They did, and Chandler recalls, "Mouths dropped open. But it also marked the end of an extraordinary relationship between the reserved and refined former first lady and the free-spirited singing sensation 16 years her junior. . The rest was French and Italian decorative painted furniture, souvenirs from Jackie's travels (an obsidian sphinx said to have been given by Anwar Sadat, Greek worry beads of blue glass), stacks of books, her collection of drawings of animals dating from the 17th century onward, and overstuffed sofas and chairs. She would characterize the Kennedy clan as "the vanillachocolateandstrawberry Kennedys," referring to their unsophisticated Yankee taste. I think she saw a free spirit who had the license to be, in a rock and roll kind of way, loose as a goose. Onassis death in 1994 closed a chapter in the fabled story of the Kennedys, Americas most famous political family. She was 64. Says Langham, "It's almost as if she knew what was going to happen."). For Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the spirit of Camelot never died. Jackie laughingly protested, "After all, I'm not Greta Garbo!". Simon, whose first marriage to James Taylor ended in divorce, says she was more into artistic types. The Sisterhood of Jackie Kennedy and Lee Radziwill, Inside The Wild World of Men's Beauty Pageants, her first husband, President John F. Kennedy, The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters: The Tragic and Glamorous Lives of Jackie and Lee, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. She whispered to him at one point, "You really ought to try the new place around the corner. It took a long while before Jackie and Maurice took their companionship to the next level. [24] Tempelsman was a board member of the Southern African Enterprise Development Fund, and past chairman and long-serving board member of the Africa-America Institute. "I would do a touch, she would check," he says. Recamier. . Maurice Tempelsman and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis TAKE A WALK IN CENTRAL PARK in April 1994. The surprise concert was held in April 1995. [9], In 1980, Tempelsman bought, for $1 million, two 500 BC acroliths representing Demeter and Persephone; the pieces consisted of two marble heads, three feet, and three hands. Titled "Ithaka,". Senator from Massachusetts, to meet a South African diamond magnate. When Jackie was diagnosed with cancer, Tempelsman became her constant companion for the remaining months of her life, setting up an office in their home to be more available to her and accompanying her to and from her treatments. (An informed source, however, claims it is much less than most people assume.) "When you look back on your life, you hardly recognize the person you once were. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis takes her first walk with Maurice Tempelsman in Central Park after leaving the hospital on April 24, 1994, in New York City | Photo: Steve Allen/Liaison/Getty Images The former first lady ended up having a publishing career and found new love with a diamond dealer named Maurice Tempelsman. Nearly 25 years later, Simon says she didn't tell Onassis only surviving child Caroline Kennedy that she was writing the book, but hopes Kennedy will accept it in the spirit in which it was meant, which was with utter warmth.. She acquired nearly 100 works of fiction and nonfiction over the course of her career, nurturing many authors and even reading their manuscripts and sending notes while receiving treatment for cancer toward the end of her life. I would never bring up JFK, Simon said. The former first lady "looked so beautiful and so regal and so finally at home," Simon told NBC News in a remarkably candid interview. Maurice Tempelsman is a Belgian-American businessman and diamond merchant. Often publicly noted as a "frequent escort" or "companion," Maurice was the American socialite's third and last great love during the last decade of her life. Tempelsman became close with her children, attending her daughter Caroline's wedding, and even gained the approval of Jackie's notoriously difficult-to-please mother, Janet Lee Auchincloss, who died five years before her daughter in 1989. He is also a general partner of Leon Tempelsman & Son, an investment company specializing in real estate and venture capital. [14], Tempelsman maintains relations with political and business leaders, in particular government leaders in Africa and Russia, and leading figures in the U.S. Democratic Party. How? "People will be surprised at how ungood the things are," says one who knew Jackie's apartment well. In that way, she would be absorbed completely in a private conversation and leave no opportunity for others to approach. . The next morning, Simon received a letter in the mail from Domingo. ("Don't make her look like a doll"). Jackie found out that Robert F. Kennedy had been shot on June 5, 1968, . "He knew that the marriage was Jack's whole future." Simon said she knows writing about the notoriously private Onassis in such a personal way might draw criticism. So farewell, farewell. It seems strange that the will of one so famous, yet so private, should be available to anyone who asks for it; stranger still that it should be found in a setting as seedy and cramped as the fourthfloor records room of New York's Surrogate Court. A year after Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's death, her intimate possessions have been made public, and her friends have begun to lift the veil of secrecy that surrounded her. Even Onassis's seathe warm, sapphire Aegeanwas at odds with the bracing Atlantic of the Kennedys' Hyannisport. "And now the journey is over, too short, alas, too short," Tempelsman said at the service. But Onassis sometimes opened up to her even about one of the most taboo subjects: JFKs affairs. At her funeral at St. Ignatius Loyola Roman Catholic Church on Park Avenue five days later, he stood alongside her children and read out a poem, Ithaka by C.P. memorabilia will be donated to the Kennedy Library. Jackie Kennedy and her second husband Aristotle Onassis drifted apart after the death of Onassis' son, Alexander, and many people believed they were headed for divorce. ", Rarely if ever did Jackie abandon her regal bearing and serene mask in public. [23] An example of his work with the CCA involved assisting government leaders with establishing the New Partnership for Africa's Development. Her White House personal secretary, Mary Gallagher, remembers her swapping aquamarines and other jewels to buy an antique starburst pin from the London dealer Wartski. Jackie Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis off the Isle of Skorpios (August 25, 1970) Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images. Simon always called the same person. It is notable for the absence of gifts to charitable foundations, although a charitable lead trust is set up to be administered by her children, Forger, and Jackie's last companion, Maurice Tempelsman, for causes that make "a significant difference in the cultural or social betterment of mankind or the relief of human suffering." The music selection Onassis had made played in the background with Simon stating she heard: Jackie Kennedy and Maurice Tempelsman in New York City on May 2, 1982. Ivana Marie Zelnkov escaped from behind the Iron Curtain to storm New York City and help create the twisted miracle of Donald Trump. "Please put me in the Queen's Room," she told chief White House usher J. "You must remember that success and power can transform someone, even physically." With Jackie's death leaving a massive hole in his life, Maurice went on to date a career woman named Alice Kimball Malone, a romantic affair that earned support from his inner circle. ", Those with refined sensibilities found it admirable that Jackie seemed to have remained immune to the decor mania of the late 70s and 80s and that she preferred to spend her time working as a book editor, riding, and playing with her grandchildren, rather than pondering species of fringe or the intricacies of upholstery with a decorator. Jackie sat at a dressing table before the window, facing straight into the strong lateafternoon sun, a pitiless light that showed the sun spots she professed being concerned about. The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images, Carly Simon's new memoir, "Touched By the Sun: My Friendship With Jackie. They traveled together for a period and Ormsby Gore even proposed, but Jackie ultimately decided to marry Onassis instead. There are various things that he did that by comparison to having a mistress must have hurt more.. After President Kennedy's assassination, Jackie worked closely with architect Jack Warnecke to design the eternal flame memorial which now stands in Arlington National Cemetery. Joe had learned from his exposure to Hollywood what his gifted daughterinlaw knew intuitively: that the public might identify with the middle class, but what it craved was royalty. Cassini remembers, "She wanted haute couture but with dignity. For most of her life, she preferred the company of men. "Her tastes were very French," says art critic and lecturer Rosamond Bernier, who adds, "I think of a warm place, with a fire burning." She was a naughty girl and she liked that in herself and she liked it in other people.. According to Maurice Tempelsman, Jackie's partner for the last 14 years of her life, . The secrecy has only fueled interest in I the sale; as a result of the public filI ing of the will, a list of the probable auction contents was obtained and published last July. I would never bring up a lot of the subjects that we ended up talking about because she would bring them up. They went out to lunch and to the opera. ; the Franchetti portrait of Jackie with Lee; the 19thcentury book Costume of the Russian Empire, which Jackie undoubtedly used for her research with Diana Vreeland for the Russiancostume exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum; the gold snakeform bracelet that may have been her lOthanniversary gift from J.F.K. The friendship between the Belgian businessman and the Kennedy couple continued for a long time, but only on the sidelines. (For Manzoni's second visit, she wore a white robe, presaging the white crepe Carolina Herrera evening dress she would wear that night.) From her greed is good heyday to her post-divorce denouement cavorting with a series of freaky Italian lovers, it was Ivana, all along, who gilded the Trump name. Maurice had been Jackie's constant companion during the last 15 years of her life, and her death left the mega-rich diamond merchant heartbroken. AmoMama creates engaging, meaningful content for women. Even those inured to the commercial theater of the celebrity auction find it bizarre, even "unseemly," that the public be invited to paw through the personal belongings of the former First Lady. Marilyn Brant Chandler, a population activist and former wife of Los Angeles Times publisher Otis Chandler, recalls having Jackie as a houseguest in the winter of 1977. A year after Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's death, her intimate possessions have been made public, and her friends have begun to lift the veil of secrecy that surrounded her. The public regarded her as a symbol of American sophistication and style. | Source: Getty Images. "It was filled with adventure and wisdom, laughter and love, gallantry and grace. Still another friend recalls telling Jackie that he had asked a gossip columnist not to mention that he had been a weekend guest at her house on Martha's Vineyard. "She loved them because they were free spirits, unguarded and spontaneouswhat she couldn't be," says an observer. "I would imagine it's probably true," says Robert McNamara. (Jackie's stepbrother, Hugh Auchincloss III, known as Yusha, intimates that only he and Bobby Kennedy knew the real story behind her father not attending the wedding.) Others who have never spoken of her will now do so, often prefacing their recollections with "I've never discussed this before" or "I've waited 20odd years to tell this story." . Advertisement It was a godsend. In 1968, she married Aristotle Onassis and remained his wife until his death in 1975. On the other hand, objectively, she would have been very interested in herself, Simon said. Unlike Jackie's other public paramours, Tempelsman was never one to steal the spotlight, or even to seek ithe once reportedly secured a retraction by a gossip columnist who'd claimed that he and Jackie planned to marry. Tempelsman, Jackie's constant companion for the last. He crafted connections with African diamond interests and was close with the Oppenheimer family, becoming one of a select group of buyers allowed to purchase diamonds directly from De Beers. de Maintenon, and Mme. At 16 he followed his father into the diamond industry, forging contacts that would make him a pillar of the diamond import industry. His contacts eventually ranged from South African anti-apartheid politician Oliver Tambo to Zaire's kleptocratic dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko and the influential Oppenheimer diamond family. But they see things for me that I never wanted for myself.. Yusha Auchincloss says he has "hundreds of letters from Jackie" written since her girlhood, and that the style and handwriting never changed. Her publishing career and her contented relationship with financier Maurice Tempelsman speak highly of a woman who fought demons even more implacable than her contemporaries and the rest of us . The two began their lengthy relationship in 1980, five years after the death of Jacqueline Onassis' second husband Aristotle Onassis. Jackie had been married to Onassis for six and a half year when he died in 1975. Jacqueline Kennedy at her Georgetown home in August 1960. after the services, her body was taken from new york city and laid to rest in arlington national cemetery next to graves of president kennedy, their stillborn daughter, and the son they lost in infancy. (Pearl Buck described him as "dramatic and selfabsorbed.") Recalls Peter Beard, who spent summers with them aboard the Christina, "Ari was obsessed by mermaids"; Jackie became his sea creature. Jackie designed the Kennedy Monument herself after the death of John F. Kennedy in 1963. Maurice first met Jackie in 1950 when then-senator John was still alive. [36] The couple frequently took walks through Central Park and were photographed doing so in the days preceding her death from Non-Hodgkin lymphoma at age 64 on May 19, 1994. Cynthia McFadden is the senior legal and investigative correspondent for NBC News. Few of the couple's issues had been about Aristotle's alleged affair with Jackie's sister, Lee Radziwill. Yale professor Wayne Koestenbaum recently published the 291page Jackie Under My Skin: Interpreting an Icon, which treats Jackie as "an idea, not a person." Rich Schapiro is a reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit. Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's death today has taken me into my archives and our May 2, 2006 Q&A about her relationship with diamond broker Maurice Tempelsman, long-time companion of Jackie Kennedy. In New York, she reassumed the immaculate public mask of the White House era. For the moment we are left with the recollections of her friends. Maurice Tempelsman (born August 26, 1929) is a Belgian-American businessman and diamond merchant. But we went too far. And she had an amusing way of putting things: "Do you want to go out, or do you just want to plop?" [40], Last edited on 17 December 2022, at 07:09, Southern African Enterprise Development Fund, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, Business Council for International Understanding, New York University Institute of Fine Arts, "Death of a First Lady: The Companion; Quietly at Her Side, Public at the End", "Clinton and Kennedys: In 30 Years, a Full Circle", "Two Marble Sculptures to Return to Sicily", "Lazare Kaplan sales down as worried buyers reassess strategy", "Fototeca online a comunismului romnesc", "Official Delegation Accompanying the President to Africa", "OPIC Board Approves $250Million to Develop Diamond Cutting and Polishing in Botswana", "OPIC & U.S. Company Partner to Improve Diamond Production and Sales in Emerging Markets", "USAID Signs a $1.5Million Partnership to Improve Economic Opportunities in Angola", "Interview with Ambassador John A. Linehan,Jr", "Congress Holds Hearing on New Partnership for African Development", Bureau of International Information Programs, "AAI Recognizes Tempelsman as Distinguished Trustee", "NDI Board of Directors: Maurice Tempelsman", "Onassis Leaves Estate to Charity and Her Children", "First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: Memorial Tributes in the One Hundred Third Congress of the United States", "Last Will & Testament Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis", "Mrs. Onassis's Estate Worth Less Than Estimated", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Maurice_Tempelsman&oldid=1127894252, This page was last edited on 17 December 2022, at 07:09. While in the White House, the first couple's son Patrick died two days after he. For a woman who spent much of her adult life in the spotlight, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was almost as famous for her desire for privacy as she was for the roles and relationships that had made her an American icon. After she lost her infant son Patrick in the summer of 1963, she fled to the Christina and wrote long, emotional letters to J.F.K. It was only in the last third of her life that she seemed to develop friendships with women. Though JFK and Onassis were easily Jackie's most recognizable relationshipsand Tempelsman was her lastthey weren't the only men to play leading roles in her life. He was previously a producer at ABC News, where he worked at Nightline and World News with Diane Sawyer, and at MSNBC. Jackie Kennedy Onassis was survived by her two living children, Caroline and John Jr., and three grandchildren. Carly Simon at her home in Martha's Vineyard. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Maurice Tempelsman may have been the least famous of the men in her life, but he was the one who was with Jackie to the end. On May 19, 1994, Jacqueline Kennedy passed away in her Manhattan apartment following a battle with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. In her household alone, Jackie lost a pregnancy in 1955, then had a daughter, Arabella, who was stillborn in 1956. Amid their strained relationship, Aristotle succumbed to respiratory failure in March 1975. The 36 pages of legalsize paper are contained in a long manila folder and are already well worn by rifling fingers. [37] At Onassis's funeral service, Tempelsman read Constantine P. Cavafy's poem Ithaca, one of her favorites, and concluded by saying: "And now the journey is over, too short, alas, too short.