--- title: 10 Surprising Facts About Jackie Kennedy On Her Anniversary description: Former First Lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis was a “superior” student with “an incredibly wicked wit," historians say. canonical: https://time.com/6974279/jacqueline-kennedy-onassis-anniversary-surprising-facts/ author: Mallory Moench article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-05-19T13:05:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T07:42:37.365Z article:section: History og:title: 10 Surprising Facts About Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis og:description: Former First Lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis was a “superior” student with “an incredibly wicked wit," historians say. og:url: https://time.com/6974279/jacqueline-kennedy-onassis-anniversary-surprising-facts/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt65717d62cfbde277/698a56619d83e832c6b9a0d4/GettyImages-515114910.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Posing Outside Near Water og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 10 Surprising Facts About Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis twitter:description: Former First Lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis was a “superior” student with “an incredibly wicked wit," historians say. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt65717d62cfbde277/698a56619d83e832c6b9a0d4/GettyImages-515114910.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 10 Surprising Facts About Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis > Sponsored content. 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May 19, 2024 1:05 PM UTC This candid shot of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis by a paparazzi pioneer with a disregard for restraining orders embodies all that is controversial and artful about celebrity portraiture by [Mallory Moench](https://time.com/author/mallory-moench/) ## Mallory Moench Moench was a reporter for TIME, based in the London bureau. May 19, 2024 1:05 PM UTC On May 19, 1994, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, one of the most famous First Ladies, died at age 64 in her New York City apartment from non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer. She was buried beside her first husband, former President John F. Kennedy, widely referred to as JFK, [whose assassination](https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/november-22-1963-death-of-the-president) she witnessed in Dallas in 1963\. Even before the tragedy, the First Lady was already in the global spotlight, revered for her style and intellectualism. To mark the 30-year anniversary of Kennedy Onassis’ passing, here are 10 surprising facts you may not have known about her. ## **Jackie Kennedy Onassis was a “superior” student with “an incredibly wicked wit”** The future First Lady was born Jacqueline Lee Bouvier on July 28, 1929 in Southampton, N.Y. She had one younger sister. Her parents separated in 1936, with the years following the “most acrimonious” period, as the estranged couple fought bitterly before their divorce in 1940, Carl Sferrazza Anthony, author of [_Camera Girl: The Coming of Age of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy_](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Camera-Girl-Coming-Bouvier-Kennedy/dp/1982141875) and other works, tells TIME. Anthony [met Kennedy Onassis](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/07/14/jackie-o-by-word-of-mouth/9c8c9fbc-b2eb-41c0-a6e5-7f5fd48af6a3/) in 1975 and corresponded with her for years after. Her mother remarried, and Kennedy Onassis [grew up](https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/05/18/camera-girl-jackie-bouvier-kennedy-carl-sferrazza-anthony/) between her stepfather’s estates in Fairfax, Va. and Newport, R.I., her father’s apartment in New York City, and the family home in East Hampton. She [was a talented child](https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/05/18/camera-girl-jackie-bouvier-kennedy-carl-sferrazza-anthony/) who rode horses, wrote poetry, and made art. She was “superior” in academics starting in grade school, Anthony says, although she struggled at her boarding high school. “She was in trouble a lot for defying authority, and yet she still got very good grades,” he says. She first attended Vassar College, and managed to make the honor roll, but “hated Vassar” because of its confining rules about women and strict curfews. According to Anthony, Kennedy Onassis was reportedly expelled from Vassar for staying out too late with a date and getting back to campus after curfew. He says she was reinstated after her mother and stepfather intervened, but transferred to George Washington University, where she graduated. Her bold streak continued into adulthood. Katherine Jellison, professor of U.S. gender and women’s history at Ohio University, tells TIME that because of the quiet demeanor Kennedy Onassis put forth as First Lady, most people don’t know “she had an incredibly wicked wit.” “She was very intelligent, she had this great sense of humor,” Jellison says. “When she was on stage, she apparently could make the most funny and biting comments about situations or other people. With her inner circle, they just thought she was hilarious.” ## **She studied abroad in Paris and was briefly detained in Vienna** While studying in college, Kennedy Onassis spent a year abroad in Paris. She started by taking intensive French language classes at the University of Grenoble in September 1949, then traveled to Capri, Italy before enrolling at the Sorbonne in October, Anthony says. Over Christmas break she visited Vienna, which had been[ divided between occupying powers](https://www.wien.gv.at/english/history/overview/reconstruction.html) post World War II. There, she was detained by Soviet troops after being warned not to take photographs of their headquarters. Anthony says the former First Lady recounted, through letters, being held and questioned for at least three hours and threatened with being brought back to Siberia. During her time in Europe, she also journeyed to Spain, England, Ireland, Scotland, and took a road trip through rural southern France. ## **Jackie Kennedy Onassis was a journalist before getting married** Kennedy Onassis was always interested in writing, Anthony says. She won a “very prestigious literary award in high school” and was active in her school newspaper. In her senior year of college, she beat out almost 3,000 female college seniors to win a seven-month essay writing competition for _Vogue_ magazine. The prize was a job as a junior editor with _Vogue_—six months in Paris and six months in New York City. However, her mother, who was “bewildered by her desire to work,” did not want her to take the job and move to New York, where she would live with her father, Anthony says. Kennedy Onassis did start working at Vogue, but didn’t last long after her mother called her constantly and badgered her into quitting, he adds. After that, Kennedy Onassis’ stepfather helped her get a job through connections at the now-defunct _Washington Times-Herald_ newspaper as an office clerk, according to Anthony. But she wanted to be a reporter, and after pitching a story about interviews reacting to a visit from then-Princess Elizabeth, later to be queen, her editor gave her a chance. From 1951 to 1953, she was the newspaper’s “Inquiring Camera Girl,” taking pictures and conducting interviews. In 1953, she traveled to London to cover the [coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. ](https://time.com/6277790/the-visual-parallels-between-elizabeth-ii-and-charles-iiis-coronations/)  Jacqueline Bouvier, future first Lady, photographs Dale Chestnut feeding goldfish on the roof-top pond of the Washington Times-Herald building in 1952. Bettmann Archive—Getty Images ## **She was engaged to another man before JFK** Around the time she got her newspaper job, Kennedy Onassis was briefly engaged to a man named John Husted. “John Husted really loved her, it was clear that she liked him, but wasn’t in love with him,” Anthony says. “He was very nice to her and they got along well, they seemed to be good friends. He had dared her—why don’t we get married, and if you decide you want to, then show up at this place and this time, and we’ll (get engaged)”—and they did. However, “Husted was a little bit more superficial than she realized—as she said, it was over when she realized that the most exciting thing for him was making a great martini,” Anthony says. At the time, she was also meeting for the second time up-and-coming Congressman Jack Kennedy. She was first introduced to her future husband in May 1951 at a dinner hosted by newspaperman Charles Bartlett and his wife, Martha, who wanted to set them up. But it wasn’t until she met JFK again in December, just after she got engaged to Husted, that she became more interested in the future President, according to Anthony. “She started seeing him as a friend and she clearly liked him,” the biographer says. They were both passionate readers of Lord Byron’s poetry and shared feelings about Vietnam’s independence. “There was a lot of substance that Jackie had with JFK that excited her intellectually,” Anthony says. “Whereas there was nothing at all like that with John Husted, so she broke off the engagement.” ## **Jackie Kennedy Onassis wrote a report on Vietnam that JFK reportedly used in speeches** Kennedy Onassis used her linguistic and intellectual skills to support JFK’s work even before they were married, according to Anthony. The biographer says he found documentation that while the pair were dating, she wrote an 84-page report for the then-Senator on France’s political, social, military, and economic control of Vietnam, later estimating that she translated about ten books from French. JFK used sections from the report in his first major foreign policy speech to the Senate in 1953\. He [gave another speech](https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/united-states-senate-indochina-19540406#:~:text=In%20Indochina%2C%20as%20in%20Korea,as%20in%20the%20United%20States.), also based on the report, in 1954 that earned him his first national press coverage as a potential presidential candidate, helping to pave his path to the White House.  In a scene from the Kennedy-Bouvier wedding, groom John walks alongside his bride Jacqueline at an outdoor reception in Newport, Rhode Island in 1953. Bachrach—Getty Images ## **She intended to keep working after marriage** Kennedy Onassis got engaged and married to JFK in 1953\. She had written in her 1947 high school yearbook that her intention was “not to be a housewife.” But in that era, Jellison points out, “if you were from a well-to-do family, you needed to marry someone who is well-to-do.” Any job a young woman pursued was “biding her time until she could make that well-placed marriage that her mother had urged her to do,” the historian adds. The dichotomy that had been set up for her was that she could either work or be married—not both, Anthony says. Yet despite the social norms, he says, “she had made it clear that she intended to go back to work at the newspaper after her honeymoon—so she had originally planned to be a working wife.” However, a PR firm working for her fiancé’s family put out a press release announcing their engagement that said she formerly worked for the newspaper, essentially forcing her to give up her job, and “so she was outmaneuvered in that,” Anthony says. “She was shocked,” he says, according to an interview she gave to a reporter reacting to the press release. According to an excerpt from his book, she said: “Things are a little confusing right now. To tell you the truth I didn’t expect the wedding announcement to be made public until Friday of this week. But, now, having read the morning newspapers I find it difficult to add anything to the story.” Kennedy Onassis apparently harbored other professional ambitions beyond journalism as well: “At one point she seriously thought about becoming an actress,” Jellison says. The young woman verbalized this dream after she married JFK, but said she didn’t think her father-in-law would probably look favorably on it, according to Jellison. ## **Jackie Kennedy Onassis was aware of her husband’s indiscretions, according to some historians** JFK’s affairs, which came to light publicly after his death, [were known to his wife](https://time.com/4586033/jackie-kennedy-jfk-cheating-people-cover/), Jellison and other historians say. In a [1952 letter to an Irish priest the year](https://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/13/politics/jackie-kennedy-letters/index.html) before she got married, Kennedy wrote about her future husband: “He’s like my father in a way—loves the chase and is bored with the conquest—and once married needs proof he’s still attractive, so flirts with other women and resents you. I saw how that nearly killed Mummy.” Womanizing upper-class males were not uncommon during that time period, Jellison explains. “It was just assumed that part of a wealthy man’s privilege is that he would have sexual experiences outside of marriage, that was just a given, and that the women’s role was to accept it, to look the other way,” and focus on her children and other causes, Jellison explains. Jellison compares the infidelity and elite social norms to that of another former President—[Franklin D. Roosevelt](https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1908008%5F1908007%5F1907977,00.html). When the wives of both found out their husbands cheated on them, their parents convinced them to stay married to not destroy the men’s political careers, as “divorce would be the ultimate wrecking ball” for presidential aspirations in those time periods.  Jacqueline kneels on the bedroom floor, reading a storybook to her children, John F. Kennedy Jr. and Caroline Kennedy, at the White House, Washington, D.C. in 1962. John F. Kennedy Library—Getty Images ## **She gave birth to four children—two who preceded her in death** Kennedy Onassis, who was 31 when her husband became President, was the[ third youngest](https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/jacqueline-kennedy-in-the-white-house#:~:text=Celebration%20of%20a%20Kennedy%20election,the%20turn%20of%20the%20century.) First Lady in U.S. history. She was also the first since the 19th century to occupy the White House during her child-bearing years, Jellison says. Before her husband was elected president, Kennedy Onassis had a miscarriage in 1955 and [gave birth to a stillborn baby girl](http://archive.firstladies.org/blog/the-children-of-jacqueline-kennedy/) in 1956\. The couple’s daughter Caroline—who is[ currently the U.S. ambassador ](https://au.usembassy.gov/)to Australia—was born in 1957\. Kennedy Onassis was pregnant during JFK’s presidential campaign in 1960, but because of her previous difficult pregnancies, cut short public appearances and went on full bed rest before giving birth. Their son John Jr. was born a couple weeks after the election. He [died in a plane crash](https://time.com/2988210/jfk-jr-death-plane-crash-anniversary/) in 1999 at age 38, alongside his wife, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and her sister, Lauren Bessette. The couple’s youngest son, Patrick, was born prematurely and died a couple days later in 1963\. “The loss of Patrick, from all accounts, was devastating to the whole Kennedy family—to the President, to Mrs. Kennedy and to the two children she already had, they’d been really looking forward to this baby,” Jellison says. “Everyone said this brought them closer together,” Jellison says of the presidential couple. “For the first time they would be affectionate in public and be photographed together holding hands.” The baby’s death occurred in August, before JFK was killed in November. The couple’s fateful outing to Dallas was Kennedy Onassis’ first extended public appearance after the loss of their child, as she was just coming out of her mourning period, Jellison says. Jellison says the First Lady was a chain-smoker who also smoked while pregnant, before medical wisdom advised against it. At the time, smoking was viewed as glamorous in the sophisticated debutante world, but a wide swath of the American public still thought it was “vulgar” for women to smoke. “There was a rule that the official photographer of the Kennedy White House was never supposed to take pictures of Mrs. Kennedy with a cigarette,” Jellison says. [Photos of the First Lady smoking](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cu79rf4PLFl/?hl=en) have since come out.  Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis, embracing her daughter, Caroline Kennedy, and her new husband, Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, in Greece, Oct. 21, 1968. Express Newspapers—Getty Images ## **Jackie Kennedy Onassis remarried to a Greek shipping magnate** After JFK’s assassination, Kennedy Onassis was left with “the rug pulled out from under her,” Jellison says. Her next natural move was to marry rich—”something she had been taught by her mother from the cradle, just keep marrying up the scale”—Jellison explains. In 1968, she [married Aristotle Onassis,](https://time.com/5427682/jacqueline-kennedy-wedding-jackie-o/) a Greek shipping magnate 23 years her senior, who was one of the richest men in the world. “She married Aristotle Onassis in part because he was so wealthy that she felt she wouldn’t have to worry about money and the physical security of her children,” Jellison says. “There was a fondness and I think respect between Jackie and Aristotle Onassis. It was not a great love story.” “In many ways he was a father-protector figure as well as a husband,” the historian adds. After a few years, the couple were largely living separate lives, with Kennedy Onassis staying with her children in New York City and Onassis in Europe. When he died in 1975, she [released a statement](https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/sorting-myth-and-history-in-jackie-kennedys-marria) that read: “Aristotle Onassis rescued me at a moment when my life was engulfed with shadows…We lived through many beautiful experiences together…for which I will be eternally grateful.”  Jacqueline Onassis is shown in her office at Viking Press, as she talked about the first book she wrote and edited in 1977. Bettmann Archive—Getty Images ## **She became a book editor for nearly two decades before her death** After her second husband’s death, Kennedy Onassis [went to work](https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/a10334726/jackie-kennedy-publishing-career/) as a book editor for Viking Press and then Doubleday publishers. Over the course of 19 years, she acquired nearly 100 fiction and nonfiction books. For the last few years of her life, she was also in a relationship with [Belgian-American businessman Maurice Tempelsman](https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/a27243432/jackie-kennedy-onassis-maurice-tempelsman-relationship/). Jellison says this was probably Kennedy Onassis’ relationship of greatest equality, as he was her age and shared similar interests in the arts. “He was much more a soul mate in terms of mutual interests than had been either of her husbands,” Jellison says. The historian concludes that Kennedy Onassis “was living a very satisfactory life in those last years, and working with books, which she loved.” ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Jackie claimed I invaded her privacy, I don't believe I did. Once you're a celebrity, always a celebrity. You have to face it. You're a celebrity, you're fair game in public areas. Jackie was fair game. [ MUSIC ] The role of the paparazzi when I shot in the 60s, 70s, even the 80s, was great freedom. It was a golden era, one to one, you could move about. Gotta get good angles for expression, that's my forte. To get the genuine expressions on their face, the face is the main thing. So I would, [ LAUGH ] I shouldn't say it, I shouldn't say, attack. I would approach celebrities, and if they protested I would stop and honor their wishes. Number one, you have to have a car. You cannot rely on taxis cuz they're not gonna pass lights. You have to hide of course. Without looking thorough the viewfinder you want to get eye contact. You have to see people. Windows of limousine. Put the camera and the strobe close to the window to penetrate the light so you don't get a reflection. That's why I got the great pictures of **** Jagger with his eyes, lips open, his mouth open. [ MUSIC ] When you look at celebrities and you see the circle of cameramen around them, I always think of piranhas snapping. When you think about it. The first piranha was Ron Galella, only he was a shark because he swam a lone. That stuff didn't exist before Galella. You have to create your own standards and live by them. Galella was the first There is a direct line of dissent. [ MUSIC ] The center of Manhattan was my golden city to shoot pictures. And Jackie was my golden girl of course. [ LAUGH ] I first saw Jackie at the Wildonstone Gallery on Madison Avenue. In May, 1967. She had big, wide eyes and she whispered softly. And she hardly gave interviews. And it was her mystique that created her glamour, her mystique. And we want to know more about her And that's the great thing about glamour, mystery. I knew her address. That was a good thing. 1040 5th Avenue. I got better pictures at her apartment. Nobody in the way. And she was my favorite ideal subject because she would be full of life. She would move and I was good at capturing movement. And I liked people in action, being themselves. I don't know how many pictures of Jackie I got. There's so many, it might be a million. I just don't count my pictures. [ MUSIC ] Jackie went to Central Park on a bike with John Junior on a bike. I got the information from the doorman next door. And I got them coming down the path and she's like it's you again. She ordered the Secret Service agents to smash his camera. But he didn't smash my camera. But she sent two other agents after to me to get the film. I sued her for interfering with my livelihood, or the agents were or pushing me around, interfering. And the outcome of that was bad. I had restriction of 50 yards from Jackie and I couldn't go near her apartment for a hundred yards. But I appealed and this was brought down to 25 feet. I made a tape measure and I extended it with Jackie, as a joke, that's why I broke the injunction, 25 feet and I said that in the trial. I said it's impractical, cuz there's people in the way, objects in the way. I can't operate 25 feet away. [ NOISE ] There was a model, Joy Smith, who needed portfolio pictures. And I'm a fool for beauty, I did it For her free. So I said, I'll pick you up and we'll go to Central Park. Maybe I'll discover Jackie. And as we left the park, Jackie comes out the back entrance and walks toward Madison Avenue on 85th Street. Then she turns north. On the corner I did a brilliant thing. I took a taxi because you have to hide to get the off guard picture. And between 89th and 90th I took two shots from the back window but she didn't see me or hear me because of the noise and then the driver did something I didn't ask. He blew his horn, he was interested in Jackie. And Jackie turns at the corner of 90th and I get my wind blown Jackie. Beautiful. The exclusive picture, spontaneous, off guard, unrehearsed. But Jackie doesn't see who I am, cuz I have the camera in front of my face. But the moment I get out of the taxi, she knew me and put the glasses on. And I got her another block, from 90th to 91st, and then she turned west. And then I gave one of my cameras to Joy Smith. I said take a couple of pictures of me, I prefocused [ MUSIC ] The camera 15 ft and she got two great shots of me running after Jackie. I shot Jackie from behind and then Jackie turns around and says are you please with yourself? I said yes, thank you and goodbye and left. I call it my Mona Lisa because the smile was on her eyes and lips. The beginning of the smile. And she had no makeup. No hairdo. Natural beauty. The hair blowing in the wind. Nice soft light. What was the most true about her was that she had innate style. Whatever she wore, whether it was this season's or last season's or some 50 year old piece that she pulled out of her closet looked great. And the persistence of the image of wind blown Jacque proves that, because it doesn't matter. Her. It's almost an undatable photograph. It was the iconic photograph of the American celebrity aristocracy. And it created a genre. Granted how intrusive the paparazzi have become in the years since when Jackie He was taken. I think that we can look at Ron [ UNKNOWN ] as relatively benign. And the question is, where do you draw the line? How can you sleep at night when you do this for a living? Is a valid question. And either you can sleep at night or you can't. [ MUSIC ] I never felt guilty photographing Jackie. It's true that I pushed the First Amendment to the limits, perhaps. But that's what it takes. But I don't think it's immoral or bad, I think it was great. [ MUSIC ] And I'm glad that I preserved these images when no one else did. I did it. 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