Who was Jackie Kennedy’s socialite sister Princess Lee Radziwill? A muse for Marc Jacobs, she wed the Duke of Kent’s alleged love child and a European aristocrat – and toured with The Rolling Stones
- John F. Kennedy’s widow Jackie had a younger sister who enjoyed the spotlight as a socialite in New York, Paris and London just as much as the famous (and royal) men she married
- Free-spirited Lee Radziwill once had an affair with her sister’s future husband Aristotle Onassis, and her famous friends included Sofia Coppola, Truman Capote and Andy Warhol
Revered for her exquisite style and influence over the upper echelon of society, Lee Radziwill is remembered for much more than being the sister of Jackie Kennedy.
She was known as the adventurous, free-spirited Bouvier sister, enchanting America’s upper class in the 1950s, 1960s and beyond. It’s been said that much of Jackie’s grace and style was learned from her younger sister, especially during her days in the White House.
Yet despite her days as a socialite, her sisterly role was a bigger one, as she watched the horrors of Jackie’s life unfold, from the death of her two-day-old baby in mid-1963 to her husband JFK’s assassination in November of the same year. She died as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, in May 1994.
Despite being less famous, she lived a fabulous, long life until her death in 2019, at age 85. So, who was she exactly?
Perhaps the most depressing part was that whatever I did, or tried to do, got disproportionate coverage purely because of Jackie being my sister. But you learn to deal with scrutiny, even the lies, as long as it’s not malicious
Perhaps the most depressing part was that whatever I did, or tried to do, got disproportionate coverage purely because of Jackie being my sister. But you learn to deal with scrutiny, even the lies, as long as it’s not malicious