C. David Heymann - Bobby and Jackie: A Love Story

I FIRST HEARD hints and whispers of a romantic involvement between Robert and Jacqueline Kennedy while researching and conducting interviews for A Woman Named Jackie, my 1989 biography of the former First Lady. Because Jackie was still very much alive at the time, it is easy to understand why interviewees were reluctant to discuss the romance in great depth or detail. Following Jacquelines death in 1994and after I had begun work on RFK, my 1998 biography of Robert Kennedyinterview subjects, old and new, were suddenly much more eager to explore the topic. Thereafter nearly every biography of Bobby or Jackie, including volumes by Edward Klein, Christopher Andersen, Sarah Bradford, and Peter Evans, capitalized on my research and reported on the Bobby-Jackie affair, in certain instances adding new details to those already known.

After the publication of RFK, I continued to probe the subject, collecting further material and information. I was aided in part by the release in 2007 of a set of previously unavailable reports and briefs prepared by the Secret Service and the FBI, released to me under the Freedom of Information Act. Covering the years 1964 to 1968, when the liaison took place, these documents confirmed what I had already ascertained by way of personal interviews. I was thus able to piece together a complete picture of the complex relationship that existed between two of the most heralded figures of the twentieth century.

Too often in earlier biographies, Robert Kennedy was depicted as something of a choirboy when, in fact, he enjoyed the same proclivity for extramarital affairs as his brothers, Jack and Ted Kennedy. Insiders, among them Ted Kennedy as well as his sisters, were evidently well aware of the circumstances. Given Bobbys and Jackies shared grief over the 1963 assassination of Jack Kennedy, it is not difficult to imagine how such an unlikely union could begin. The relationship grew and continued on its own, ending not because of lack or loss of affection but out of pure practical necessity when RFK decided to run for president in 1968. It is also clear, in the confusing days following Bobbys death, why Jackie turned to Aristotle Onassis for solace, agreeing to marry him and to leave the United States and raise her children abroad.

Despite the conclusive accounts of those insiders quoted in this volume, I dont doubt for a moment that some readers will remain skeptical that a romance actually took place. In the course of writing four books on the Kennedys, I have come across individuals who still deny the rampant womanizing of JFK, both before and after he became president. It took The New York Times, often cited as our most authoritative newspaper, some thirty years to admit in print that Jack Kennedy had numerous affairs outside his marriage. With all this purported womanizing, the doubters ask, how is it possible that JFK still had time to run the country? A somewhat related query might be posed regarding Bobby and Jackie. If such an affair took place, how is it conceivable that they managed to keep it out of the public eye? The answer to the first question is that President Kennedy compartmentalized his life to such an extent that he was able to preside over the nation while at the same time pursuing a hyperactive social schedule. The answer to the second question is that in the 1960s, the private lives of public figures were simply not covered by the media, certainly not to the extent that they are today when even the slightest impropriety, sexual or otherwise, gets reported, probed, and reported again.

Certain readers may also wonder or ask if it is even necessary to divulge the inner (or private) lives of biographical figures such as Robert and Jacqueline Kennedy. As a biographer, it has always been my conviction that sexual (or personal) behavior is integral to a fuller understanding of a persons life, particularly in the case of a public personality. Knowing that Robert and Jackie Kennedy became romantically involved following JFKs deathand for reasons that this volume attempts to revealsheds a whole new light on who they were and what made them tick. It demonstrates, among other things, that they were motivated by many of the same temptations and emotions that drive the rest of us. It helps us gain a fuller comprehension not only of them but also of ourselves.

A T 12:30 P.M. ( CST ) ON Friday, November 22, 1963, as President John Fitzgerald Kennedys motorcade approached the Texas School Book Depository at Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, a series of gunshots rang out. Six minutes later the Lincoln Continental limousine carrying the president and his wife, as well as Texas governor John Connally and his wife, lurched to a halt in front of the emergency entrance to Parkland Memorial Hospital. Cradling her dying husband in her arms, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy refused to allow the waiting medics to lift the president out of the backseat until Secret Service agent Clint Hill wrapped JFKs gaping head wound in his own suit jacket.

Jackies clothes were so heavily splattered with blood and gore that the first hospital security guard she encountered thought shed been wounded along with the governor and the president. Lady Bird Johnson, the wife of Vice President Lyndon Johnson, arrived at Parkland shortly after the First Lady and saw her standing by herself in the narrow corridor outside the trauma room where they had taken the president. Jackie looked more alone and vulnerable at that moment, Lady Bird later told White House chief of staff Ken ODonnell, than anyone Id ever seen. Embracing the First Lady, Mrs. Johnson asked if she needed a change of clothing. Jackie shook her head from side to side. I want people to see what theyve done to Jack, she responded.