After about a half hour, at just before midnight, Lee emerged from Jackie’s room. Her face seemed ashen, her eyes reddened. “My sister looks so beautiful,” she told John, according to witnesses. “Do you know how much she loves you?” John asked as he embraced his aunt. Choked up, Lee put her hand to her mouth and just nodded.
Shortly thereafter, Lee steeled herself once again and went back into her sister’s room, followed by John, Caroline, Anthony, and his new fiancée, Carole DiFalco. Ted Kennedy and his wife, Vicki, as well as his sister-in-law Ethel, were now there as well, as was Yusha. They all gathered around Jackie’s bed, holding hands and praying. On his knees, with his hands folded in prayer before him, Anthony said to his beloved aunt, “I hope I can face this disease with as much dignity and courage as you have.” Rising from her knees, Lee then walked from the foot of the bed to its head. Standing next to Jackie, she rested her hand on her sister’s cheek. “I love you so much,” she said. “I always have, Jacks,” she concluded as she gently kissed her sister on the lips. “I hope you know it,” she added, barely able to get the words out.
Finally, Lee left Jackie’s apartment. With her head bowed, she made her way through the bustling crowd of admirers, mourners, and reporters, all of whom had nosily congregated in front of Jackie’s building waiting for word. As she did so, she cried shamelessly and without restraint.
The following night, May 19, 1994, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis passed away. A few days later, she was buried next to her first husband, President John F. Kennedy, at Arlington National Cemetery.
* * *
“I have made no provision in this my Will for my sister, Lee B. Radziwill, for whom I have great affection, because I have already done so during my lifetime.”
Jackie’s decision to leave no money to Lee was a big surprise to the outside world but not so much to those who actually knew the sisters. In her will, which was signed in March of 1994, Jackie left most of her estate to Caroline and John and a half million dollars each to Anthony and Tina—but nothing for their mother. “Figured” is how Jamie put it, who wasn’t even mentioned in the will. “At least Lee got her name in it,” he said. “For some, it was as if I didn’t exist. However, I always knew the parameters and limitations of the relationship I had with my sister, and I also knew her character and personality. I’m comfortable with all of it, all of our history. I certainly didn’t expect anything from her in her will. I knew how we felt about each other, and that’s what sustained me.”
While Jackie had helped Lee out on occasion over the years, to say she gave her money freely and with abandon would not be true. Though Lee had somehow lived a rich and entitled lifestyle, it was never easy for her. The sisters’ dynamic had become so familiar it was, by this time, almost a caricature: Jackie always had it so good while Lee … didn’t. Some in the family thought it would have been a loving gesture for Jackie to finally alter that situation once and for all, especially given that Aristotle Onassis chose not to bequeath any of his money to Lee, either, so many years earlier. Unfortunately, though, behavior that had been so true in life also held in death.
* * *
Two years after Jackie’s death, on May 28, 1996, Bingham Morris—Booch—passed away quietly at his home in Southampton. He was eighty-nine and had no survivors. Almost twenty years later, on June 13, 2015, Hugh D. Auchincloss III—Yusha—would pass away at the age of eighty-seven, survived by many loved ones, incuding his two grown children, Cecil and Maya.
* * *
“Fine. Since I can’t make up mind,” the woman was saying, “I’ll just take one scarf in each color.”
Adora Rule hadn’t heard that voice in ten years, not since Janet Auchincloss’s funeral. It was June 1999 and she was in the Bergdorf Goodman department store on Fifth Avenue in New York City. “Lee,” she exclaimed, walking up to a woman examining herself in a mirror. The lady whirled around to face her. “Oh my God! Adora!” she exclaimed. “My God! It’s been ages.”
Adora would say that Lee looked “wonderful,” even though, secretly, she was a little taken aback by how thin she was at the age of sixty-six. “She seemed incredibly frail,” she would recall many years later.
Standing there in the aisle at Bergdorf’s, the two women tried to catch up on the unfolding of the last decade. Anthony had been working as a producer for HBO, Lee said, and his wife, Carole, had the same job at ABC. Tina had just become engaged to a research doctor named Ottavio Arancio. John was publishing a new political magazine called George and was now married to a former publicist, Carolyn Bessette.
“I read about Anthony,” Adora finally said. She reached out to take both of Lee’s hands. As Lee nodded, she tried to choke back emotion. “We’re at the end,” she said sadly. “Three weeks. Maybe.” She leaned against the counter, her body seeming to go slack. “Not many people in my life would understand this,” she then said, lowering her voice to a whisper, “but you would. This is Mummy,” she added, dropping her head. “This is Jackie. This isn’t me. I can’t do this. This isn’t me.”
Adora reached out and took Lee in her arms; she would remember the feel of her spine just under the skin on Lee’s back. “Lee, you are so much stronger than you ever knew,” she said. She reminded her that she’d always been her own woman. She always took chances. She pursued each and every one of her dreams with everything she had in her, no matter the consequences. If there was one thing Lee Radziwill always had, it was the courage of her convictions, “and that takes strength,” Adora told her. “You have it, Lee. In fact, I always thought you were the strongest of the three. You will get through this … for your son.”
“Thank you for saying that,” Lee said as she reached into her purse for a handkerchief. They then talked a little about Janet and Jackie. Lee said that when she looked at herself in the mirror while putting on her makeup, she saw both of them staring back at her. She missed them, she said, especially these days. She then laughed and asked, ‘How in the world did I become the matriarch, Adora? First of all, I’m too young,” she observed. “And secondly, I’m still too goddamn irresponsible to be anyone’s matriarch!”
* * *
For years, they had all been prepared for Anthony’s death. But then, in July of 1999, in a twist all too tragically familiar to the Kennedys, the unthinkable happened: John was killed in a plane crash, along with his beautiful wife, Carolyn, and her sister Lauren Bessette. Three weeks later, Anthony died. “Loss upon loss” is how Lee had once put it when speaking of the dual tragedies of John and Bobby Kennedy.
Anthony was cremated wearing a crisp white starched shirt that had belonged to his uncle President John F. Kennedy, with its the collar stamped “1600 Pennsylvania.”
After Anthony’s death, Lee’s marriage to Herbert began to crumble. For about ten years, they had been happy. However, after they grew apart and decided to separate, their bond was all but destroyed, ironically, by negotiations about money. After all, Lee had always been the Bouvier to disregard wealth when choosing a mate, often much to her mother and sister’s dismay. She had to admit, though, that as she got older she wished she hadn’t completely ignored their advice. It would have been much easier for her if she didn’t have to worry about her finances in her advancing years. While she wouldn’t change anything about the past, she realized now that she needed to look to the future. She felt the time had finally come for her to be practical, not idealistic. She could probably still hear Janet’s admonition from years earlier relating to Newton Cope: “Now is not the time for soul-searching, Lee. Now is the time to take care of yourself.” Perhaps that’s why her divorce from Herbert, which was finalized in 2001, was so contentious. In the end, it was estimated that Lee wound up with in excess of $20 million.
Some felt that with her divorce, Lee, as one observer put, “finally joined her mother and her sister on the dark side.” However, Lee was married to Herbert for twelve years. At the time of their divorce she was sixty-eight. Perhaps at one time in her life she might have walked
away from the marriage with her future unsecured and the hope that something better might be right around the corner—maybe a new career … who knows? A book? A documentary? But not at sixty-eight. At sixty-eight, she decided to take care of herself. Maybe Janet and Jackie would have been proud.
Herbert Ross died shortly after his and Lee’s divorce was finalized.
Lee’s daughter, Tina, divorced in 2005. Presently single and with no children, she divides her time between America and Europe.
Today Lee Radziwill is eighty-four and lives in Paris and New York. She says she is very happy, continues to work on her sobriety, and has “not one regret” about a life that has been nothing if not well lived.
“Mummy was quite the equestrian when she was young,” said her only son, Jamie Auchincloss. It was true; Janet Lee Bouvier won many trophies during her youth and even young adulthood. This picture is dated 1937, which would make her thirty. (JAMIE AUCHINCLOSS COLLECTION)
Janet Lee Bouvier and infant Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, 1929. (PHOTOFEST)
Janet and Jack “Black Jack” Bouvier with little Jacqueline. (PHOTOFEST)
Jackie, at about age six, and Lee Bouvier, age three. (PHOTOFEST)
Janet Lee Bouvier with Lee and Jackie, in 1941, walking in East Hampton. Once she divorced their father, Janet had to try to make ends meet for herself and her daughters and, given her entitled lifestyle, it wasn’t always easy. (AP PHOTO)
Jackie always adored her father, “Black Jack” Bouvier. He could do no wrong in her eyes. Here they are in Southampton on July 1, 1947, a few days before her eighteenth birthday. (PHOTOFEST)
Janet Bouvier finally found financial salvation when she married Hugh Auchincloss. Here is the newly blended Auchincloss family in 1946. From left to right, starting at the top: Jackie, Hugh Auchincloss III (Yusha), Nina, Lee, Janet, holding baby Janet Jr., Tommy (in the middle), and Hugh. Janet is pregnant here with her first and only son, Jamie. (WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHS/JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, BOSTON)
As they grew up, Janet and Lee became quite competitive but it was mostly one-sided—Lee’s side. However, both were gorgeous, as well as charming and intelligent. (CECIL BEATON/CONDE NAST COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES)
“You need to get her some money,” Jackie told her brother-in-law Michael Canfield when he asked how he could keep her sister, Lee, interested in their marriage. “Real money, Michael!” (SLIM AARONS/GETTY IMAGES)
Janet Jr. adjusts her little brother Jamie’s tie on big sister Jackie’s wedding day, September 12, 1953. (JAMIE AUCHINCLOSS COLLECTION)
Jamie in 1954—around seven years old—with Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy, his new brother-in-law, after marriage to his half-sister, Jackie. (JAMIE AUCHINCLOSS COLLECTION)
On the day of Jackie’s wedding to Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Here, on the happy day at Hammersmith Farm, are (left to right): Lee Bouvier Canfield, Jamie Auchincloss, JFK, Jackie, Bobby Kennedy, and Janet Auchincloss Jr. (JAMIE AUCHINCLOSS COLLECTION)
Lee finally found her prince and married him in March of 1959—her second husband, Prince Stanislaw Radziwill. (ASSOCIATED NEWSPAPERS/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK)
Jackie, Janet Jr., and Jamie watch Jack Kennedy win the nomination of his party at the Democratic Convention, July 13, 1960. “Mummy and Daddy were in the room too, but didn’t want to be in the photo,” Jamie, who was thirteen at the time, recalled. “This is when we knew that it was getting real, that our lives would be changed forever.” (JAMIE AUCHINCLOSS COLLECTION)
Jackie and Lee ride a camel through the grounds of President Mohammad Ayub Khan’s residence in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan, on March 25, 1962, during their diplomatic trip abroad. (CECIL STOUGHTON/WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHS/JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, BOSTON)
Lee, Janet, and Jackie (with Lady Bird Johnson across the aisle) at JFK’s State of the Union address, January 14, 1963. Hugh Auchincloss is seated behind Janet and next to Mrs. Charles Bartlett. (CECIL STOUGHTON/WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHS/JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, BOSTON)
JFK and his mother-in-law, Janet Auchincloss, arrive at Boston Hospital on August 8, 1962, deeply concerned about the well-being of his newborn son, Patrick. Sadly, the boy would die shortly after birth. (CECIL STOUGHTON/WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHS/JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, BOSTON)
Jackie (with binoculars) and Jack watch the first race of the 1962 America’s Cup, on September 15, from aboard the USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Behind them are Jamie (with the tie) and a very excited Janet. (ROBERT KNUDSEN/WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHS/JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, BOSTON)
JFK encouraged Janet Jr. to go ahead with her debutante party, even though there was such sadness over Patrick’s death. (JAMIE AUCHINCLOSS COLLECTION)
It was Lee’s idea to have Jackie join her and Aristotle Onassis on a Mediterranean cruise in order to help her get over Patrick’s death. Here the sisters are, on October 9, 1963, sitting in the stern of a launch as they leave Iraklion, Crete, Greece. (LESLEY PRIEST/AP/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK)
Unable to deny the strong attraction she felt for him, Lee couldn’t help but become involved in an affair with Onassis in 1963. (GETTY PHOTOS)
Jackie and Aristotle Onassis with Franklin Roosevelt Jr. (right) aboard Onassis’s yacht the Christina in the Mediterranean, in 1963. (AP/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK)
Vice President Lyndon Johnson with Janet Auchincloss, with Lady Bird in the background. (JAMIE AUCHINCLOSS COLLECTION)
When Jackie named her mother “Chairman of the Greater Washington Committee for the National Cultural Center,” Vogue sent the famous photographer Bert Stern to take this lovely photo for Vogue. (BERT STERN/CONDE NAST COLLECTION)
Janet and Jackie greet guests at the White House for their joint tea for National Cultural Center campaign officials on June 22, 1962. Left to right: the previous first lady, Mamie Eisenhower; Jackie; advisory committee members Joan Braden and Grace Hendrick Phillips; and chairman of the Washington Area Campaign Committee, Janet. (ABBIE ROWE/WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHS/JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, BOSTON)
Jack Kennedy arrives at Hammersmith Farm; he loved spending time there with Jackie’s side of the family, the Auchinclosses. Left to right: Yusha, JFK, Janet, and Janet Jr. (ROBERT KNUDSEN/WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHS/JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, BOSTON)
Jackie with John Carl (“Jack”) Warnecke, September 25, 1962, viewing Jack’s plans for the preservation of Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C. It’s worth noting that Jackie is wearing the same dress she would wear in Dallas in 1963 when JFK would be killed. After his assassination, Jackie and Jack Warnecke would have a three-year romance. (ROBERT KNUDSEN/WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHS/JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, BOSTON)
The Kennedys and Radziwills celebrate Christmas in December 1962 in Palm Beach, Florida. Left to right: Caroline Kennedy, Gustavo Paredes (son of Jackie’s assistant, Provi), Jackie (holding Lee’s son, Tony), John Kennedy Jr., JFK, Prince Stanislaw Radziwill, and Lee (holding daughter Tina). Also included are two of the Kennedys’ family dogs, Clipper and Charlie. (CECIL STOUGHTON/WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHS/JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, BOSTON)
Janet helps her granddaughter Caroline (Jackie’s daughter) open presents at a joint birthday party for her and her brother, John, on November 27, 1962, at the White House; Jackie stands at right in the background. (ROBERT KNUDSEN/WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHS/JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, BOSTON)
The days of Camelot ended with the assassination of President Kennedy. JFK lies in repose in the East Room of the White House; the flag-draped casket of President Kennedy sits out of frame at left, prior to a funeral procession to the Capitol Building. Left to right: Jackie and her children, Caroline and John Jr., Bobby Kennedy, Jean Kennedy Smith, Lady Bird Johnson, President Lyndon Johnson, Lee, Steve Smith, Jamie, Janet, with Hugh behind her, and Janet Jr. (CECIL STOUGHTON/WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHS/JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, BOSTON)
Funeral procession to St. Matthew’s Cathedral. Left to right: Jamie Auchincloss, Bobby Kennedy, Sargent Shriver, Jackie, and Ted Kennedy (ROBERT KNUDSEN/WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHS/JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, BOSTON)
Janet at Bobby Kennedy’s gravesite. Bobby’s death would impact the lives of just about everyone in Janet’s family, most notably her daughters, Jackie and Lee. (JAMIE AUCHINCLOSS COLLECTION)
Jackie (left) and a deeply grieving Lee at Bobby’s funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, June 8, 1968. (BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES)
Jackie with her son, John, and half-brother, Jamie, at an Arlington Cemetery memorial for Bobby Kennedy. (JAMIE AUCHINCLOSS COLLECTION)
Jackie, Janet & Lee Page 49