For almost six decades the world has believed that Marilyn Monroe was Jacqueline Kennedy’s mortal enemy.
After all, the iconic blonde bombshell was rumoured to have had an illicit affair with Jackie’s husband, US president John F. Kennedy.
But now, a new book has revealed a stunning twist in the tale.
In JFK: Public, Private, Secret, biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli claims that Jackie was actually very forgiving of Marilyn, and was saddened when the actress died in 1962.
How did Jackie Kennedy react when Marilyn Monroe died
Despite Jackie’s belief that her husband was in fact involved with the screen goddess, “after Marilyn died, Jackie was bereft,” Taraborrelli explains.
In his book, Taraborrelli, who’s also written a biography about Jackie,recounts a conversation she had with her half-sister, Janet Auchincloss Rutherfurd, after Marilyn died in her Los Angeles home on August 4, 1962.
“The world destroyed Marilyn,” Taraborrelli claims Janet said during a conversation with Jackie and their mother, also named Janet.
But the First Lady didn’t agree.
“No, Janet,” Jackie is alleged to have told her sibling.
“The world didn’t destroy Marilyn. The world built Marilyn up. It was the men in her life who destroyed Marilyn.”
What happened with Marilyn Monroe and JFK?
It was a stunningly kind take by Jackie, who married JFK in 1953.
She was left to bring up their two young children, Caroline and John Jr., alone following his assassination on November 22, 1963.
Despite her gracious comments about Marilyn, Taraborrelli’s book adds that Jackie was not unaware of the rumours about her husband and Marilyn.
The gossip reached fever pitch in 1962, when Marilyn sang a sultry version of ‘Happy Birthday’ to JFK at Madison Square Garden, in honour of his 45th birthday, at a fundraising event on May 19.
Taraborrelli claims Jackie once raised the rumour about Marilyn with JFK. “This one’s different, Jack,” she’s reported to have said. “This one worries me.”
What Jackie knew
The author told People magazine he came across the information “from somebody who was right there in the White House who overhead that conversation. [Jackie] didn’t know the nature of the relationship, but she knew him well enough to suspect something was going on.”
Taraborrelli adds, “What’s really important is her use of the language: ‘this one’s different.’”
How did Jackie Kennedy feel about Marilyn Monroe?
While it has never been definitively proven or confirmed that JFK and Marilyn had an affair, it is a fact that Jackie was a notable absentee from the Madison Square Garden party.
This makes it all the more remarkable that Jackie would have sympathy for Marilyn – and point the finger at the men in her life – upon her tragic death just a few short months later.
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