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New biography delves deep into Jackie Kennedy's family secrets
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Jackie marries a smiling John F Kennedy in 1953 |
IN THE White House she was an icon of style, the elegant embodiment of American aristocracy. Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy, who died 20 years ago this month, was presented to the world by her husband’s slick PR team as a blue-blood who traced her lineage back to 16th-century French nobility. But a shocking new biography reveals that the girl who grew up to be queen of President John F Kennedy’s fabled Camelot was not what she appeared. Jackie’s ancestors were peasants and her father was a bisexual alcoholic gambler who drank himself to an early grave, claims the book Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Life Beyond Her Wildest Dreams, by Danforth Prince and Darwin Porter. Before reigning over the White House Jackie had spent her youth auditioning a succession of America’s wealthiest eligible bachelors in a mercenary search for a rich husband, ultimately losing her virginity in a lift caught between floors. “Jackie’s aristocratic heritage was total fantasy in the same way that Jackie created the myth of Camelot at the White House,” says Porter. “It never existed. “She wasn’t happy in her marriage to Jack Kennedy and before he became president she wanted a divorce. Jack’s father Joe Kennedy offered her $1million to stay knowing that a divorce would destroy Jack’s political future.” Jackie was born in 1929 to Wall Street broker John Bouvier III, known to his friends and foes as “Black Jack” because of his dark complexion, destructive gambling addiction and his black heart. “He was a hedonist, a rogue, a gambler, a scoundrel, a rascal, a libertine and a heartbreaker,” says Porter. “He led a dissolute life which featured promiscuous sex and reckless spending.” He married wealthy heiress Janet Lee who claimed to be descended from the prestigious American “Lees of Maryland” but Porter reveals: “Actually she was descended from Irish immigrants who had fled the potato famine.” Jackie grew up on the 14-acre estate of her grandfather Major Bouvier who built an English manor house to embody his family’s supposedly noble history. “They wanted it to appear that they had breeding, power and money for centuries but their genealogy was invented,” says Porter. “The Major traced his family back to French aristocracy but they were actually cabinet makers, maids, ironmongers, tailors, shopkeepers, tavern owners, farmers and chimney sweeps. He even created a fake coat of arms.” Jackie’s parents divorced when she was only 11 and while her mother remarried wealthy investment banker Hugh Auchincloss, her father Black Jack descended into debauchery. “That’s what Jackie grew up expecting of a man,” says Porter. “So when she married JFK’s infidelities didn’t seem unusual.” When Black Jack first met his prospective son-in-law in 1953, despite his own invented nobility he looked down on the former Irish bootlegger turned US senator’s son calling Kennedy a “goddamn Mick”. Black Jack’s many lovers included songwriter Cole Porter who claimed that “one night Black Jack and JFK got really drunk and arranged for a showgirl hooker to visit. Both of them seduced this girl in the same bed.” Black Jack died of liver cancer in 1957. At his funeral Jackie’s cousin Edie Beale recalled: “She didn’t shed a tear.” Black Jack had been ostracised by Jackie when she came out as debutante of the year in 1947 at 18 and she set about finding a suitable husband, racing through America’s most eligible wealthy young men. She charmed her way into European high society and family connections got her invited to a garden party at Buckingham Palace. Expressing her honour at meeting Winston Churchill he flirtatiously replied: “If only I were 40 years younger I might honour you in another way.” She studied in France, romancing students, ski instructors, intellectuals and Parisian high society. During a party at Lady Astor’s stately home Cliveden in Buckinghamshire she disappeared into a bedroom with Hollywood legend Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Though Jackie claimed to have been Kennedy’s virgin bride she was deflowered years earlier by French novelist’s son John Marquand Jr in a stalled lift. “She was so hot to trot she couldn’t wait until I got inside my apartment,” revealed Marquand who deliberately stopped the lift between floors. “I figured I’d better go for it before she changed her mind.” Her long-time friend novelist Truman Capote said: “Virginity was something Jackie wanted to get rid of as soon as possible.” When Jackie returned to the US her mother “slapped her on both cheeks” demanding that she end the affair because Marquand’s family was “poor as church mice”, claims the book. Jackie was introduced at a dinner party to John F Kennedy, a US senator from one of America’s richest families. “Jack was a skirt chaser and I knew that if he wanted to become president he’d have to find the perfect wife,” said JFK’s friend Charles Bartlett, who played Cupid. But that night Jackie drove home with her boyfriend stockbroker John Husted. They then became engaged over her mother’s objections that his banking family didn’t have enough money to treat her royally. Husted recalled passionate love-making sessions unaware that Jackie was cheating on him with Kennedy. After dinner with Husted one night Jackie gave him a tame kiss on the cheek and slipped her engagement ring into his coat pocket. Yet it had not been love at first sight for Jackie or JFK. They met three times before he began showing a romantic interest. Taking her yachting she was unimpressed to see him in a swimsuit, recording in her diary: “He has a funny body, skinny with toothpick legs.” Despite her concerns about Kennedy’s notorious womanising they were engaged in June 1953 and wed three months later. On their honeymoon night in New York Jackie donned a see-through negligee but waited in bed for an hour and a half while Kennedy made phone calls. When he finally came to bed Kennedy complained of his bad back, made brief love, rolled over and fell asleep. The marriage went downhill from there. Kennedy was infamous for his affairs with lovers including Marilyn Monroe and Marlene Dietrich and they had only been married months when Jackie walked in on JFK receiving the sort of favour from a secretary that Monica Lewinsky later reserved for President Clinton. “You must have known when you married me I can never be faithful,” Kennedy pleaded. “I can’t help myself. It’s a compulsion.” Following two miscarriages, plunging into depression with “the world’s worst husband” Jackie was sent to Valleyhead Psychiatric Clinic in Massachusetts where she received electro-shock therapy she called “the nightmare ride of my life”. Talked out of divorce Jackie returned to her marriage finding solace in her own infidelities with actor William Holden and Fiat car boss Gianni Agnelli. After JFK’s assassination in 1963 her lovers included Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Frank Sinatra and her two brothers-in-law Robert Kennedy and Peter Lawford, the book claims. “She wasn’t happy at all married to JFK,” says Porter. “She agreed to stay married as long as Jack’s affairs stayed private but he was constantly humiliating her. Their happy marriage like Jackie’s ancestry and the modern-day Camelot was a myth.”
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在白宫,她是时尚的象征,美国贵族优雅的化身。她就是美国前总统约翰•肯尼迪的妻子杰奎琳•李•布维尔•肯尼迪。今年五月,距杰奎琳离世已有20年,在肯尼迪的技法娴熟的公关团队宣传中,杰奎琳留给世人的形象是出身高贵,血统可追溯至16世纪的法国贵族。 但是,这个说法遭到了挑战。据美国媒体报道,一本关于杰奎琳的新传记披露了一些令人震撼的故事,指出这位成长为肯尼迪总统神话般的“卡米洛特”的王后实际上并非表面所呈现的那样。 这本传记的名字叫做《杰奎琳•肯尼迪•奥纳西斯:做梦都想不到的人生》(Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Life Beyond Her Wildest Dreams),作者是丹福思•普林斯和达尔文•波特。书中称,杰奎琳先祖都是农民,父亲则是个风流成性的酒鬼赌徒,且因嗜酒而早逝。而杰奎琳本人在入主白宫前,把大好青春流连于一个个美国的富有单身汉之间,只为找一个有钱的丈夫,最终在一辆停着的电梯里失去贞操。 “杰奎琳的贵族血统完全是虚构的,和杰奎琳创造了白宫的卡米洛特神话一样,压根没存在过。”传记作者之一波特说。“在同杰克•肯尼迪的婚姻生活中,她并不快乐。肯尼迪成为总统前,她曾想离婚。但肯尼迪的父亲乔•肯尼迪知道离婚会毁掉肯尼迪的政治生涯,于是给了她100万美元,让她继续留在肯尼迪身边。” 杰奎琳生于1929年,他的父亲是华尔街的经纪人约翰•布维尔三世,因皮肤黝黑、好赌成瘾和黑心肠,他在朋友和敌人那里得了个绰号叫“黑杰克”。 “他是一个享乐主义者,混混,赌徒,恶棍,无赖,浪荡子和负心汉。他过着荒淫的生活,性滥交和挥霍无度构成了他生活的主体。”波特说。 他与有钱的女继承人珍妮特•李结婚,这位女人自称是颇有名望的美国“马里兰李家”的后裔,但波特揭道:“事实上,她只是从爱尔兰大饥荒中逃荒过来的爱尔兰移民的后裔。” 杰奎琳成长于她祖父梅杰•布维尔的14英亩庄园里,梅杰建了一座英伦庄园来凸显其家族的光辉历史。“他们想向外界展示,他们已经积累了几个世纪的权力和金钱,但他们的血统是虚构的。”波特说。 “梅杰吹嘘自己的家族可追溯到法国的贵族,但这个家族的人实际上只是些家具木工,女佣,五金店生意人,裁缝,零售商,酒馆主人,农民和扫烟囱的人。他甚至刻了一个假族徽。” 杰奎琳11岁的时候父母离异,母亲与富有的投资银行家休•奥金克洛斯再婚,父亲黑杰克则堕落于酒色。“那就是杰奎琳长大后期待男人,所以当她嫁给不忠的肯尼迪似乎没有什么不寻常。” 当黑杰克1953年第一次见到他未来的女婿时,并不在乎自己虚假的血统,反而瞧不起前爱尔兰走私贩、美国参议员的儿子,并称呼肯尼迪“该死的杰克”。 黑杰克的众多情人之一歌曲作家科尔•波特曾说:“一个晚上,黑杰克和肯尼迪喝得伶仃大醉,然后安排了一个歌舞妓女。他们在同一张床上与这名妓女发生了关系。” 黑杰克1857年死于肝癌。杰奎琳的堂兄伊迪•比尔回忆说:“她(杰奎琳)(在父亲葬礼上)没有流一滴眼泪。”实际上,黑杰克已被杰奎琳排斥,1947年18岁的她成为初入上流社会的少女,开始着手在美国最合格最富有的年轻男子中物色合适的丈夫。 杰奎琳用自己的方式获得了欧洲上流社会的亲睐,并得以应邀参加白金汉宫(英国皇宫)的游园会。她在见温斯顿•丘吉尔时向他表达崇敬,丘吉尔轻佻地回答说:“要是我再年轻40岁,我可能会以另一种方式向你致意。” 在法国求学期间,杰奎琳经常往返于巴黎上流社会。在阿斯特子爵夫人的白金汉郡奢侈庄园克莱夫登举行的派对期间,她曾与好莱坞名宿道格拉斯•费尔班克斯一起消失在一间卧房。 杰奎琳声称自己是肯尼迪的处女新娘,但实际上早在结婚前几年就被法国长篇小说家的儿子约翰•马昆德在停着的电梯里夺去贞洁。“她如此热情地慢跑,等不及进到我的公寓。”马昆德故意把电梯停在某一楼层。“我想,我最好在她改变主意前放手去做。” 杰奎琳的老朋友,小说家杜鲁门•卡波特说:“贞洁是杰奎琳想尽快摆脱的东西。”传记中写道,杰奎琳回到美国后,她的母亲“扇了她两个脸颊”,要求她停止与马昆德的风流韵事,因为马昆德的家庭“像教堂的老鼠一般穷”。 再后来,杰奎琳被介绍参加晚宴派对,与来自当时美国最富有家族的肯尼迪结识。“肯尼迪是个好色之徒,而且我知道,如果他想成为总统,就不得不找一个完美的妻子。”肯尼迪的朋友查尔斯•巴特利特说,他在两人间扮演了丘比特的角色。 但宴会当晚,杰奎琳却开车与男朋友股票经纪人约翰•赫斯特德一同回了家。后来更在杰奎琳母亲的强烈反对下订婚,她母亲认为赫斯特德不够有钱。 赫斯特德回忆说,他和杰奎琳翻云覆雨之时,并没察觉到杰奎琳正在背着他与肯尼迪交往。某天晚上,杰奎琳与赫斯特德用过晚餐后,杰奎琳在赫斯特德面颊上平淡一吻,并有意把订婚戒指落在了赫斯特德的上衣口袋。 因此,杰奎琳或肯尼迪并非一见钟情。在肯尼迪对杰奎琳有兴趣前,他们已见过3次。杰奎琳甚至在日记中说:“他(肯尼迪)的身体很滑稽,腿瘦得像牙签。”虽然她担忧肯尼迪的放荡成性,但还是在1953年6月与他订婚,并在3个月后正式结婚。 在纽约度蜜月期间的一个晚上,杰奎琳披着透明内衣,但躺在床上等了一个半小时,肯尼迪才打完电话。当肯尼迪上床后,又抱怨背疼,最后草草了事后就翻身进入梦乡。两人的婚姻自那以后开始每况愈下。 因与玛丽莲•梦露和玛琳•黛德丽有私情,肯尼迪臭名远播。而且,结婚没过几个月,杰奎琳就撞见肯尼迪与秘书眉来眼去。肯尼迪还自辩解说:“你和我结婚的时候就肯定知道我不可能忠诚。我管不住自己。这是强迫症。” 随着两次流产,杰奎琳为“世上最糟糕的丈夫”而陷入抑郁,一度进入马萨诸塞州一家精神病诊所接受电击疗法治疗,杰奎琳称这段时间“梦魇驾驭了我的生活。” 杰奎琳或许以自己的出轨找到了些许安慰,她与演员威廉•霍尔登和菲亚特汽车公司老板詹尼•阿涅利都有绯闻。传记中称,1963年肯尼迪遇刺身亡后,杰奎琳的情人包括马龙•白兰度、保罗•纽曼、法兰克•辛纳屈,以及她的两个小叔子 罗伯特•肯尼迪和彼特•劳福德。 波特说:“与肯尼迪结婚她始终没得到幸福,她同意维持这段婚姻,只要肯尼迪保证自己的私情不公开,但他却不断地羞辱她。他们的幸福婚姻就像杰奎琳的血统和当代的卡米洛特一样,只是个神话。” (译者 闻竹 编辑 党超峰) 扫一扫,关注微博微信
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