‘NOBODY’S KID SISTER’
BIDDING FAREWELL TO THE SIBLING OF JACKIE O
Remembering Lee Radziwill
She was beautiful, elegant and stylish – a jet-setting socialite and fashion icon who counted Andy Warhol,
Mick Jagger and Rudolf
Nureyev among her friends.
Yet throughout her life Lee Radziwill, who died last week aged 85, was overshadowed by her sister, Jackie Kennedy Onassis. Even though Jackie died nearly 25 years before she did, Lee was forever described as the former First Lady’s little sister, no matter what she herself achieved.
While Jackie may have been American royalty thanks to being the wife of President
John F Kennedy, Lee became an actual princess when she married a minor European royal, Prince Stanislas Radziwill. But despite the title, she could never outshine her sister – for example, Lee had an affair with Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, but it was Jackie he ended up marrying.
Although Jackie and Lee were close, they also had an intense rivalry that began when they were small. It was partly fuelled by their mother, New York socialite Janet Lee Bouvier who, according to Lee, favoured Jackie. “My mother endlessly told me I was too fat, that I wasn’t a patch on my sister,” said Lee in an interview in 2013.
When Jackie was 21 and Lee was 18, they were allowed to go to Paris on their own and the trip helped them bond. “It was the first time we felt really close, carefree together, high on the sheer joy of getting away from our mother,” Lee recalled.
She married first, to teenage sweetheart Michael Canfield at age 20, as a way of escaping her mother. They moved to London where Michael worked for the American ambassador, but it didn’t take Lee long to realise the marriage was a mistake, thanks in part to Michael’s heavy drinking. She began an affair with Polish real estate investor Stanislas, known as Stas, and they married in 1959.
By then, Jackie had also married and it changed not only her life, but also her sister’s, with the public fascination in anything Kennedy-related extending to Jackie’s family.
“My life could certainly have been different,” reflected Lee in 2013. “Not so much because Jackie married a Kennedy, but because he became president.
“If he’d lost the election I’d probably have spent most of life in England with Stas, whom I adored, and our children Anthony and Tina.
“Jack and my sister would come over, staying at Buckingham Palace, and I’d be included in all the great events, dinners at Buckingham
Palace, a trip to India...”
Lee completely understood the overwhelming interest in her sister and when it spilled over into her own life, it was just something she accepted.
“At times it was annoying, at times funny. Perhaps the most depressing part was that whatever I did, or tried, got disproportionate coverage purely because of Jackie being my sister. But you learn to deal with the scrutiny, even the lies, as long as it’s not malicious.”
Engaging, intelligent and charming, Lee had many famous pals. She was one of a group of women, nicknamed The Swans, who were close to Breakfast at Tiffany’s author Truman Capote.
Before they fell out in the 1970s, Truman spoke of Lee in glowing terms, once saying, “I can’t think of any woman more feminine than Lee Radziwill – not even Audrey Hepburn.”
It was her air of sophistication, plus her wit, that apparently turned Aristotle’s head in 1963. He began an affair with Lee, who was still married to Stas, and seemed to think he’d got the better sister. According to a guest at a private party in August 1963, Aristotle was heard saying, “Jackie seems empty-headed. But not Lee. Lee is smart.”
Lee would later say that introducing her sister to him around that time was a big mistake. In 1968, five years after JFK was assassinated, Jackie announced she was marrying the Greek magnate, shocking not only her sister but the world. Even though she and Aristotle were no longer involved, a witness said a distraught Lee called Truman sobbing, “How could she do this to me?”
Another insider says Lee put her feelings of betrayal to one side and attended the wedding. When Lee arrived, Jackie met her on board Aristotle’s luxury yacht and told her, “I need this.”
Lee replied, “I know you do, and you should have it.”
Unsurprisingly, Lee’s marriage to Stas did not last. She later wed Hollywood director Herbert Ross ( Footloose, Steel Magnolias) but that too didn’t last, with the couple divorcing in 2001.
Over the years Lee tried her hand at acting, writing and being a talk-show host (the programme was canned after six episodes). She also worked as an interior designer, PR executive for designer Giorgio Armani and wrote articles for magazines like Harper’s Bazaar.
Lee was devastated when Jackie died from cancer in 1994, aged 64. Five years later the disease also claimed the life of her son Anthony, a successful filmmaker and television executive. His widow, television journalist Carole Radziwill, went on to appear in the reality TV show The Real Housewives of New York City.
Lee, meanwhile, divided her time between New York and Paris. According to her daughter Tina, she died in New York, apparently of natural causes.
In one of her last interviews, Lee said that while she had regrets about many things in her life, she wasn’t envious of anyone else, thanks to getting to do many interesting things.
And despite what others thought, she said she never felt overshadowed by Jackie. “I’m nobody’s kid sister.”