and hated scandal, it would emerge a year later that Lee was having an affair with the billionaire.) Following the loss of Patrick, Lee had arranged for an invitation to be extended to her sister to join her onboard Christina.
During the trip Jackie was showered with attention and gifts by Onassis: if he had seduced Lee hoping to gain access to the world of her more illustrious sister, it had worked.
JFK was shot dead in Texas just weeks after Jackie’s break on his yacht. Having accepted his hospitality she also accepted further comfort for another loss.
Over the ensuing years the pair were photographed together many times, though never alone, and the rumour mill went into overdrive… until that August night in 1968 and Mastorakis’s worldwide scoop.
THE story was given added credence by the presence of Teddy, JFK’s brother, on the yacht. The inner circle onboard knew he was there to negotiate a financial settlement. This involved Onassis gifting her $2million in bonds in return for her giving up her share of a Kennedy family trust and her US widow’s pension.
But despite the consensus being that Jackie had married for money, the couple appeared to enjoy a happy start to married life. Guests on his yacht claimed Onassis would, after a few drinks, lead her to the FIRST LADY OF SKORPIOS: Jackie with Aristotle Onassis and on their wedding day. Below, with her sister Lee, one of his former lovers nearest cabin to make love. At first she spent her time largely between his island home and Paris. But his children never warmed to her and Christina especially was hostile.
But cracks began to show. As Jackie grew bored of Europe and re-established herself in New York society, it seems the couple began to lose interest in one another. Onassis complained to friends she had become “like a corpse” in bed and before long flaunted his return to the arms of Callas, perhaps the true love of his life.
If Jackie cared less for her husband by that time, she did however value her reputation – and she wasn’t about to be upstaged by a mere singer. When Onassis was photographed in a top Paris restaurant with Callas, she flew to France and made him take her there two days later, attracting more headlines and underlining to the lover just who was the bigger press draw.
Onassis eventually died less than seven years after they married but had reportedly been planning to divorce Jackie for several months before then – his plans held up solely by his determination to find ways to reduce her inevitably hefty settlement.
The financial wrangling didn’t end with his death: after becoming a widow Jackie fought for a bigger share of his fortune than Onassis had intended her to have, even allowing JFK’s brother Teddy to raise it with Christina on the day of her father’s funeral. The only Onassis not to weep that day eventually settled for $26million.
After Jackie died in May 1994 it was announced that she would be buried at Arlington Cemetery with her first husband. She had said: “I have to take my place in history.”
She knew of the spell she had woven on the public and wanted to be remembered for her marriage to the 35th US President rather than to the Greek tycoon who vomited overboard when he announced their engagement. But it remains telling that even today she’s perhaps best remembered as “Jackie O”… and not Jackie K.