Widowedfirst lady JacquelineKennedy had at least one serious alternativeto marrying Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis in October 1968: a British lord and former ambassador to Washington who had been one of John F. Kennedy’s closest friends,according to the New York Times.
But any future withDavid Ormsby Gore, the fifth baron of Harclech,wasn’t meant to be. Kennedyrejected Ormsby Gore’smarriage proposaland chose instead to wed Onassis, a man 23 years her senior.The billionaire owned his own island in the Ionian Seaand was one of the world’s wealthiest men.
Kennedy’sreasons for declining a marriage proposal fromOrmsby Gore, who died in 1985, arecontained in letters that were recently discovered at his family’s estate in Wales. Those letters will be auctioned in London in late March.
Kennedy’s closeness withOrmsby Gore had a deep history. Hehad been close friends with her late husbandduring his presidency, and the Kennedysfrequently socialized with Ormsby Gore and his wife Sylviawith small White House dinners and shared vacations.
After Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, the glamorouswidowand Ormsby Gore drew close, especially afterSylviawas killed in a car accident in May 1967.
Kennedyand Ormsby Goremade awell-publicized trip together to the temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia in November 1967.The trip sparked rumors of a romance, and Ormsby Gore in fact proposed marriage a few months later, according to the New York Times.
But the former first lady turned him down. She decided to marry Onassis, a friend,afterthe June 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy hit her as a second trauma.She believed that Onassis’ wealth could provide security for her and her young children, Caroline and John Jr.
“She was very clear it was not a marriage of love,” said biographerBarbara Leaming.
The letters show that Kennedyloved Ormsby Gore, though she apparently wasn’tin love with him.
In a letter to Ormsby Gore, she explained her decision to marry Onassis. With the obviousintention to signal her allegiance to her future husband, she wrote the letter from Onassis’ yacht in Greece and on stationery with the Onassis crest. She told Ormsby Goresomething thatmen in love typicallydon’t like to hear.
“You are like my beloved beloved brother,” she said.
Kennedyalso wrote about her reasons for choosingOnassis: “If ever I can find some healing and some comfort — it has to be with somebody who is not part of all my world of past and pain. can find that now — if the world will let us.”
She alsogave him Ormsby Gore herversion of let’s just be friends.“We have known so much & shared & lost so much together — Even if it isn’t the way you wish now — I hope that bond of love and pain will never be cut.”
Ormsby Gore didn’t take the news well. Writing back, he expressed incredulity at her choice of Onassis, whom he apparently considered to be a low character.
She responded, saying“Please know — you of all people must know it — that we can never really see into the heart of another.” She added: “You know me. And you must know that the man you write of in your letter is not a man that I could marry.”
She then spoke up for her intended husband, explaining that they in fact shared a bond, even if it wasn’t love. She saidOnassis is“lonely and wants to protect me from being lonely. And he is wise and kind. Only I can decide if he can, and I decided
Ormsby Gore eventually recovered fromKennedy’s rejection and married another American woman in 1969.
Kennedy’s marriage to Onassis upset devotees of the Kennedy/Camelot narrative. She also lost her Secret Service protection and became the target of paparazzi who documented her every move as she and Onassis divided their time among six homes. Onassis died in 1975, and Kennedy died in 1994.
It’s not clear from the letters whether Kennedyand Ormsby Goreremainedfriends as they moved on to new spouses. But he had been important to Kennedy, certainly in the context of his relationship with her late husband.Leaming said: “Jackie loved in Jack the man he wanted to be, and David was the man helping him, in her eyes, to be the man Jack wanted to be.”
As for Olmsby Gore, “Of course he fell in love with her,” Leaming said. But no one knows how how intimate his bond with the former first ladybecame. Leaming said: “I have no idea if it was consummated or not.”
