Taking Secrets To The Grave: Jackie Kennedy's Sister Lee Radziwill Dies At 85
Feb. 18 2019, Updated 11:39 a.m. ET
Lee Radziwill, who was Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' younger sister and former The Real Housewives of New York star Carole's mother-in-law, has died at age 85. The socialite and interior decorator was once a princess, but is best known for being part of Camelot as the sister-in-law of President John F. Kennedy.
Americans delighted to see Lee's fashion icon style along with her famed sister Jackie. The two traveled the world together while Jackie was First Lady.
Lee was married three times, to publishing exec Michael Canfield, from 1953 until the union was annulled in 1962, to Polish Prince Stanislaw Albrecht Radziwill from 1959 to 1974 and to movie director Herbert Ross from 1988 to 2001.
She had her two children, son Anthony and daughter Christina, by Radziwill.
Carole, who would go on to RHONY, was wed to Anthony from 1994 -1999, before he died from cancer just weeks after his cousin, Jackie's son John F. Kennedy Jr., perished in a plane crash. "My husband’s mom was Jackie Onassis’ sister," Carole said on the Bravo show. "We had a place out in Sagaponack. We shared a house with Anthony’s cousin John."
Sources told RadarOnline.com that Lee, who was private like her late sister, didn't approve of Carole doing reality TV.
Carole quit RHONY last year, as RadarOnline.com reported. Although Lee didn't dish dirty laundry, later in her life, she wrote her autobiography, Lee, which pulled back the curtain a bit on her amazing life.
In the book published a few years ago, Lee shared photos, copies of memorabilia, and memories.
Lee described how she connected with Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth, on living beside a high-profile woman during a visit to a Buckingham Palace. "We took a tour through the palace art gallery and Prince Phillip (sic) said to me, 'You're just like me – you have to walk three steps behind, '" Lee recalled.
She also wrote of being Jackie's sister, "We were always surrounded by too many people."
Lee and Jackie were born to stockbroker John Vernou Bouvier III and socialite Janet Lee Bouvier, who went through a nasty divorce. Later, their mother married wealthy Hugh D. Auchincloss. Jackie, widowed by assassination--and her second husband, Ari Onassis, also dying--passed away from cancer in 1994 at age 64.
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During her long life in the public eye, Jackie's sister enjoyed hanging out with such New York fixtures as Truman Capote, Rudfolf Nureyev, Peter Beard, and Andy Warhol.
Her elegance was legendary; Jackie and Lee stunned the world riding elephants in their bouffant hairdos and fashion finery on a trip to India and Pakistan during the Kennedy presidency in March 1962.
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