Jackie Kennedy during the White House years
From USA Today Online, July 6, 2009:
Book: Jackie, RFK had four-year affair
The New York Post, quoting a new book, reports that Jackie Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy had a four-year love affair that began shortly after President Kennedy was killed.
Author C. David Heymann says Bobby was Jackie’s “true love” and that the affair was well known among family members. When Bobby was shot after winning the California presidential primary, Jackie — not Bobby’s wife Ethel Kennedy or his brother Ted Kennedy — ordered that he be removed from a respirator, the book says.
The book, Bobby and Jackie: A Love Story, arrives in stores this month. The Post says it “includes recollections of the steamy affair” from Kennedy family intimates, including Pierre Salinger, Arthur Schlesinger, Jack Newfield, Gore Vidal, Truman Capote and Morton Downey Jr. Heymann told the paper he spent nearly two decades researching the book and had access to FBI and Secret Service files. Tapes of his interviews are available at the SUNY Stony Brook library.
The Kennedy family at their home in Hyannisport, Massachusetts on the night after John F Kennedy won the 1960 presidential election. Front row from left: Eunice Shriver, Rose Kennedy , Joseph Kennedy , Jacqueline Kennedy, and Ted Kennedy. Back row, from left: Ethel Kennedy, Stephen Smith, Jean Smith, John F Kennedy, Robert F Kennedy, Pat Lawford , Sargent Shriver, Joan Kennedy, and Peter Lawford
Among the book’s revelations:
— Six months after JFK’s death, during a May 1964 dinner cruise on the presidential yacht the USS Sequoia, Bobby and Jackie “exchanged poignant glances” before disappearing below deck, leaving Ethel upstairs. “When they returned, they looked as chummy and relaxed as a pair of Cheshire cats,” according to Schlesinger.
— At one point, Ethel Kennedy implored family friend Frank Moore to “tell Bobby to stop sleeping with Jackie.” Instead, Moore told her to find a marriage counselor.
— Shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis — RFK’s rival for Jackie’s attention — once threatened to “bring down” Bobby by going public with details of the affair. “I could bury that sucker,” Onassis said, “although I’d lose Jackie in the process.”
The New York Daily News reports that the book already is generating criticism:
“It’s a new low, and you just wonder how far people are willing to go,” Laurence Learner, author of The Kennedy Men, The Kennedy Women and Sons of Camelot told the paper.
“[Heymann] is just trying to make a buck. Yes, Bobby and Jackie had a relationship as friends, but [the romance] is a total exaggeration. I feel sorry for Heymann,” he said.
To read more on Ethel Kennedy, read “Mama Remembers Ethel Kennedy.”
To read more on Jackie Kennedy Onassis, click “How to be Jackie O” and “Why Jackie Kennedy Married Ari Onassis.”
To read more on the Kennedys, scroll down the right sidebar to “Categories – People – Kennedys.”
Lisa's History Room 
I’m sure there’s some basis for this idea but we should be suspicious. Heymann wrote a book on the Lowell family (James Russell Lowell, Amy Lowell, and Robert Lowell). I recognized right away that he cribbed whole chunks of James McAleer’s biography of Lowell – I mean word-for-word plagiarism. In other words, question the integrity of the source.
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Thanks for the tip. I mentioned the book on my site because it is of interest, but I don’t necessarily accept Heymann’s findings. I will definitely check out the book skeptically. Hope you are doing well.
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their family is soooooooooooooooooo great together why cant lifenow be what it used to be i wish my family had get togethers likethat but we dont because were poor because of the economy at its crisis
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Lizzy, I don’t understand why your family can’t have “get togethers.”
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Hello, I am new here, I have always been a big fan of Bobby Kennedy, I remember when he was shot. I have watched many different programs related to him. I’ll never forget the look on his face when he went down south of the US , where he was meeting people and saw their living conditions, their poverty. He was stunned and he showed so much compassion. When he came back he made a speech about it and showed so much passion about helping the underpriviliged saying that the US should be looking after their own first.
I still look up to him.
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Yes, Bobby was the best of the Kennedy brothers.
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so THATS why the kennedy family was always so smiley! they were all sleeping with just about whoever they could get their hands on.
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It may be late to reply this post, but the Bobby and Jackie affair is a very, very, very old rumor. It dates back to those years. Some serious author, like Sarah Bradford, already speculated so. I’ve talked to people who lived in NY then and for them it was obvious they were involved. It seems even Ethel believed it so. I don’t know if it is true (I wouldn’t be surprised if was), but working for the government like I do you become cynical about the politicians personal life. Promiscuous sexual behaviour is common, I don’t believe for a minute that Bobby was faithful to Ethel. I’m not saying I believe in unreliable author like Heymann, but I also don’t believe in all thingsauthors like Schlesinger said (or what he didn’t say).
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Mai, I’ve read several books on this subject and it is well-substantiated that Jackie and Bobby had an affair for at least 5 years. Ari Onassis hated Bobby Kennedy. Did you know that Ari was in the White House the day after JFK was assassinated? Jackie called her sister Lee to come to the WH and bring him. Bobby couldn’t believe he was in the same house with his brother, the President, lying in state. There have been authors who speculated that Bobby and Ari’s fighting over Jackie ended up with Ari assassinating Bobby. Bobby’s assassination pushed Jackie straight into Ari’s arms, marriage, and the beginning of a life in Europe (and New York).
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I’ve read Bobby pretty much hated Ari, but I didn’t know Ari was in the White House the day after Jack’s assassination. I reading “Nemesis” by Peter Evans right now, the book which speculates that Ari had Bobby assassinated. I don’t know if I’ll believe in it. Let’s see.
The affair rumor I’ve heard is that nobody really knows how long it lasted, maybe three or four years, between 1964 and 1968. It wasn’t consistent. I’ve never heard about those five years. If it lasted five years, it began before JFK’s death. I’ve read something about “a thing” beginning after Patrick’s death, but, IMO, it is only internet talk, not true at all.
The problem with the possible affair and the reason why I think many biographers don’t dare to speculate about it is because Ethel is still alive, and in the opinion of many is creepy and something like a betrayal of Jack’s memory (which I don’t agree). If they relly did have an affair, it was their private lives (something VERY private). Quite frankly, I’ve always thought it was obvious they had an affair. But it is only my opinion, which doesn’t make it true.
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Have you read Bobby and Jackie by C. David Heymann? I’m halfway through Nemesis. The affair began and ended with the 2 assassinations.
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I’ve read some parts of the book. Heymann is not the most reliable of the biographers, but I believe some of his interviews are real, even though many of the people he interviewed are dead (he claims he interviewed Kenny O’Donnell, who died in 77. He may have interviewed him, but still), which is always a problem. He also seems to use some the interviews he did for others books, but expands the content and doesn’t explain why he didn’t used that persons’ full interview in the previous book. For exemple, he interviewed Morton Downey, Jr. for his book RFK when he was still alive (I believe the interview took place) and in the book Morton doesn’t say anything about Bobby and Jackie. In “Bobby and Jackie” Morton is showing talking about Bobby and Jackie’s affair, in the same quote used in Heymann’s previous book. Why Heymann didn’t use the full interview? He may have saved the full interview for future books, but why released it after Morton Downey (and some others sources) are dead.
I’ve fact checked some of his sources and he misquotes some books, though he doesn’t change much of the content. Some sources I’ve checked are real. For exemple, in his book RFK (not the finest biography, but unfairly maligned) Heymann says Bobby about a sexual encounter with Jayne Mansfield. I was skeptical at first, but I’ve checked the source (Mansfield personal secretary and her road manager) and it seems it seems it really happened. I also believe in the interview with JFK biographer Nigel Hamilton (still living). According to Hamilton Chuck Spalding revealed to him (Hamilton) that Bobby and Jackie were lovers for four years until almost his death. Hamilton is a serious biographer, and I believe in Hamilton and I believe in Spalding. Actually, that was what convinced me Bobby and Jackie were lovers. Just one source, first hand, who was close ton them.
The problem most people have, including me, is that even if some of his sources are real and he did some real research, we can’t separate most of what is true and what is false. And if we can’t do that, we can’t believe in the whole book. I do believe in a small part of it, because I did some research. I don’t think Heymann is a bad as, shall we say, Darwin Potter. He took many years researching for his book on Bobby Kennedy and most people don’t like it because of the content about RFK’s sexual life. However, many parts of the book are really interesting and gives a more deep understanding of his character than many hagiographies out there.
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Mai, thanks for the insightful analysis. It is only recently that we have allowed the truth to come out about hallowed political figures like the Kennedy boys, which explains why many early Kennedy bios were hagiographies. Most bios for children to read are sanitized until there is little left of the true person.
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No one will ever know the truth.
George Vreeland Hill
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There’s always the afterlife for the revelation of all truths.
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I dont like jackie, she was a bad human being and the whole kennedy family as well
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