When Jackie Kennedy became Jackie Onassis and the world shuddered
It is 50 years since the former first lady America idolised married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis and became ‘Jackie O’, prompting a global outbreak of mourning
She was the world’s most beloved widow. And then that widow was gone. Fifty years ago, the world mourned the end of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy.
“The reaction here is anger, shock and dismay,” declared The New York Times. “The gods are weeping,” read a quote in The Washington Post. A German newspaper announced: “America has lost a saint.”
But Mrs Kennedy hadn’t died. She had only become Mrs Onassis.
On October 20, 1968, the former first lady stunned her adoring public by remarrying. Five years after the assassination of President John Kennedy, she donned a wedding dress, entered a candlelit chapel and pronounced “I do” to Aristotle Onassis, a wealthy Greek shipping tycoon. From that moment on, she would forever be “Jackie O.”
The series of events that led her to the altar began long before a shot was fired in Dallas. While the Kennedys were in the White House, Onassis was already one of the richest and most successful businessmen in the world. He owned an airline, had amassed a shipping empire, and was a prominent player in the oil, gold and real estate industries. He was also known for his philandering, including an affair with a famous opera singer and, for a time, a rumoured tryst with Jackie’s younger sister, Lee Radziwill.