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Song of the summer 2025: writers pick their tracks of the season

Song of the summer 2025: writers pick their tracks of the season

The Guardian6 days ago
Summer is for out-of-office email bouncebacks, smashing your laptop shut at 4pm and putting it off until tomorrow. This year, no song represents the simple thrill of shrugging it off better than Addison Rae's Headphones On. With a detached, lobotomy-chic delivery that's drawn comparisons to Y2K-era Madonna, the TikTok star turned serious pop scholar breezes through a list of anxieties, from her parents' relationship to the ever-present thrill of being bumped down a notch by 'the new it girl'. Ultimately, our laconic heroine swaps a panic attack for slipping those headphones on and riding it all out with a song. Clocking in at exactly four minutes, there's a straightforwardness to it all that I can't help but appreciate. Rae will make you dance without working too hard. And that's all I want right now. Alaina Demopoulos
This song, sung by a six-woman international K-pop group, begins with an analysis of how malleable English slang is. 'They could describe everything with one single word, you know? / Boba tea, gnarly / Tesla, gnarly / Fried chicken, gnarly,' one member of Katseye sings, the bass thumping every time she says the most versatile descriptive word in the language, signifying intensity, both positive and negative. It's the early 2010s, and we're so back. The song is as maximalist as can be, similar to Skrillex's 2011 Bangarang or Kesha's 2010 hit TiK ToK. The music video, in which the group assembles a grotesque sandwich, calls back to 2010's Telephone, when Lady Gaga does the same. The song is fun and rowdy. It speeds forward, apt for TikTok (the app), where it first gained popularity with a distinctive, jerky dance. If you like Gnarly, I would suggest going in search of other songs by one of the song's writers, Alice Longyu Gao. Rich Bitch Juice and 100 Boyfriends feature the same mix of heavy bass and saccharine, electrified vocals and instrumentation. Blake Montgomery
Since squishing a NOW! compilation's worth of ideas into three minutes on her solo single Angel of My Dreams, Jade has backed up what Little Mixologists always suspected – that she knows pop as if she has an MA in Bangers. Ahead of the release of her debut album That's Showbiz, Baby!, there's something invitingly scrappy to the way she's dovetailed from brash EDM to orgasmic disco, discarding cheap wigs and Jade-branded buttplugs in her wake. (To my mind, the only other pop act exploring genre this boldly is Sabrina Carpenter, who is something like a spiritual sibling to Jade as well as her stylistic opposite.) Plastic Box bottles a certain Scandinavian strain of sweet melancholy, with Jade playing the jilted lover over seductive electro-pop. Co-producers Grades and Oscar Görres, the latter of whom helmed most of Troye Sivan's slick Something to Give Each Other, hug her voice with rosy synths and a chorus that explodes in a cloud of confetti. It's an end of summer party that's chicer than SSENSE – and despite Jade's antics that made her so much fun to follow, Plastic Box proves that she's just as magnetic when she strips them away. Owen Myers
To me, summer feels like going at terminal velocity down a waterslide: an unstoppable blur that before you know it has spat you out in the run-out pool of autumn, dazed and blinking. PinkPantheress's new 20-minute, 30-second mixtape Fancy That feels the same way, a rush of UK dance music history – heavy with samples of Basement Jaxx and Underworld and nods to Fatboy Slim and Groove Armada – guided by a flirt laying down the law in girlish RP. Illegal is the only time Pink's grip loosens, thanks to a hero dose of THC that leaves her tangled in lust, paranoia and shame. Between the reality-obliterating synth strobes, her sensory production makes you feel all the freedom and frustration of being high, close breaths and screams flickering through the slipstream. Laura Snapes
There are plenty of songs of the summer about falling in love or partying or breaking up or going for a long, gorgeous drive, but there are hardly enough songs for summer lethargy. When the mercury hits 90 degrees, all my friends go insane, my technology stops working, and I start napping for at least one hour a day. Enter commie bf, a blunt buzzsaw of a song on which forty winks singer Cilia Catello yells that 'everyone and everything makes my ears ring' right before she and her bandmates unleash a maelstrom of nasty, dementedly catchy punk-pop. This is a funny, and fun, and ferocious track – loud and unruly, but so intensely catchy that even the guitar-music-averse among us would have to admire its moxie. Catello's sheer frustration rings through every second of the song, enough to shake you from that heatwave-induced stupor and get your ass back into gear, no matter how sweaty and malcontent you may be. Shaad D'Souza
While pop fans fret about there not being a good enough song of the summer this year, the UK has gone ahead and anointed its choice anyway. MK's Dior is now at No 1 in the UK charts, standard behaviour for a country whose inhabitants need only the faintest hint of a 4/4 pop-dance beat on a temperate day to crack open a tinned cocktail at 11am and go 'wheeeeey' with arms stretched wide. US producer MK, AKA Marc Kinchen, has been around since the early 90s (he's behind the still-ubiquitous Push the Feeling On) and therefore brings a level of craft to bear on his productions that puts them into a different league to all other mirrored-wall nightclub fodder. 2017's 17 still shines like the white walls and high-tensile glass of an Ibizan villa; 2023's Asking is as good as build-and-drop dance gets. 2025's offering Dior is more coiled and sensual than those tracks, with a really dramatic delayed drop: silence and Chrystal's a cappella vocal fill the space where you expect the beat, creating a simple but spine-tingling effect. The high fashion references meanwhile make it a sort of sequel to 2023's equivalent dance-pop song of the summer, Cassö's Prada. Ben Beaumont-Thomas
Best efforts notwithstanding, the vibes aren't great this summer. The news is terrible, the AI ominous, the culture still in an extended hangover from last year's Espresso buzz and Brat bumps. There is no obvious song of the summer – the charts are basically tracks from 2024 or Morgan Wallen (though you wouldn't know it in godless New York); Charli xcx basically headlined Glastonbury; people are too busy arguing over Sabrina Carpenter's album cover to remember her Espresso follow-up Manchild. In this muggy malaise, I've been stuck on Haim's Relationships – the LA trio's best pop song to date, a bright, deceptively airy anthem for being fucking over it. Lyrically, this lead single off the sisters' aspirationally titled fourth album I Quit describes the messy end of some ill-defined entanglement. But its spare, intoxicating production – simple piano chords, ambling bass, synths glimmering like barlights at 9pm dusk – evokes a more general, potent summer ennui. I normally want the bpm up when it's hot, but this summer, I've been circling blocks to Danielle's dreamy falsetto, ascending with her rhetorical questions – fucking relationships, don't they end up all the same? – and then crashing back to earth with her 'when there's no one else to blame'. Feelings? In this strung-out summer? Try me next year. Adrian Horton
The most joyous sounding song of this summer addresses depression, numbness and the futility of it all. No Joy, by the tuneful New Zealand quartet the Beths, provides an ideal object lesson in the thrill of mixed messages in pop. The music couldn't feel more summery or light, fired by bouncy powerpop chords and chirpy backup vocals. The video, set in a candy-colored child's playroom, follows suit, with lead singer/writer Elizabeth Stokes deadpanning her way through lyrics like: 'All my pleasures, guilty / Clean slate looking filthy' and 'I feel nothing,' all while her bandmates smile with satirically exaggerated pleasure. It's impossible to keep a straight face while watching or listening to it, despite the fact that the numbness Stokes reports in her words reflects something sadly real. The lyrics chronicle her experience on the dulling SSRI drug she has used to deal with her depression. True as that may be for her, the song winds up giving the opposite feeling to the listener. When she sings 'no joy' over and over we feel nothing but – a twist that could make this the most ironic song of this summer, as well as the most irresistible. Jim Farber
Welcome to sombr season. Summer '25 seems to have given us a new star, and he's Shane Boose – otherwise known by his melancholy moniker, sombr. A native of New York's bustling Lower East Side, at just 19 he has effectively launched his mainstream career with a series of chart-topping singles which flaunts the artist's emotional, guitar-propelled lyrics. Yes you read that right, the new generation has officially rediscovered actual instruments, with the teenage artist seemingly channelling alt-rock acts like Arctic Monkeys and Radiohead, the latter of whom he's cited as a major influence. Songs like We Never Dated flaunt brutally honest lyrics accented by guitar-picking led it to become an instant breakout upon its late June release, which makes it a no-brainer when it comes to Song of the Summer status. Meanwhile, he's riding high on other explosive singles including Back to Friends, which recently was anointed as the most-streamed song on Spotify's global charts. Rob LeDonne
Without a factory-made earworm to invade our every waking moment, the floor has opened up to a wider selection of artists this summer and, as there always should be in my opinion, a wider selection of vibes to go with it. Songs of the summer are typically characterised by the infectious perk and sweaty overwhelm of mid-afternoon sun but there's another seasonal feeling we all know, as the brightness starts to fade, that also deserves its space. Boston-born singer Khamari knows it too and in delicate downer Head in a Jar, he captures a brand of summery sadness that's also rather seductive, a deliberate dive into dark feelings that's as refreshing as an early evening breeze. It's a song about being pushed away from the centre of someone's life, forced to watch from a distance instead and, with a voice that has rightly earned comparisons to the mostly awol Frank Ocean, Khamari pierces right through. He's quietly been gaining buzz since his similarly reflective 2020 EP Eldorado and this one deserves to vault him from the outside in. Benjamin Lee
You know you're in the right party if someone throws down this tune. The Chilean-German firebrand Matías Aguayo returned in May with a subversive dancefloor heater that has been building in notoriety over the subsequent months. It's sung in Spanish but translates to, Aguayo says: 'walking through the city on hot summer nights looking for the perfect dancefloor'. But it's also a mission statement, longing for 'revolutions in music and dreams in community' away from homogenisation, social media likes and solely facing the DJ booth. In the track, Aguayo remembers the freewheeling days of YouTube rips where you could hear 'raw, primitive and direct music' from, say, a Syrian wedding or Angolan teenagers dancing on the streets – references for El Internet's own jittery, restless rhythm and also his live DJ sets, where he sings and dances inside a circle in the audience, inviting onlookers to move freely with him and let loose. It's lithe, gonzo techno for sticky evenings in search of catharsis and connection. Kate Hutchinson
Taken from London-based polymath Tom Rasmussen's High Wire, a remixed and reimagined version of last year's excellent Live Wire album, new song Gay Bar – not a cover of Electric Six, apols – showcases two of my favourite summer past-times; trashy storytelling and gossip. Who doesn't love a steamy page-turner on the beach, interrupted only by the details of last night's escapades wafting over from the gaggle of pals nearby? On Gay Bar, Rasmussen details three attempts at a night out; the first is interrupted by a pint to the face, and then completely ruined by the gay bar now being a Slug & Lettuce. Night two, meanwhile, involves going to the place where 'Danielle sucked on that MP's armpit', but – shock horror! - it's now a Crossfit gym full of 'muscled up yuppies'. By night three, with hope dwindling, Rasmussen takes a straight friend giving off 'bi vibes' to a busy gay bar. As the song's hi-NRG dance pop ratchets up, you find yourself gripped as the story reaches its climax; will Cassandra get off with anyone? What's Rasmussen doing in the basement? When will the decimation of queer nightlife end? It's a real page-turner. Michael Cragg
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Billy Joel sets record straight over DUI rumors after multiple concerning car accidents
Billy Joel sets record straight over DUI rumors after multiple concerning car accidents

Daily Mail​

time5 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

Billy Joel sets record straight over DUI rumors after multiple concerning car accidents

is setting the record straight. In his candid new two-part HBO documentary, Billy Joel: And So It Goes, the music legend tackles the ups and downs of his life in the spotlight, including long-standing rumors that he's had multiple DUIs. The 76-year-old singer, who announced he is battling the brain disorder, normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH), earlier this year, makes it clear: those stories are false. 'I didn't like the tabloid kind of press. For example, there's this rumor that I have all these DUIs,' Joel says in the film. 'That never happened.' 'But people keep repeating the myth. 'Oh, he's got so many DUIs.' I never had a DUI. So f**k you,' he adds. 'The press can be mean. So having that much attention paid to you is not easy.' The deeply personal documentary, now streaming on HBO, explores a turbulent chapter in Joel's life during the mid-2000s when he stepped out of the public eye. During that time, he was involved in several car accidents, leading many to speculate about substance use. In June 2002, Joel crashed his 1999 Mercedes-Benz. The following year, he drove a 2002 Mercedes into a tree in Sag Harbor and was treated for head injuries. Then in 2004, he lost control of his 1967 Citroen in Bayville, crashing into an empty house. The final accident left him with a cut finger and minor damage to the car, according to the documentary. Still, Joel insists those incidents weren't alcohol-related. In a 2013 interview with The New York Times Magazine, he clarified: 'I never had a DUI in my life. That's another fallacy. Look at the police records.' Instead, he attributed the accidents to emotional struggles. 'My mind wasn't right. I wasn't focused. I went into a deep, deep depression after 9/11. 9/11 just knocked the wind out of me, and I don't know even now if I've recovered from it. It really, really hurt that man could do that to man. And then there was a breakup with somebody, and it took me a while to get me back on my feet again.' And So It Goes, directed by Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin, not only clears up misconceptions but also takes a closer look at Joel's battles with depression, substance abuse, and the road to recovery. As Joel told People in a recent cover story, it wasn't easy to revisit some of those moments. 'Some of the stupid stuff I did, that's painful to talk about,' he admitted. Initially hesitant about the documentary, Joel said, 'My goal was to get it over with… When I do interviews, people just ask you about yourself and you get a little self-conscious about it eventually. It's almost embarrassing. When you're talking about your personal life detached from the material… I suppose there's a little bit of wariness involved.' The film also includes insights from those closest to him, including his sister Judy, daughter Alexa Ray, 39, and longtime friends and collaborators like lighting designer Steve Cohen and booking agent Dennis Arfa. Cohen reflected on Joel's resilience and drive: 'You make mistakes. He always said to me, "You show up. You do the best you can. You admit when you're wrong and you let other people tell you how good you are. You don't tell yourself how good you are."' And ultimately, Cohen hopes fans walk away with a deeper understanding of the man behind the music. 'I hope fans walk away realizing how f**king human he is, and I hope they come back listening to these songs again with a deeper affection. I hope that you walk away from this thing going, 'I now justify my fandom. I know why this guy is as good and why I respond to it, because that's the kind of guy I can relate to his life. I can relate to those emotions.' Despite his hesitations to do the documentary, Joel was an open book as he looked back on his failed marriages, battle with alcohol, financial troubles and much more. The singer also opens up about pre-fame suicide attempts and his mother's alcoholism. And So It Goes has already gained glowing reviews from Rolling Stone, Variety, and Newsday. In May, the Piano Man singer shared that he had been diagnosed with normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH). The condition has impacted Joel's 'hearing, vision, and balance,' according to the social media post. A spokesperson for the singer said that his condition had been 'exacerbated' by recent performances. Normal pressure hydrocephalus is caused by too much fluid collecting in the ventricles, or spaces in the brain and spinal cord, putting pressure on these areas and triggering its symptoms, including struggling to walk, an inability to control the bladder and memory problems. This happens because the excess fluid compresses and stretches the brain tissue, interfering with the control of muscles and communication between nerve cells. When diagnosed early, NPH can often be effectively treated with surgery that drains excess fluid from the brain, relieving pressure and symptoms - but it can often be mistaken at an early stage for other illnesses such as dementia. However, if left untreated, the condition may lead to permanent damage in its later stages. Joel's illustrious career as a musician began back in the mid-1960, which led to the release of debut studio album, Cold Spring Harbor (1971). But it failed to gain any real traction until after the success of his follow-up, Piano Man (1973), that peaked at number 25 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number four on the Adult Contemporary singles chart. Now an established name on the musical landscape, Joel became a million seller with the release of Streetlife Serenade (1974), but his commercial breakout making him a bonafide star came with the release of The Stranger (1977), which featured the hit singles Movin' Out (Anthony's Song), Just The Way You Are, She's Always a Woman, The Stranger, and Only The Good Die Young. He would go on to release a 13th album - Fantasies & Delusions (2001) - that features classical compositions from Joel, a first for him during his career. With over 160 million records sold worldwide, Joel is one of the world's best-selling musical artists, and the fourth-best-selling solo artist in the United States.

Beyonce sends fans into a frenzy as she reunites with Destiny's Child bandmates Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams for the 'perfect ending' to her Cowboy Carter tour in Las Vegas
Beyonce sends fans into a frenzy as she reunites with Destiny's Child bandmates Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams for the 'perfect ending' to her Cowboy Carter tour in Las Vegas

Daily Mail​

time5 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

Beyonce sends fans into a frenzy as she reunites with Destiny's Child bandmates Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams for the 'perfect ending' to her Cowboy Carter tour in Las Vegas

Beyonce brought the curtain down on her record-breaking Cowboy Carter tour in spectacular fashion on Saturday night, as she reunited with her Destiny's Child bandmates for a medley of hits. As she took to the stage for her final show at Las Vegas ' Allegiant Stadium, the hitmaker was joined by Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams for a medley of 2000s hits Bootylicious and Lose My Breath. The trio also delivered a rendition of Beyonce's Renaissance number Energy, including the song's viral 'mute challenge.' It was the first time Destiny's Child had performed together since Kelly and Michelle made a brief cameo in Beyonce's Coachella performance back in 2018, following their split in 2005. It was no surprise that the performance sent die-hard fans into a frenzy, with many declaring it the 'perfect ending' to Beyonce's tour. Posts on X included: 'THE HUGGING AND HOLDING HANDS AT THE END??? I'M FALLING TO MY KNEES 'The Cowboy Carter era changed my life, just like renaissance did, and I cannot imagine where act 3 will take us. Oh Beyonce the once in a lifetime artist you are. 'Oh when Destiny's Child reunites, it's not nostalgia - it's divine timing... Beyonce closed Cowboy Carter with the loudest mic drop in history 'THE DESTINY'S CHILD B*****H I LIFE FOR THISSSS; The way my innter 2000s self just screamed 'SOME PEOPLE DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW ICONIC THIS WAS; 'You thought this was just a tour? Nah baby, it's a family reunion with rhinestones 'Y'all will never understand how iconic this is considering they're one of the most successful girl groups of all time 'Beyonce closing Cowboy Carter with Kelly and Michelle by her side feels like the perfect ending.' It comes after Beyonce's tour was plagued with a string of incidents from poor ticket sales, on-stage tech malfunctions to choreography issues. Beyoncé recently concluded her epic six-night concern run in London and her shows in Paris. She closed out the European leg of her Cowboy Carter tour and brought out her husband to perform their hit single Crazy in Love in the French capital as the couple took the stage together for the first time in seven years. Her concert in France was a family affair as she was also joined by their daughter Blue Ivy on stage and had her mom Tina Knowles supporting them. After performing in cities around Europe, Beyonce performed in her hometown of Houston, Texas and experienced a horrifying moment when she suffered a stage mishap with a mid-air prop. At one point during her show on June 29, the red convertible she rides high above the crowd during her performance of 16 Carriages tilted dangerously, threatening to throw the Cowboy Carter artist off the car and into the audience. Still, Beyoncé returned to the main stage and finished the performance like the consummate professional she is. After the show, Beyoncé's team released a statement addressing the incident. 'Tonight in Houston, at NRG Stadium, a technical mishap caused the flying car, a prop Beyoncé uses to circle the stadium, and see her fans up close, to tilt. 'She was quickly lowered and no one was injured. The show continued without incident,' Parkwood Entertainment said.

Inside JFK's first love, a suspected Nazi spy who stole Adolf Hitler's heart
Inside JFK's first love, a suspected Nazi spy who stole Adolf Hitler's heart

Daily Mail​

time5 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

Inside JFK's first love, a suspected Nazi spy who stole Adolf Hitler's heart

omantic life might have turned out different had his father Joe Kennedy, allowed him to marry his first love, Inga Arvad, a woman Joe referred to as a 'Nazi b***h'. In the new book JFK: Public, Private, Secret, author J Randy Taraborrelli claims that JFK never truly got over the heartbreak and being forced to split from Arvad - and held it against his father until the day he died. The young Kennedy met Inga Arvad in October 1941. At 28, the Danish journalist was four years older than him and already twice married. But their attraction was electric, writes Taraborrelli. 'He had charm that makes the birds come out of the trees,' the book reports that Arvad wrote of Jack, 'natural, engaging, ambitious, warm, and when he walked into a room you knew he was there, not pushing, not domineering but exuding animal magnetism.' Arvad's son, Ron McCoy, told Taraborrelli: 'For my mom it was pretty much love at first sight. That's how she described it to me anyway. She called it an "awakening," her chemistry with Jack Kennedy being so instantaneous. 'It was as if they'd known each other in some other life and were now picking up where they'd left off. It felt natural. It felt organic. Above all, she said, it felt real.' For his part, Jack was apparently also smitten. She had it all: brains, beauty, and the uncanny ability to see him for who he truly was. And, according to Taraborrelli, Jack referred to her as 'Inga Binga,' and they spent every night they could... in bed. But just two months into their romance, America was on the brink of war, and Arvad was accused of being a Nazi spy. The source of the accusation was an alleged photograph of her with Hitler. Unsurprisingly, the FBI - and its powerful director J Edgar Hoover - got involved, and Hoover demanded nothing less than weekly updates on the case. Arvad was forced to admit that she had, indeed, met the Hitler in Berlin six years earlier, when she'd interviewed him for a Danish newspaper. The following year, Hitler invited Arvad to join him in his box at the 1936 Olympics, then to a private lunch, during which he'd given her a questionable gift: a framed photograph of himself. 'She accepted it,' said Taraborrelli, 'but it made her nervous because it was starting to feel to her that maybe he was interested in her.' She had reason to worry. Hitler was likely infatuated with her, having described her as 'the most perfect example of Nordic beauty'. Arvad told Jack - and the FBI - that, following the lunch, 'someone with strong Nazi connections suddenly tried to recruit her as a spy' but she 'immediately rejected the proposition'. Terrified at the implications of her refusal, she escaped to Denmark, then Washington, where she met Jack. While disturbed by the revelations, Jack believed his lover, according to Taraborreli. They'd been together only three months, but they'd already discussed marriage. He was determined to fight for her. But Joe Kennedy was reportedly having none of it. During a heated showdown with his son, he demanded that Jack break it off with the 'Nazi b***h' immediately. The FBI eventually dropped its investigation in August 1942, finding no evidence against Arvad. But, ultimately, it wasn't enough to save the affair. Jack had caved under pressure and broken off the relationship five months earlier. It would be 10 years before he was ready to commit again. Like Arvad, Jacqueline Bouvier was incredibly intelligent, and independent. And, while her dark hair and close attention to her perfect makeup were in stark contrast to the free-spirited Dane, what she had on her side was timing. The family was all in agreement: Jack needed a wife if he was ever going to be president. They worried that he was 'obviously lukewarm' about Bouvier - but if not her, then who? Joe reportedly responded: 'I actually don't care who, so long as she didn't go to Hitler's funeral.' Jack proposed the following summer, but the author suggests that it took a long time before it became a love match. He reports Bouvier's mother, Janet Auchincloss, asked her daughter, upon hearing of their engagement: 'Do you love him?' 'It's not that simple,' she replied. 'It is, Jacqueline,' her mother shot back. 'Do. You. Love. Him?' The future First Lady's response remained non-committal: 'I enjoy him.' Taraborrelli also claims Bouvier confided in Betty Beale, the society columnist at the Washington Evening Star, around the same time, saying she felt 'Jack had been pulling away ever since the engagement was announced'. 'True to his character,' writes Taraborrelli, 'while they had been dating, he was interested in her on some days, less interested on others. She said she saw in him what she often noticed in his father toward his mother: indifference.' Just a few weeks before his wedding, Jack insisted on going on a boys-only vacation to the famous Cap-Eden-Roc hotel in Cannes where, if he'd had his way, he would have begun a torrid affair with a woman who bore more than a passing resemblance to Inga Arvad, according to Taraborrelli. Gunilla von Post was Swedish, and just 21 when she met the future president in the south of France. She was 'definitely young,' writes Taraborrelli, 'but he didn't see that as a problem.' Both blondes also bear an uncanny resemblance to the woman who would be forever inextricably linked to the Kennedy: Marilyn Monroe. On Jack's return to the U.S., he made the unusual step of asking his future mother-in-law to add his first love, Arvad, to the wedding guest list. But under questioning about this last-minute addition, he let it drop. Taraborrelli notes: 'While Jack hadn't seen Inga in six years, apparently he was still in touch with her. Maybe it shows the bond he still had with her that he wanted her at his wedding, but it also shows a foolish lapse in judgment. Certainly not much good would come from Inga's presence.' Two years after his wedding, however, it seems Gunilla von Post's rejection of his sexual advances was still very much on his mind. And, in the wake of a devastating miscarriage, which left his now-wife with crippling anxiety attacks, Jack made the astonishingly selfish proposition that they go on separate trips: she to visit her sister in England, while he would attempt once more to get von Post into bed on her home turf. Kennedy and von Post reportedly spent a week together in Sweden, with Jack's partner in crime Torbert Macdonald as fixer. And this time, he got what he wanted, says Taraborrelli. 'Some of Gunilla's descriptions of her time with Jack that week - "We were wonderfully sensual. There were times when just the stillness of being together was thrilling enough" - sound a great deal more like some sort of starry-eyed, fictional version of JFK than a realistic one,' reasons Taraborrelli. 'Much of what she'd recall… sounds unlikely given what we now know of his remote personality of the 1950s. It does, however, maybe sound like the JFK of the 1940s, the more romantic version of him back in the days when he was with Inga Arvad. Maybe, in this case, the devil isn't in the details, though. 'There are enough witnesses to Jack and [Gunilla von Post's] public outings, including close friends and relatives she identified by name, to confirm that they were definitely together.' On the flight home, Macdonald told a friend that Jack suddenly felt the weight of what he'd done, and was filled with remorse. 'This was a s****y thing to do to Jackie,' the book reports him as saying. 'This was a mistake.' While von Post was convinced it was just the start of their affair, in the end, the two never saw each other again. 'Jack told intimates… that he'd been rationalizing his bad behavior for so long, it had become second nature to do so,' writes Taraborrelli. 'His father was to blame, he'd sometimes reason. After all, if not for Joe, he would've ended up with Inga Arvad, someone he truly loved, instead of Jackie, someone he married for political purposes and then grew to love.'

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