John F Kennedy.Photo: Arnold Sachs/Archive Photos/Getty
The personal allure ofJohn F. Kennedy— strong as a magnet — is, for many, what sets him apart in the history books.
A charismatic orator, Kennedy’s charm often masked his flaws (and fed his penchant for flirtation). But as a new book details, behind the appeal of the young senator-turned-president was a man who faced a steady stream of challengesbefore his assassination in 1963.
“Though fortune had smiled generously on John Kennedy throughout his forty‐six years, tragedy always patiently lay in wait,” Updegrove writes.
Even long after death, Kennedy’s reputation as a “rampant and reckless womanizer” has thrived. But according to Updegrove, his passion for extramarital affairs wasn’t something that stemmed from his presidential power. It was something he learned at an early age.
“In the hypercompetitive, testosterone‐infused Kennedy family, unbridled womanizing seemed as much about keeping score as it did the thrill of the conquest,” the author writes.
Updegrove expounds on this idea elsewhere in his book, writing that “to be sure, JFK had grown up learning philandering at the feet of the master, Joe Kennedy, Sr.”
But as he grew older, got married, had children and even after he was elected president, the younger Kennedy’s cheating continued.
Rumors and stories of thisdogged him for yearsbeyond his 1963 assassination and, as Updegrove writes, went beyond mere habit.
John F Kennedy and Jackie.Bettmann/Getty
“Anyone” included starlets — among themMarilyn Monroe— and others who never publicly confirmed their reported dalliances with President Kennedy.
Updegrove, the head of the LBJ Foundation and a presidential historian for ABC News, spoke to a number of Kennedy confidantes while researching his book. Among them was actressAngie Dickinson, who recalled Kennedy’s “charisma” and “drop dead” good looks. (Asked about an affair with Kennedy, as has been long whispered, Dickinson told the author: “We had a lot of fun thinking about it.")
In his book, Updegrove also gives his answer on a persistent question: First LadyJacqueline Kennedyknew about her husband’s proclivities and “accepted” that part of his life, he writes — but that surely didn’t make it any easier for the woman who, in public, exuded grace.
A similar tragedy would befall the couple during Kennedy’s White House tenure with the birth of their second son,Patrick.
The date — Aug. 7, 1963 — proved to be something of an omen, with Patrick coming five-and-a-half weeks early. Updegrove writes that President Kennedy was rushed aboard Air Force One from Washington, D.C., to meet his wife at Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, “where a suite had been prepared for the first lady in its modest hospital.”
The little boy was born while the president was still en route, at 12:52 p.m, with Updegrove believing that “as [he] rushed to New England, his mixed record as a husband and father surely must have weighed on his mind.”
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Seven years after President Kennedy had disappeared in the wake of the death of Arabella, he bore the responsibility of informing his wife of another loss.
After returning to Cape Cod from Boston, Updegrove writes, Kennedy “fell to his knees, his arms around [the first lady], as tears streamed down his face. It was only the third time Jackie had seen her husband cry.”
As the two held one another, she told him, “There’s one thing I couldn’t stand. If I lost you . . .”
The loss instilled in the president “a wistfulness and greater sense of mortality” and strengthened the Kennedys as a couple, according to Updegrove. It would also, most fatefully, inform the first lady’s fortitude “in the unimaginable days ahead in late November.”
Indeed, as has been recounted countless times before, Nov. 22, 1963, seemed “promising” for the Kennedys.
Incomparable Graceis out now.
source: people.com
