It has been revealed by the singer Carly Simon, a friend of Jackie Kennedy Onassis for eleven years, in a book that she has just published
Carly Simon (New York, 1945) is one of those strange forces of nature that pop music rarely provides a singer who composed almost all of her hits solo and managed to get some of them to jump to the society pages for arousing a mystery that remains interesting today. The clearest example is You're so vain, which went to number one in the US in 1972. It has backing vocals by Mick Jagger, has aged incredibly well, and for years made the world wonder who it was dedicated to. this song. Simon revealed in 2015 that she was actor Warren Beatty. This great composer not only demonstrated putting the notes of a song on her site but also to the ladies of the red carpet.
“Her husband of hers was on a yacht with his mistress in the Mediterranean Sea, reluctant to return home to his devastated wife. With cold distance, she saw no reason to return quickly: the baby was already dead, ”published the 'Washington Post
The latest reincarnation of Simon, who has released 23 albums and went on to sell four million copies of her greatest hits compilation, is that of a writer. She confronts her with the definitive ladyboy of the 20th century: John Fitzgerald Kennedy (Brookline, Massachusetts, 1917-Dallas, Texas, 1963). Touched by the Sun: my friendship with Jackie (“Touched by the Sun: my friendship with Jackie”) is actually a review of his friendship with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, but his relationship with JFK and his infidelities are the focus of much of the promotion.
That JFK was unfaithful is nothing new. In the middle of the sixties, it was the era of free love, gray hair in the air could be something as acceptable as taking LSD in free time. The assassinated president has been blamed for romances with, among others, Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich, and a White House intern – when Clinton said that JFK had been his inspiration, he took it to its ultimate consequences. But Carly goes beyond those romances and recounts the episode of infidelity that really marked the marriage between Kennedy and Onassis.
It was John John Kennedy, who died in 1999 at age 39 (only one of four children born to JFK and Jackie survives today: Caroline Kennedy) who introduced Carly and Jackie in 1983. Their friendship lasted until 1994 when the Kennedy matriarch passed away. , and Carly dedicated a song to him that same year, Touched by the Sun. They were 16 years apart in age, but according to Simon, they were a perfect fit. “I could be neurotic, bohemian, and disastrous, and she was always so correct. I was just what she couldn't be. I think that's what she liked,” says Simon.
In her memoirs, Carly describes a woman who didn't seem overly upset by her husband's infidelities. “In a cheerful but resigned way she told me that of course, she knew all that. She just didn't care as much because she knew that Kennedy loved her, more than any of the other adventures of hers."
But in an interview with the journalist Cynthia McFadden on the American network NBC, Simon brought up an episode that did mark Jacqueline a lot and the relationship she had with JFK: it happened when she gave birth to what would have been the first daughter of the couple, Arabella, who is 1956, four years before Kennedy was elected 35th President of the United States, was stillborn.
“I think she saw in me something that she wanted in herself. She saw a spirit that had the right to be free like a bird."
Carly Simon about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
“He was not there during the birth of his daughter. He was on a trip with a mistress while Jackie was in the hospital,” Carly revealed. This is a story that the Washington Post had already advanced in 2013: “Her husband of hers was on a yacht with his lover in the Mediterranean, reluctant to return home to be with his devastated wife. With cold distance, he saw no reason to rush back: the baby was already dead.
Despite everything, Jackie remained (literally) by her husband's side until her death, as shown by the images of the assassination that ended her life in 1963 and that today are the history of the 20th century. And, after her, true to her character as her discreet and formal first lady, she never spoke publicly (and hardly even in private) about those infidelities. “I think she saw something in me that she wanted in herself,” Carly concludes in the interview. "She saw a spirit that had the right to be free as a bird."
