Behind Story on Former U.S. President JFK`s `Inappropriate Relationships`

New York Daily News reported on May 18 that Jacqueline Kennedy was also well aware of the former U.S. President, John F. Kennedy`s liaisons.

Quoting from a biography titled `An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy 1917 ~ 1963` by author Robert Dallek, the newspaper reported that when Jacqueline noticed a woman on a receiving line who was one of her husband`s sex partner, she shouted at two aides, “Isn`t it bad enough that you solicit this woman for my husband, but then you insult me by asking me to shake her hand!”

Edward Klein, an author of another John F. Kennedy`s biography, pointed out “Jacqueline came from an upper class where this kind of men`s philandering behavior was ordinary and her father was a notorious womanizer. Nonetheless, she couldn`t stand her husband`s behavior being publicized.” Klein also stated that the former President JFK would often disappear with a woman who was sitting at the table with them at a dinner party before he became the president.

It has been known that Jacqueline Kennedy herself had love affairs to soothe her pain.

Dalleck also pointed out in the biography that the former president JFK even boasted in a letter to his friend about his success on seducing a 17-year-old girl. Moreover, Dalleck analyzed that JFK`s womanizing skills must have came from his own father and his frequent illnesses as a youngster and his fear of dying at a young age have caused him to be involved in his notorious abnormal sexual behaviors.

62-year-old screenwriter and director Nora Ephron whose works include `When Harry Met Sally,` `Sleepless in Seattle` and `You`ve Got Mail,` published a surprising story about her young intern days on The New York Times on May 18.

The memoir started with `I was also an intern working for President Kennedy.` She was, in fact, a predecessor to Mimi Fanhestoke, a former White House intern who disclosed her relationship with President Kennedy.

Apron then went on to say that she now thinks, ˝I might have been the only woman who were not courted by the president and most handsome man I have ever seen,˝ after reading Fanhestoke`s story. She wondered it was because of her funny-looking perm, her dress made of some hairy cloth or her Jewish blood (none of Kennedy`s mistresses was Jewish).

Of Fanhestoke`s remarks that she could work at White House without knowing how to type, Ephron said, ˝At that time we used to sit near a cabinet located beside a men`s restroom since there was no desk arranged for interns.˝ If I did not sit there near the rest room, House Speaker Sam Ravern might have stayed behind the locked door for hours, she wrote.

She met with the former president twice. The first brief encounter lasted about some 15 seconds and the second one came in one Friday evening as the president got out of his office for a weekend trip to the camp. It was a moment of destiny for Ephron and the good-looking president said, ˝How are you doing˝ before he left.

Ephron jokingly conjectured that her talking too much might have prevented her from getting wooed by the president, as she ended her story asking the press to respect her privacy.

Kwan-Hee Hong Eun-Taek Hong konihong@donga.com euntack@donga.com