When John F. Kennedy became the president of the United States in 1961, his wife, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, made sure someone in the West Wing was on her side.
The new book JFK: Public, Private, Secret by J. Randy Taraborrelli, published on Tuesday, July 15, revealed that Jackie “installed a spy” in the office of her husband’s secretary Evelyn Lincoln “to keep her abreast of any suspicious calls.”
The alleged spy spoke anonymously to Taraborrelli in 2024 and confirmed that she was “hired by the White House” at Jackie’s suggestion.
“Jackie’s instructions to her, she said, were simple: ‘Just keep me posted of anything that perks your ears,’” the woman apparently recalled to Taraborrelli.
One woman who kept calling at the time was allegedly Judith Campbell, whom JFK had met through Frank Sinatra. In fact, Campbell had a past with the blue-eyed singer, according to the book.
While JFK apparently met Campbell before his presidency began, the book claimed she was around more than once after he took office. In 1976, Campbell became “the first prominent woman to claim publicly to have had an affair” with JFK.
The book detailed many of the former president’s alleged marital indiscretions — noting that Jackie was aware what was going down — but Taraborrelli noted that JFK liked Campbell because she apparently reminded him of flight attendant Joan Lundberg.
Details from Lundberg’s unpublished memoir were featured in Taraborrelli’s new biography, revealing that she met JFK at a bar in August 1956. The following month, he returned, and they allegedly had “wild” sex.
JFK’s alleged September 1956 rendezvous with Lundberg came after Jackie gave birth to their stillborn daughter, Arabella. When JFK returned home, Jackie questioned him about Lundberg.
“He explained that Joan was someone he’d met in Los Angeles,” Taraborrelli’s book reads. “Joan is vague in her unpublished memoir about how much Jack told Jackie, only that he told her pretty much everything.”
At one point during their affair, Lundberg revealed she was pregnant. JFK sent $400 for her to get an abortion — which she did.
JFK and Jackie were married from 1953 until his death in 1963. The former president was assassinated at age 46 in November of that year during a trip to Dallas. Jackie died at age 64 in May 1994 following a battle with cancer.
Along with their stillborn daughter, Arabella, JFK and Jackie were the parents of daughter Caroline, 67, son John Jr. (who died in 1999) and son Patrick (who died shortly after he was born.)
JFK: Public, Private, Secret is out now.
