Latest news with #JacquelineKennedy
The Guardian
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘He didn't think he was a good man': new book reveals unseen portrait of JFK
J Randy Taraborrelli has already written five books on the Kennedy family but his sixth, JFK: Public, Private, Secret, is his first that's directly about John F Kennedy, 35th US president from 1961 until his assassination in Dallas two years later. 'I have been writing about the Kennedys from Jackie's perspective for 25 years,' Taraborrelli said, referring to Jacqueline Kennedy, the first lady who lived for another 30 years after he was shot, a figure of worldwide fascination. Taraborrelli's first book about the Kennedys 'was Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot, and that was in 2000. And then I did After Camelot, which was a lot about Jackie and her marriage to [Aristotle] Onassis,' the Greek shipping tycoon, 'Camelot' the name given to the Kennedys' apparently charmed circle, in reference to the legendary court of King Arthur. 'I also did Jackie, Janet and Lee, which was about Jackie and her mom [Janet Auchincloss] and her sister [Lee Radziwill]. Two years ago, I did Jackie: Public, Private, Secret, which was Jackie, cradle to grave. When that was successful, I thought, 'It's time to tell JFK's side of the story.'' Evidently, Kennedy books sell. So do books by Taraborrelli, whose subjects have also included Diana Ross, Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Cher and Elizabeth Taylor. For JFK, he turned to the vast Kennedy archives but also his own extensive interviews, looked at anew, and new sources including Monroe's publicist, Patricia Newcomb, now 95, and Janet Des Rosiers Fontaine, once secretary and girlfriend to JFK's father, Joseph Kennedy, now 100 years old. Readers 'know what they're going to get when they read one of my books,' Taraborrelli said. 'It's not going to be … a blow-by-blow of every moment in JFK's political history. I wanted to do more of a human portrait, something people can [use to] really sort of understand this man and like him or hate him, at least.' Taraborrelli's central theme is JFK's treatment of women. 'We've always looked at JFK as this unconscionable cheating husband,' he said. 'I wanted to maybe not defend him as much as explain him, try to get into his head and tell his side of the story. This book is really a companion to Jackie: Public, Private, Secret. When you read them both, you really get a full picture of that marriage.' It's a sympathetic picture. Taraborrelli's JFK is a relentless adulterer but one who came to some realization of his weakness, through the painful consequences of his behavior, through a belatedly deepening connection to his wife, and through the trials of office. Taraborrelli said: 'The thing about JFK is that as unconscionable as his actions were, he still had a conscience, which made it even more difficult for him, because if you have no conscience, then you can just be a crappy person and you're OK with it. It's when you have a conscience that it causes problems for you internally.' JFK's behavior has certainly caused problems for his reputation. As Taraborrelli was writing, Maureen Callahan published Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed, a lacerating account, ceding nothing to the trappings of glamor and power. Taraborrelli did not read it: 'If it had come out at a different time, I might have. But when books start coming out while I'm working on a book, I don't even want to know what's in them, because I don't want to inadvertently repeat the same material or be in some way influenced. 'I also made a decision early on with JFK that I did not want [the book] to be a compendium of all of his affairs … an A-through-Z list of every woman he ever slept with, because these women, many of them have written books of their own, and many of them have been interviewed for books. Their stories have been told. 'I wanted to find women that made a difference, like Joan Lundberg actually made a difference in his life. Judith Exner made a difference, though I don't believe anything she ever said about anything. She was there, you know. Mary Meyer made a difference. Marilyn Monroe makes a difference, historically if not personally.' Whether JFK had an affair with Monroe is part of a conspiracy-laced legacy fueled by Kennedy's policies and presidency, his proximity to organized crime (in part through Exner, also involved with a Chicago mobster), and his assassination, all of it fuel for a thriving publishing industry of labyrinthine what-ifs. Taraborrelli says he has no wish to join it. He deals with the assassination in a few final pages, pointedly ignoring old questions: did killer Lee Harvey Oswald act alone, what did the CIA know. Releases of government files came and went. Taraborrelli stayed focused on his man. He thinks there was no Monroe affair – chiefly, though Jackie expressed concern, because no evidence exists. But Taraborrelli does say JFK had a previously unknown affair with Lundberg, a Californian air hostess, in the 1950s, when he was an ambitious senator from Massachusetts. It ended for Lundberg with Kennedy paying for an abortion. Taraborrelli said: 'JFK met Joan when he was on the outs with his family. Jackie had a stillbirth in 1956 and JFK did not return from a vacation to be with his wife. It took him a week to get back. And when he got back, everybody in the family, both sides of the family, wanted nothing to do with him. In fact, Jackie's mom was so upset that she made him sleep in the servants' quarters over the garage. 'And so he went to Los Angeles, and he met [Lundberg], and she didn't know anything about him, other than that he was a famous senator, but she didn't know him personally, and she didn't know anybody in his life. And he was able to open up to her honestly and use her as sort of a pseudo-therapist to try to work out some of his issues. And he was trying to grapple with how could he have done this to his wife?' As Callahan shows, Kennedy men doing unconscionable things to women has never been rare. JFK's nephew, Robert F Kennedy Jr, is now US health secretary, after extensive coverage of his philandering and its tragic consequences. Of JFK, Taraborrelli said: 'At one point, Joan said to him, 'I think that you're a good person.' And he said, 'No, I'm really not.' He did not even think he was a good man. He said he felt like he was stuck in himself and he couldn't figure out a way to get out.' Nor could Kennedy's sister, Rosemary, who endured developmental difficulties and whose father arranged in 1941 'for brain surgery that went terribly wrong, turned her into an invalid, and then he institutionalized her and told the family they needed to forget she existed, and they all did, but JFK held this shame that he let this happen to the sister he loved. 'In the book, you realize that if he was able to disassociate himself from his own sister, who he loved, then how was he to feel about a baby Jackie had that died, who he didn't know? It's like he didn't have empathy. Jackie realized that, so she found Rosemary, the sister [JFK] had not seen in 15 years, and she encouraged him to go to and reconnect with his sister, because she knew he could not be a fully realized man, holding this dark secret and feeling ashamed. 'And so that was another building block. And then when their son Patrick died [living less than two days in August 1963] that was another building block.' As Taraborrelli sees it, such experiences helped bring 'Kennedy out of himself' on the brink of his death, 'turn[ing] him into a different man, a man with good character … and so in this book, you see JFK take accountability for his mistakes. He says, 'The way that I was was painful, and by painful, I mean shameful.' 'He also takes accountability as a president when the Bay of Pigs [the 1961 invasion of Cuba], for instance, is a disaster. It was something he inherited from [President Dwight D] Eisenhower but he didn't blame the other administration, 'I have to clean up that guy's mess,' all that stuff. JFK went to the American people and said, 'I'm the president. This is my responsibility. I did this, and I'm sorry.' And guess what? His approval rating went up to 85%, because people want a president who takes accountability. 'But he had to become a man who could take accountability first, and he did. That's a great story, and I think it's a really hopeful story to tell, especially in these days when we question what is leadership and what do we expect from our leaders.' JFK: Public, Private, Secret is out now
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Bulldozes the White House Rose Garden
Bulldozers have begun ripping up the grass and digging the foundation for a new flagpole in the White House Rose Garden lawn, making good on President Donald Trump's plan to install a Mar-a-Lago-style patio. Employees with the National Park Service, which maintains the White House grounds, began work Monday on the project. They expect to finish sometime during the first half of August, the Associated Press reported. Trump walked over to inspect the work and told reporters he was installing two 'beautiful' flagpoles 'paid for by Trump' because the grounds have 'needed flagpoles for 200 years,' according to the AP. The White House already flies the American flag and the POW/MIA flag on the roof every day. The president had announced in mid-February he wanted to remove the Rose Garden lawn, which is often the site of bill-signing ceremonies, press conferences, award presentations, and formal dinners. He later explained that the reason was because women had trouble walking in the wet grass in high heels. 'The grass just, it doesn't work,' he told Fox News during a White House tour in March. 'We use it for press conferences and it doesn't work because the people fall into the wet grass.' The White House has two rose gardens: the Rose Garden located along the West Wing and the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden south of the East Terrace Colonnade. Both were originally created in 1903 by former First Lady Edith Roosevelt and redesigned for the Kennedys during the early 1960s. It was President John F. Kennedy's idea to revitalize the Rose Garden and convert the lawn that Trump is bulldozing into a space for official events, according to Rose Garden designer Rachel Lambert Mellon. Besides the garden's facelift, Trump has vowed to build a $100 million ballroom in keeping with the Grand Ballroom at Mar-a-Lago, the president's private club in Palm Beach, Florida. Last month, a large magnolia tree that had been planted outside the Oval Office window to commemorate John F. Kennedy Jr. was cut down and replaced with a smaller tree. First lady Melania Trump also renovated both the Rose Garden and the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden in 2020. The latter, which was more extensive, sparked an outcry and inspired petitions calling for the garden to be restored to its 'former glory.'
Telegraph
03-07-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Melania Trump visits children's hospital in rare public appearance
Melania Trump visited sick children in a rare public appearance on Thursday. The first lady met with patients at the Children's National Hospital in Washington DC, as the children made arts and crafts ahead of American Independence Day on July 4. Mrs Trump, continuing a tradition of support by first ladies for the paediatric care centre, helped the children to decorate rocks and cups. She brought gifts of teddy bears for the children and chatted with them about July 4, telling them that they should come and celebrate at the White House next year, 'when they are healthier'. Two children coloured rocks for her and gave them to her as presents. Later, Mrs Trump headed to the healing garden, where she helped patients decorate the space with patriotic bows. She was joined by Michelle Riley-Brown, the hospital president and chief executive. The Bunny Mellon Healing Garden was named to honour Rachel 'Bunny' Mellon, a friend of former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Mrs Mellon was a philanthropist and avid gardener who designed the Rose Garden and other White House gardens during the Kennedy administration. Mrs Trump unveiled the 'Eternal Flame,' a classically shaped hybrid Tea Rose with yellow blooms, long stems, and a strong citrus fragrance. The bush is her gift to the healing garden this year. 'I love to see you all,' she told the children. The healing garden was dedicated to America's first ladies because of their decades-long support for the hospital and its patients, including a traditional first lady visit at Christmastime that dates back to Bess Truman. Mrs Trump, along with Dale Haney, the chief White House groundskeeper, is set to inspect the planting of a new yellow rose bush donated by the White House and planted earlier in the week at the hospital garden. Mrs Trump has been notably absent from Washington during Donald Trump's second term, spending fewer than 14 days at the residence since he took office 108 days ago, according to a report in the New York Times earlier this year. The 55-year-old instead spends much of her time in Trump Tower in Manhattan or in Florida, out of the prying eyes of the public in Mar-a-Lago. 'We haven't seen such a low-profile first lady since Bess Truman,' Katherine Jellison, a historian of first ladies said.
Vogue
22-06-2025
- Politics
- Vogue
From the Archives: A Garden of American History at the White House
'A Garden of American History at the White House,' by Valentine Lawford, was originally published in the February 1967 issue of Vogue. For more of the best from Vogue's archive, sign up for our Nostalgia newsletter here. "The first formal flower gardens genuinely worthy of the name" in the history of the White House are the Rose Garden and the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden. President Kennedy, who arranged to have both redesigned, was "admirably impatient" of their progress. Now Mrs. Johnson watches over the gardens as they grow. Two rows of crab apples border the long sides of the Rose Garden which in autumn blazes with chrysanthemums, and at each of the four corners stands a magnolia soulangeana planted by President Kennedy. In the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden topiary hollies, set in squares of blue-grey dusty miller and flowers interrupted by herbs, lead to the grape arbour where, in sweet weather when the air is freighted with the smells of rosemary, thyme, and clipped grass, Mrs. Johnson likes to serve tea. "Altho' the times are big with political events, yet I shall say nothing on that or any subject but the innocent ones of botany and friendship…" The words are Thomas Jefferson's written in 1803 from the White House to General Lafayette's aunt in France, in a letter announcing that he was personally shipping to her a selection of the plants and seeds of the United States: magnolia, sassafras, tulip-poplar and dogwood, chestnut oak, box oak, white oak, and wild rose.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
This Fall: The White House Historical Association to Offer Official Ornament of America 250 celebration, marking Anniversary of America's Independence
Special Edition Ornament is also the Official 2026 White House Christmas Ornament, revealed earlier than ever before! WASHINGTON, May 19, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The White House Historical Association will offer the Official America 250 Ornament as part of a nationwide celebration marking the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The Official America 250 Ornament will represent the White House's connection to America's independence and will be revealed and available for presale this fall. The Official America 250 Ornament will also serve as the Association's Official 2026 White House Christmas Ornament. America 250 is the national, nonpartisan organization charged by Congress to lead this once-in-a-lifetime commemoration. Its mission is to create the largest, most inspiring, and unifying commemoration in the nation's history, providing an opportunity for all Americans to come together and reflect on our shared heritage and future as a nation. This fall, the Official America 250 Ornament can be purchased alongside the Official 2025 White House Christmas Ornament which celebrates 150 years of White House State Dinners and social diplomacy. The Official America 250 Ornament will be made in America, and proceeds will further the Association's mission to promote a deeper understanding of the Executive Mansion — not just as the home of each president, but as a cornerstone of the American story. The Association's acquisitions, preservation, research, and education efforts continue through generous private donations and the sale of its published books, products, and the Official White House Christmas Ornament. This fall, the Official America 250 Ornament can be purchased online, in stores, and select locations where official licensed America 250 products are sold. This fall, purchase online at or at these Washington, D.C. retail locations: The People's House: A White House Experience, 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20006 The White House Visitor Center, 1450 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, D.C. 20006 Mayflower Hotel Pop-Up Shop, 1127 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, D.C. 20036 For wholesale inquiries on how to become an official reseller of this ornament with exclusive discounts, please visit: For inquiries on how to utilize this ornament for fundraising with exclusive discounts, please visit: Global Icons is the exclusive licensing agency authorized to represent the official America250 trademarks, logos, and assets. All products and partners are reviewed and approved by to ensure alignment with the initiative's values and messaging. About The White Historical Association The White House Historical Association was founded in 1961 by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy to support her vision to restore and preserve the Executive Mansion and its legacy for generations to come. Mrs. Kennedy sought to inspire Americans, especially children, to explore and engage with American history and its presidents. Supported entirely by private resources, the Association is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that has contributed more than $115 million to the White House in fulfillment of its mission. To learn more about the White House Historical Association, please visit View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE The White House Historical Association
