At the center of the Kennedy mythos is PresidentJohn F. Kennedy, who was famously assassinatedin 1963.
That left his wife,Jackie Kennedy, alone to raise their two children.
The exact nature of that relationship has been the subject of much speculation over the years.
Were they working together to preserve John’s legacy, or was something untoward going on?
One thing McKeon observed was that Jackie and Bobby had a lot in common.
She felt that both were outwardly charismatic but actually introverted.
They were also both voracious readers.
“When he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars,” Bobby read.
That means Ethel was a Kennedy back when Jackie was still Jacqueline Bouvier.
It seems that Ethel did not initially like the woman who would soon become her sister-in-law.
According toNew York Magazine, they bickered with one another when Jackie first visited the family in Hyannis Port.
Ethel mocked the way Jackie pronounced her name, and she nicknamed her “the Debutante.”
You’d be better off going in for soccer."
Jackie pushed back against the expectations of her as a Kennedy wife.
She said, “I won’t cut my hair.
I won’t have 25 kids.”
Their relationship would continue to have its ups and downs, especially over the eventful next two decades.
Bobby Kennedy, on the other hand, hit the road in support of his brother.
While speaking with the press, he faced questions about Jackie’s role in the campaign.
He defended his sister-in-law, tellingCBS Newsthat she would be doing as much as her obstetrician allowed.
“She’s doing as much as she can,” he said, smiling patiently.
Jackie Kennedy was sitting in the car next to him when it happened.
Thankfully, when the plane reached the capitol, Jackie had Robert F. Kennedy to lean on.
During JFK’s funeral procession, Bobby accompanied his widowed sister-in-law through the streets of D.C.
Photos published inVanity Fairshowed the solemn expression on their faces, grieving together as they laid JFK to rest.
This all meant Jackie needed to move out of the White House.
She found a home in Georgetown, near where Bobby and Ethel Kennedy lived.
He gave it to Jackie in February, mere months after their loss.
They would continue to be close in the years to come.
“Vanity Fairchronicled the argument and fallout, which saw Manchester hospitalized.
Bobby asked him, “Do you think you’ve suffered more than Jackie and me?”
Ultimately, they settled, and only minor changes were made.
McKeon saw how they comforted one another, and wrote, “Loss is a terrible love …
When it happens in a swift, horrific instant, there is no such thing as healing …
Shortly after Bobby’s televised interview, they went to Antigua.
Bobby borrowed a book from Jackie and spent much of his vacation reading it.
“I remember he’d disappear.
Jackie encouraged Bobby to read “the classics” to help with his pain, according to PBS.
His favorite Aeschylus passage read, “He who learns must suffer.
[Jackie] clearly leaned on him, too.”
“You’re a Kennedy,” he once told John.
“… You have been given special privileges, and you have a responsibility to help other people.”
Jackie released a statement in 1964 about their plans for the library, according tothe library’s website.
She mourned the fact that her husband would not be around to see the library dedicated in his honor.
It will also be a vital center of education and exchange and thought.”
According to biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli,Jackie Kennedy and Jack Warnecke fell into a relationship.
He showed up anyway, reminding her that she didn’t technically say no.
Later that year, Jackie brought him to the Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port.
Jackie responded, “This is none of your business, Bobby.”
Jackie, it seems, ghosted him.
We won’t be seeing Mr. Jack again.”
What is still being debated, however, is just how close they were.
The book features interviews with figures like Truman Capote, Gore Vidal, and historian Arthur Schlesinger.
The two of them carried on like a pair of lovesick teenagers …
This time, the news made it back to Bobby’s wife, Ethel Kennedy.
Jackie’s younger brother Jamie Auchincloss told Taraborrelli that Ethel confronted Jackie about all of the rumors.
“Ethel believed her.”
Whether the rumors are true is perhaps lost to history.
What is clear is that, soon enough, there would be a new man in Jackie’s life.
“It was hard to tell by Madam’s business-like demeanor whether she was happy,” she wrote.
“… She and Mr. Onassis seemed like friends, not a couple.”
That same year, Robert F. Kennedy was gearing up to run for president.
Assessing his political chances, he realized he might have an issue: His sister-in-law’s new relationship.
After all, Onassis never liked the Kennedy brothers.
“[A marriage] could cost me five states,” he told her.
The campaign was going well; that June, he won the California primary.
There, he was shot by a man named Sirhan Sirhan.
I could feel a steady stream of blood coming through my fingers.”
She was taken to the hospital, where Bobby had been kept on life support.
She flew in and nobody else had the nerve."
Lady Bird Johnson noticed how distraught Jackie was at Bobby’s funeral, which took place two days later.
I had the feeling that she must have been given a sedative."
When she reached the home, McKeon found a throng of onlookers gathered outside.
Inside, she found Jackie, who had clearly been crying.
Clearly, her husband’s assassination was on her mind.
“We’ll all miss him dearly,” Jackie said.
“He was a second father to my children.”
After all, they now shared a terrible bond that few other people in the world could understand.
In the days following Bobby’s death, Jackie wrote a letter to her brother-in-law’s wife.
