“Not even if they land in my lap.”
I wonder if she knew what she was getting into when she married JFK. Not the assassination, the whole way Kennedy women were/are treated.
Regards,
Shodan
Taylor Branch’s award-winning Parting the Waters, about MLK and the Civil Rights Movement, documents MLK’s swinging all too thoroughly.
The Master speaks: Was Martin Luther King, Jr. a plagiarist? - The Straight Dope
From everything I’ve read she was brought up with exactly one goal instilled in her from the cradle and that was to marry well. Her mother had at least one unfaithful husband (Jack Bouvier) and one with sexual dysfunctions (Hugh Auchinschloss [the sexual dysfunction revelation is courtesy of his stepson Gore Vidal who got the straight dope from his alcoholic mother]) and was from a family of women whose husbands cheated. (Jackie’s aunt “Big” Edie Beale’s husband kept a mistress and ultimately left her for another woman.) Chances are the subject of husband’s being unfaithful came up and the notion of “close your eyes and think of the open ended charge accounts at your disposal” was instilled, especially since she and her sister were poor relations to several rich families and knew- from their mother’s days as a divorcee with many creditors to their Aunt Edie’s famous decline- “rich and philandering husband is a lot better than a broke and faithful one and way better than being a broke and neglected ex-wife”.
Per 50+ year old rumor (dates to at least the election of 1960) Joe Kennedy promised her a fortune- $1 million cash taxes paid by some accounts (a lot more money then)- if she would stay married to Jack at least until after his presidency. Being Catholic was a big enough road block but there’s no way a divorced Catholic would be electable.
Her second husband Aristotle Onassis cheated far more openly than JFK, including with his longtime lover Maria Callas. Even though he made little secret of marrying her for the prestige of having the ultimate trophy wife I think he had come to loathe her by the end, especially when she didn’t cut short a shopping trip to Paris when his adored only son, Alexander, was killed. (Neither of Jackie’s stepkids liked her at all, but they did like her children.)
If you go to the NY Times today, there is a column by Maureen Dowd excerpting quotes that seem to indicate that: Jackie thought a “Japanese-style”/obedient wife was the way to go (the column is entitled Memoirs of a Geisha or something close), that she (Jackie) would assume she would defer to her husband in pretty much all areas, etc…so being part of a domineering family and marriage that would abuse that fealty and obeisance sounds about par for the course and to be expected given Jackie’s own experience in rich, dysfunctional families…
…Dowd also discusses how well-read Jackie was and her ability to cite intellectual references, etc. Again, part of her sophisticated rep which just doesn’t scan with her vacuous twit of a voice…
Interesting stuff, thanks.
The first thing I thought of when reading your post was Pride and Prejudice. The women in that novel were in the same position - marrying well was not only their highest goal in life, it was their only chance at any life at all. But that means I can understand Jackie marrying JFK. But Aristotle Onassis? Yes, he was rich, but did she really need the money that badly? I am sure she could have made a more than comfortable living being the First Widow the rest of her life.
People make funny choices in life.
Regards,
Shodan
Thanks - I didn’t link to it because I thought it was behind a paywall that was transparent to me since I subscribe…
He wasn’t rich. He was RICH. Joe Kennedy (who had the money in the family, not JFK) was on food stamps compared to Onassis, and he didn’t care how much of his money she spent. Plus she wanted her kids out of the U.S., especially after RFK was killed.
She inherited $27 million from Onassis’s estate (roughly $100 million in today’s money). Not bad considering they were separated and he probably would have divorced her had he lived.
Wasn’t this surveillence totally illegal? King was not a criminal-did JFK/RFK bother getting a court order to do this?
No. Wiretaps didn’t require court orders until 1967, with the case of Katz v US. Before that, the FBI didn’t need a court order to tap somebody’s phone. Standing caselaw at the time was Olmstead v US (1928), which said that wiretaps didn’t violate anyone’s rights.
Not funny at all. Both her husband and brother-in-law were assassinated. Leaving the country in order to protect herself and her children seemed a very sensible option. Hooking up with a man who could not only provide a comfortable life, but had access to the best security money could buy, makes perfect sense to me. I doubt many of her suitors could offer up a private island, after all.
exactly. i always had the impression (don’t know if i read it or heard it) that she married onassis for her children’s safety. his money could buy the best protection around, keep the kids out of the lime light, and away from heavy kennedy control.
the times that she grew up and lived in would have had her making more of a “business” type of marriage over a love match. money, status, politics, would count higher than affection or love.
it is interesting that she and caroline ended up with jewish men. there is a meme that jewish men make the best husbands.
ethel kennedy had more of the nation’s widow thing, until some of her children got into trouble.
IIRC, she got along with Onassis quite well before JFK got murdered. As a matter of fact, there was some suspicion that she was even having an affair with him.
hh
I don’t buy it. One thing I got from the tapes is that she was deeply in love, even in awe of, her husband.
Yep.
IIRC, Atlanta has some like 100+ of these resturants in the metro region; I’ll cut you some slack here. 
Jackie was a shopaholic of the worst kind. JFK said “She’s breaking my ass.” in reference to her spending sprees. She needed Onassis’ cash to feed her hardcore designer habit.
Yeah, it’s a Kennedy thing. Eunice Shriver was the same way, as was Ted Kennedy’s recently deceased daughter Kara. (Cite)
They are vibrant, attractive women until they hit middle age, and then their skin begins to betray them.
Agree about Jackie’s voice. It was hard to understand her too. I finally gave up after about 45 minutes of trying to follow what she was saying.
According to some of the pieces I’ve read in Vanity Fair about Jackie over the last couple of years, it seems the Gore Vidal’s assessment of her was not far off. She was definitely definitely materialistic and snobbish. Still, she handled her husband’s death with amazing dignity and discipline and seemed to do a good job of raising her children. Neither went off the rails with drugs or indulged in a do-nothing, jet set lifestyle.
Though I guess I am maybe a mite young for ever having the Kennedy’s (Caroline and John Jr.) mean much of anything to me, I still always kind of admired them, if for nothing but keeping a more-or-less low profile and occasionally supporting a worthy cause with an appearance or speech, but I remember recently hearing (right here on SDMB) that Caroline was quite the Bee-otch when she was feeling her oats, evidenced by things like barging to the front of bank lines, demanding special service in stores and best of all (when she was toying with a run for a NY Congressional seat) claiming that she had “forgotten” whether or not she had bothered to vote in any elections since sometime the 1980’s…
Yeah, Caroline’s a spoiled, entitled bitch. I think I was the one who wrote about her barging into the front of line at the bank and making a scene when called on it. I remember having read about it in the 70s. She and her brother were young adults then and John was so embarrassed (or concerned about publicity) that he clamped his hand over her mouth and drug her away. But still she’s a lawyer and an author and tries to accomplish some good in life, as have most of the other Kennedys. I have to admire her for that despite her personal failings.