EXCLUSIVE: Jackie Kennedy's Secret Pain Uncovered — We Reveal the Heartbreaking Secrets Only She Knew About JFK That Nearly Destroyed Her
Jackie Kennedy's was left gutted over JFK's multiple affairs.
Oct. 28 2025, Published 6:30 a.m. ET
Jacqueline Kennedy fiercely guarded her privacy, especially following the assassination of her husband, John F. Kennedy. Just three months before her death at 64 in 1994, she burned a stack of letters from friends, lovers, and family, including JFK, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
"She decided to take matters into her own hands while she was still able to do so," her longtime friend and former lover, Jack Warnecke, told her biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli.
But now, over three decades later, Taraborrelli's new book, JFK: Public, Private, Secret, shines new light on Jackie's inner turmoil – and reveals some of the secrets only she knew.
'It Was Very Painful'
Jackie nearly sought divorce after JFK's affair with Joan Lundberg.
One bombshell nearly drove her to divorce JFK – whose nickname was Jack – just two years into her marriage. JFK began a torrid affair in 1956 with Joan Lundberg, a 23-year-old flight attendant and single mom of two.
It wasn't the first – or last – time he cheated on Jackie, but "she told me things changed for her when JFK became involved with Joan," Warnecke told Taraborrelli. "It was very painful."
His dalliance began about a week after Jackie gave birth to their stillborn daughter, Arabella. JFK spent a passionate night in a motel in Lundberg's arms, according to Taraborrelli, "The sex that night was 'wild,' claimed Joan."
After learning of JFK's mistress from sister-in-law Patricia Kennedy Lawford, Jackie confronted her husband at Hammersmith Farm, her family's estate in Newport, R.I.
"Jack had no sooner walked into the foyer when Jackie hit him with a question: 'Who's Trailer Park Joan?'" writes Taraborrelli. "Joan is vague in her unpublished memoir about how much Jack told Jackie, only that he told her pretty much everything."
Spilling Sex Secrets
Jackie's father, Joe, intervened in her divorce plans.
It was enough to make Jackie retain a top New York divorce attorney. But when JFK's father, Joe, found out about her plans, he "told Jackie that if she agreed to stay in the marriage, he could give her the freedom to do whatever she liked. He would offer her $100,000 upon the birth of her and Jack's first child," Taraborrelli writes. "Jackie accepted the offer."
But JFK's affair continued into 1957, and he began sharing details of his and Jackie's sex life with Lundberg.
"John told Joan he and Jackie had started having sex now and again, but 'there's too much left unspoken between us.' Recently, after having sex, [Jackie had] asked him, 'What you do with me in bed, is that what she likes,' obviously meaning Joan," Taraborrelli writes. "He could see the 'damage in her eyes,' and it killed him."
JFK's Mistress Gets Pregnant
Lundberg became pregnant with JFK's child months after Caroline Kennedy's birth.
But his biggest betrayal was yet to come. Jackie gave birth to Caroline in November 1957, and seven months later, Lundberg told JFK she was pregnant with his love child.
"Jack couldn't help but wonder if Joan had purposely planned the pregnancy, given that she'd seen his devotion to Jackie after Caroline's birth," Taraborrelli writes. "He also wondered if he was really the father, and Joan assured him he was."
But the senator from Massachusetts had his eyes on the presidency, so he mailed Joan $400.
"Jack was very clear; he didn't want Joan to have the baby. She took care of things," Taraborrelli writes. And while the author claims there's no evidence Jackie knew of the abortion, JFK once told a friend, "Jackie knew everything."
Marilyn Monroe's relationship with JFK and Robert Kennedy raised Jackie's fears of tragedy.
Never Miss an
Daily updates from the heart of Hollywood, right to your inbox
By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you’re agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
She certainly never trusted him. When they moved into the White House in 1961, "Jackie had a secret spy in the office of Jack's personal secretary and told her, 'I need you to keep an eye on what's going on,'" Taraborrelli says.
That didn't stop his infidelities, most famously with Marilyn Monroe. He and his brother, Bobby [Robert F. Kennedy], toyed with the fragile Hollywood star so much, Taraborrelli writes, that Jackie begged her husband to stop.
"This one worries me," she told JFK, according to Taraborrelli. "I think she's a suicide waiting to happen."
J. Randy Taraborrelli wrote Jackie believed empathy was missing from JFK's nature.
"Of all the women in JFK's life, it was Marilyn who Jackie felt sorry for," an insider told RadarOnline.com of the actress, whose death by drug overdose in 1962 was ruled a probable suicide.
"Jackie was sad to hear the news. Who knows? If Jack had done something like she'd asked, Marilyn might have been saved."
Jackie knew better than anyone how heartless JFK could be. "
She'd always felt something was missing in his nature: empathy," Taraborrelli writes of what she realized when she'd first learned about Joan. "Many years later, she told a family member, 'I was doing my best with the cards I'd been dealt. I loved Jack. I know he loved me. I had to ignore the rest of it. My marriage was like a deep black hole, and I knew if I looked down, I'd fall in.'"
