EXCLUSIVE: Jackie Kennedy's Final Night With JFK Revealed – First Lady 'Just Knew' She Had to Be With Him Before His Assassination

Jackie Kennedy's final night with JFK reveals the First Lady sensed she had to be with him before assassination.
Feb. 4 2026, Published 7:30 a.m. ET
Glamorous Jackie Kennedy spent a final night of passion with her tragic husband, John F. Kennedy, before America's beloved president was cruelly gunned down on the campaign trail in 1963.
Now, 62 years after JFK's cowardly killing, RadarOnline.com is revealing all the details about Jackie's last hours with the father of her children and how the couple had reaffirmed their bond in the months before he was stolen from her.
Jackie Finally Won JFK’s Heart

Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in beside Jackie Kennedy as she still wore her bloodstained pink Chanel suit.
"Discovering the truth – that JFK suddenly was committed to Jackie and loved her more than ever right before his death – makes his assassination even more tragic," said an insider. "Jackie finally got what she always wanted – JFK's total devotion – and then was taken from her in the most violent way imaginable."
As RadarOnline.com readers know, Jack and his devoted wife were traveling in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, in support of his reelection bid when his life was snuffed out by sniper Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963.
One of the many haunting images from that day is of the somber widow – still clad in a pink Chanel suit splattered with JFK's blood – standing beside Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson as he's sworn in as her slain spouse's successor.
But hours earlier, Jackie had shared tender moments with JFK as they settled into Suite 850 in Fort Worth's Hotel Texas after an exhausting day of campaigning.
According to J. Randy Taraborrelli's book JFK: Public, Private, Secret, the first lady told her mother, Janet Lee Auchincloss, and stepbrother, Yusha, that she finally felt as though she'd found her momentum and grown into the role of her dynamic husband's political partner.
The trip to the Lone Star State was Jackie's first official domestic trip with Jack since he was voted into the Oval Office.
But sources say she initially wasn't eager to join JFK after remembering how she'd felt invisible during his days as a senator for the state of Massachusetts.
Jackie Felt Drawn to Jack

J. Randy Taraborrelli wrote, Jackie felt newly confident as husband John F. Kennedy's political partner in Texas.
However, Texas governor John Connally considered her presence vital to JFK's success – and told him as much.
According to Taraborrelli, Jackie realized the public had grown to admire her and felt she could contribute by standing by her husband's side as he made his bid for a second term.
On JFK's last night alive, the couple prepared to settle into their separate bedrooms within the same suite as Jack reportedly praised his love for being "great" during their grueling appearances.
Taraborrelli writes that the pair retired for the evening, but Jackie awoke suddenly at 3 a.m.
Her mother recalled: "She knew she needed to be with Jack. She just knew. She didn't know how else to explain it."
Their Final Night as Lovers

John Connally urged JFK to bring Jackie on the Texas trip, believing her presence was vital to his reelection bid.
According to the book, Jackie tiptoed to JFK's door, let herself into his room, and crawled into his bed. They then made love. She returned to her own room and fell asleep, unaware that was the very last time they'd lie together as husband and wife.
Taraborrelli shares that the tragedy is even more heartbreaking because notorious skirt-chaser JFK had denounced his philandering ways and pledged himself to Jackie anew as he realized she was his "whole life."
"The couple – parents to Caroline Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr., then 5 and 2 – had seemed to strengthen their commitment to one another and their marriage after their son Patrick died shortly after his premature birth in August 1963."
Taraborrelli says a heartbroken JFK told brother Teddy Kennedy's then-wife, Joan Kennedy, that he feared God was taking retribution on him for his bad behavior.
JFK’s Crisis of Conscience

Janet Lee Auchincloss recalled Jackie waking at 3 a.m. knowing she needed to be with JFK.
"I haven't been the best husband, and it's very painful," he told Joan. "And by painful, I mean shameful."
Yet, he invited galpal Mary Meyer to the White House shortly afterward when Jackie was at their summer home in Virginia with their children.
But he had second thoughts, did not betray his wife again, and sent his former flame away.
JFK's pal George Smathers recalled: "He told me two weeks later that he had a woman at the White House, but that he'd had a change of heart.
"He said he looked at her and said, I guess, a crisis of conscience, which he resolved by saying to himself, 'Hell, no. I'm not doing this. I'm done with this.'"
Jackie Finally Felt Truly Loved

George Smathers said JFK sent Mary Meyer away after deciding not to betray Jackie again.
After dismissing Meyer, JFK raced to Jackie in Atoka, Virginia, and she later described feeling as if she were "maybe for the first time, loved, wanted and cared for."
Taraborrelli wrote just before the duo headed to Dallas, Jackie shared with her mom that for their 10th wedding anniversary, she'd given JFK a new St. Christopher's medal because he'd placed his own in Patrick's coffin, and he gifted her a gold and emerald ring.
The green stone, he'd explained, represented the same fighting spirit of the Irish he'd found in tiny Patrick's hard-fought bid for survival.
The renewed romantic even got down on one knee to propose to Jackie after never officially asking for her hand in marriage in that way before.
Secret Vow Renewal Never Happened


Ben Bradlee remembered JFK greeting Jackie with an unusually affectionate embrace shortly before Dallas.
Sources said Jack had planned to renew his vows with Jackie in September 1964 for their 11th anniversary – but took that secret plan to his grave.
Journalist Ben Bradlee, a friend of the Kennedys, recalled JFK greeting his wife with "by far the most affectionate embrace he had ever seen them give each other."
Bradlee added: "We wondered about it, figured it was because of Patrick, but, looking back, I think maybe it was because of Jackie."
After Jack was declared dead at Parkland Hospital, Jackie – who would succumb to blood cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, in 1994 at age 64 – endured the nightmarish end of her Camelot fairy tale.
Jackie’s Final Goodbye to JFK

Taraborrelli described Jackie kissing JFK goodbye after viewing his body at Parkland Hospital.
Taraborrelli writes that Jackie approached her husband's lifeless body on a stretcher, pulled back the sheet, and gazed at his face.
"His mouth was so beautiful," recalled Jackie, who then kissed him goodbye.
The insider said: "She was intensely private, so she likely only divulged what happened the night before he died to very few people, only those closest to her. She undoubtedly guarded the secret so fiercely because what happened meant so much to her; it was precious to her.
"Some may not have believed her. After all, could JFK really be faithful to her? But what happened was a twist of fate indeed. JFK finally realized what he had, and then he was killed. They were robbed of sharing the beautiful life together they thought they were going to have."



