Skip to content

Top Navigation

PEOPLE.com PEOPLE.com
    • All News
    • Coronavirus
    • Crime
    • Human Interest
    • Politics
    • Heroes
    • Stories to Make You Smile
    • All Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Country
    • Awards
    • Sports
    • Theater
    • Books
  • Royals
    • All Lifestyle
    • Style
    • Fashion
    • Beauty
    • Health
    • Parents
    • Home
    • Pets
    • Food
    • Tech
    • Travel
  • PeopleTV
    • All Shopping
    • People Tested
    • All Podcasts
    • Me Becoming Mom
    • People Every Day
    • PEOPLE in the '90s

Profile Menu

Join Now

Account

  • Join Now
  • My Profile
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription
  • Logout

More

  • Give a Gift Subscription
  • Premium
My Account

Account

  • Join Now
  • My Profile
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription
  • Logout

More

  • Give a Gift Subscription
  • Premium
Login
Subscribe

Explore PEOPLE.com

PEOPLE.com PEOPLE.com
  • Explore

    Explore

    • Rita Moreno Says She Dated Elvis as Revenge Against Cheating Ex Marlon Brando: 'It Was Wonderful'

      Rita Moreno Says She Dated Elvis as Revenge Against Cheating Ex Marlon Brando: 'It Was Wonderful'

      Rita Moreno revealed she dated Elvis Presley to get back at her ex-boyfriend Marlon Brando for cheating on her Read More
    • Machine Gun Kelly Poses with Daughter Casie at the 2021 American Music Awards

      Machine Gun Kelly Poses with Daughter Casie at the 2021 American Music Awards

      The American Music Awards, hosted by Cardi B, are broadcasting live from Los Angeles on Sunday Read More
    • Jennifer Lopez Sings from the Heart in New 'On My Way' Music Video

      Jennifer Lopez Sings from the Heart in New 'On My Way' Music Video

      Jennifer Lopez released the official music video for her song "On My Way," which is featured in her upcoming rom-com Marry Me Read More
  • News

    News

    See All News
    Stars Who Opened Up About Their Sexuality and Gender Identity in 2021

    Stars Who Opened Up About Their Sexuality and Gender Identity in 2021

    • Coronavirus
    • Crime
    • Human Interest
    • Politics
    • Heroes
    • Stories to Make You Smile
  • Entertainment

    Entertainment

    See All Entertainment
    The Best (& Worst) Jeopardy! Celebrity Guest Host Show Moments

    The Best (& Worst) Jeopardy! Celebrity Guest Host Show Moments

    • Celebrity
    • TV
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Country
    • Awards
    • Sports
    • Theater
    • Books
  • Royals
  • Lifestyle

    Lifestyle

    See All Lifestyle
    Billie Eilish Ditches Her Blonde Hair for Brunette Tresses: 'Miss Me?'

    Billie Eilish Ditches Her Blonde Hair for Brunette Tresses: 'Miss Me?'

    The singer revealed that she dyed her hair dark brown after debuting her blonde look earlier this year
    • Style
    • Fashion
    • Beauty
    • Health
    • Parents
    • Home
    • Pets
    • Food
    • Tech
    • Travel
  • PeopleTV
  • Shopping

    Shopping

    See All Shopping
    • People Tested
  • Podcasts

    Podcasts

    See All Podcasts
    Sen. Tammy Duckworth Calls Going Back to Work After Having a Miscarriage 'Inhumane'

    Sen. Tammy Duckworth Calls Going Back to Work After Having a Miscarriage 'Inhumane'

    "Even though we cleared my calendar for the day, I was still on the phone. There was no resting, you just kept on going," Tammy Duckworth says on an episode of PEOPLE's podcast Me Becoming Mom
    • Me Becoming Mom
    • People Every Day
    • PEOPLE in the '90s

Profile Menu

Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
Join Now

Account

  • Join Now
  • My Profile
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription
  • Logout

More

  • Give a Gift Subscription
  • Premium
My Account

Account

  • Join Now
  • My Profile
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription
  • Logout

More

  • Give a Gift Subscription
  • Premium
Login
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

  1. People.com
  2. Politics
  3. From JFK to Aristotle, a Look Back at All of Jackie Kennedy's Loves

From JFK to Aristotle, a Look Back at All of Jackie Kennedy's Loves

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis has always been identified with the two most powerful and famous men in her life: her first husband, JFK, and her second, Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, but a new book Jackie, Janet & Lee by J Randy Taraborrelli, reveals new details about the other men in her life, including two men she almost married. Here's a look at some of the men who romanced the very private former First Lady.
By People Staff February 06, 2018 10:00 AM
Skip gallery slides
FB Tweet

1 of 7

FB Tweet
Pinterest Email Send Text Message

JOHN P. MARQUAND

onassis-marquand-1-2000
Credit: ANL/REX/Shutterstock; Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

While studying abroad in Paris, a young Jackie reportedly lost her virginity to John P. Marquand, the son of a French novelist, in an elevator. Sister Lee told the girls' mother Janet of the dalliance; Janet soon forbade Jackie from dating John based on his family's net worth.

1 of 7

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 7

FB Tweet
Pinterest Email Send Text Message

JOHN HUSTED JR.

jackie-kennedy-John-Husted-Jr
Credit: Getty

Jackie's first engagement was to John Husted Jr., a stockbroker she met after attending Vassar. The pair set a date for June of 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 asked. "You tell me," Janet countered.

Later, when Jackie took John 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," John would remember. "Like we never knew each other. "

2 of 7

3 of 7

FB Tweet
Pinterest Email Send Text Message

JOHN F. KENNEDY

jackie-jfk-1-2000
Credit: National Archive/Newsmakers

In the fall of 1953, Jackie married the handsome (and wealthy) Massachusetts senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy. 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 that JFK was going to be unfaithful to her, says Taraborrelli.

Together they had two children — Caroline and John Jr. — though life fell apart on Nov. 22, 1963, when JFK, then the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated during a parade in Dallas.

3 of 7

Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

4 of 7

FB Tweet
Pinterest Email Send Text Message

JACK WARNECKE

7th Annual RFK Pro-Celebrity Tennis Tournament
Credit: Ron Galella/WireImage

Jackie knew the notable architect before her husband's death, but they began to grow closer in 1963, when she hired him to design JFK's new tomb.

They had discussed marriage, but one day Jackie got a disturbing phone call from Jack. "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." Jackie told Jack she was confident he would "figure things out," sounding—as Jack would later recall it—"rather distant." He closed by saying, "I love you, Jackie." She simply whispered, "Goodbye for now, Jack."

4 of 7

Advertisement

5 of 7

FB Tweet
Pinterest Email Send Text Message

LORD HARLECH

Jackie Kennedy at The Plaza, New York
Credit: Harry Morrison/Penske Media/REX/Shutterstock

In the years after her husband’s assassination, a heartbroken Jackie turned to one of JFK‘s closest friends, former British ambassador David Ormsby Gore, a.k.a. Lord Harlech, for comfort. When the two traveled to Cambodia together in November 1967 in a highly publicized trip, there was much speculation that they were romantically involved.

But less than a year later, the former first lady married Aristotle Onassis, a Greek shipping magnate 23 years her senior, in a decision that surprised many. In a heart-wrenching letter that surfaced at an auction in 2017, Jackie wrote to Lord Harlech, revealing why she turned down his proposal of marriage — and decided to instead 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.”

5 of 7

6 of 7

FB Tweet
Pinterest Email Send Text Message

ARISTOTLE ONASSIS

Aristotle and Jacqueline Onassis at Their Reception
Credit: Bettmann Archive

Though Lee also dated the shipping tycoon, when Aristotle Onassis invited Jackie to join him in Skorpios in 1967, she went — without telling her sister.

He swept her off her feet, just as he had done to Lee years earlier. If Lee crossed their minds, from all accounts, anyway, Jackie and Ari didn't discuss her, according to Taraborrelli's new book. By the time Jackie returned, she was clear that she wanted to explore at least the possibility of a future with Aristotle Onassis.

Lee learned about the couple's pending nuptials from her ex, who called her to extend a personal invitation. Lee was angry and upset when she arrived in Greece in October 1968. However, when she laid eyes on her sister, Jackie was laughing. Lee tried to remember the last time she'd seen her sister truly happy.

In her unearthed letter to Lord Harlech, Jackie wrote that Aristotle was “lonely and wants to protect me from being lonely. And he is wise and kind. Only I can decide if he can, and I decided.”

6 of 7

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

7 of 7

FB Tweet
Pinterest Email Send Text Message

MAURICE TEMPELSMAN

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis And Maurice Tempelsman
Credit: Time Life Pictures/DMI/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

With Maurice Tempelsman — a still-married, slightly overweight diamond merchant — Jackie seemed to have found that rarest of gems: a genuine soulmate to carry her through the final years of her life. With him she shared her family, her home, her conversation and her laughter. “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.

When Jackie — emotionally battered by the difficult final years of her marriage to Aristotle Onassis, who died in 1975 — set out to create an independent life for herself in New York City, Maurice offered essential support where it mattered most: he helped ensure her financial security, delighted in her work as a book editor and gingerly took on the role of surrogate parent—and grandparent.

They were together for 12 years before her death in 1994; at her funeral, Maurice, who'd shuttled her to and from doctor's appointments and remained at her side through her bout with cancer, gave a eulogy.

7 of 7

Advertisement
Advertisement
Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

By People Staff

    Share the Gallery

    Pinterest Facebook
    Trending Videos
    Advertisement
    Skip slide summaries

    Everything in This Slideshow

    Advertisement

    View All

    1 of 7 JOHN P. MARQUAND
    2 of 7 JOHN HUSTED JR.
    3 of 7 JOHN F. KENNEDY
    4 of 7 JACK WARNECKE
    5 of 7 LORD HARLECH
    6 of 7 ARISTOTLE ONASSIS
    7 of 7 MAURICE TEMPELSMAN

    Share & More

    Pinterest Email Send Text Message
    PEOPLE.com

    Magazines & More

    Learn More

    • Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
    • Advertise this link opens in a new tab
    • Content Licensing
    • Accolades this link opens in a new tab

    Connect

    Subscribe to Our Newsletter
    Meredith© Copyright 2022 Meredith Corporationthis link opens in a new tab. People is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab Manage Push Notificationsthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab

    Manage Push Notifications

    If you would like to opt out of browser push notifications, please refer to the following instructions specific to your device and browser: Google Chrome and Android, Firefox, Safari, or Microsoft Edge.
    © Copyright PEOPLE.com. All rights reserved. Printed from https://people.com

    Sign in

    View image

    From JFK to Aristotle, a Look Back at All of Jackie Kennedy's Loves
    this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.