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America's Queen
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was and is an icon for women. Beautiful, exquisitely dressed, cultivated, gracious, a little mysterious and almost regal, she personifies the way we would like all our world leaders' wives to be. Sarah Bradford paints an extraordinary portrait of a woman riddled with kind, considerate, proud, loyal and loving, yet also supremely selfish, manipulative and greedy. Drawing on remarkable new testimony from those closest to Jackie, "America's Queen" follows her from her rigid, bleak childhood to the glorious glamour and complication of life as Kennedy's wife, to the even more glamorous but ultimately poisonous marriage to Onassis, to the final serenity of her years as a New York publishing editor. The secrets of Onassis's will, Jackie's affairs, her extraordinary spending habits, her treachery to old friends - all of these are revealed together with her public life as the ultimate trophy wife.
704 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
167 people are currently reading
2572 people want to read
About the author
Sarah Bradford
56 books109 followersEducated at St. Mary’s Convent, Shaftesbury Dorset, where she won a State Scholarship and at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she won a College Scholarship in History, Sarah Bradford is an historian and biographer who has travelled extensively, living in the West Indies, Portugal and Italy. She speaks four languages which have been invaluable in her research for her various books, particularly The Englishman’s Wine, the Story of Port (the first book on the subject written by a woman), Portugal and Madeira. She worked in the Manuscript Department of Christie’s London, travelling for the Department and valuing manuscripts from the fifteenth to twentieth centuries, an experience which enabled her to write Cesare Borgia (used by the BBC as the source of their series ‘The Borgias’, for which she wrote the novelisation of the scripts) and, most recently, Lucrezia Borgia
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 154 reviews
August 17, 2017
A "just the facts, ma'am" kind of book. Not much media history or cultural criticism. Nor much wit. (I had to refresh myself with Wayne Koestenbaum's Jackie Under My Skin from time to time.) I imagine the ideal Jackie book as a novel, a "maximalist" juggle of different styles and forms: part verse (pastiches of Millay for youth, Plath for childbirth and caked blood, Cavafy for age), part epistolary (Sévigné, intimate gossip), part casual social-political chronicle (Saint-Simon's court memoirs, the Goncourt Journal) studded with acidic portraits, and everything pierced through with a lonesome lyricism, like Salter's Light Years, with the enigmatic, essentially solitary wife Nedra.
Their life is mysterious, it is like a forest; from far off it seems a unity, it can be comprehended, described, but closer it begins to separate, to break into light and shadow, the density blinds one. Within there is no form, only prodigious detail that reaches everywhere: exotic sounds, spills of sunlight, foliage, fallen trees, small beasts that flee at the sound of a twig-snap, insects, silence, flowers. And all of this, dependent, closely woven, all of it is deceiving. There are really two kinds of life. There is, as Viri says, the one people believe you are living, and there is the other. It is this other which causes the trouble, this other we long to see.
Their life is mysterious, it is like a forest; from far off it seems a unity, it can be comprehended, described, but closer it begins to separate, to break into light and shadow, the density blinds one. Within there is no form, only prodigious detail that reaches everywhere: exotic sounds, spills of sunlight, foliage, fallen trees, small beasts that flee at the sound of a twig-snap, insects, silence, flowers. And all of this, dependent, closely woven, all of it is deceiving. There are really two kinds of life. There is, as Viri says, the one people believe you are living, and there is the other. It is this other which causes the trouble, this other we long to see.
July 7, 2020
While there is a lot of information I didn't know about Jackie Kennedy, I felt this was way over the top in detail, and very boring. I don't think it deserves a review.
November 26, 2013
I never cared for Jackie Kennedy when she was first lady and this book did little or nothing to change my opinion. It also proved to
further erode my diminishing respect for Jack Kennedy.
I was interested to learn that according to a schoolmate during her teenage years Jackie's voice was quite normal. That breathy
little girl voice was one of the things I found most annoying and
it was almost a relief to learn that it was not natural, but an
affectation. Jackie seemed to always be playing a part especially
in the political world. Sometimes it was just plain dishonest for
example tucking the children into bed for a magazine story and saying that she and Jack did not have a nanny when they very well did.
In todays world where every move of politicians and their
families is scrutinized and publicized, its amazing how much the
Kennedy's kept secret. I know, I was never aware that the President
was a serial adulterer . Even a little thing like Jackie's smoking was
never ever shown.
Of course, no one deserves the tragedies that Jackie experienced.
I just didn't find many redeeming qualities in the life she led. By
coincidence, I read this book during the month of the 50th anniversary
of Jack Kennedy's assassination.
November 14, 2023
Until recently, I had no interest in the Kennedys. I’m always wary of high-profile people, as more often than not, little lies beneath the surface. Jack Kennedy’s colleagues in the Senate used to tell him, Less profile, more courage. But my love for history eventually got the best of me.
After watching the biopic Jackie with Natalie Portman, I found myself wanting to know more about the real person. So I began researching books and fell down the rabbit hole. A lot of what has been written about her is tabloid trash (C. David Heymann’s Bobby and Jackie); other literature contains some truth that indulges in a bit of sensationalism (Edward Klein’s All Too Human). Thankfully, I then chose Sarah Bradford’s America’s Queen.
Bradford paints the whole picture without an agenda to either present Jackie as a saint or as a sinner. She writes about her as a human being, which many biographies (especially those about people with legendary status) fail to do. However, Bradford shoots herself in the foot in a few instances, like when she presents as fact the rumored marriage of Jack Kennedy to one Durie Malcolm in 1947, which was apparently promptly annulled and concealed by his powerful father. The source is so far removed from the people involved that it might as well be a game of telephone. Though to be clear, my objection is not to the notion that Jack did something reckless and his father cleaned up the mess; it’s to the conjecture that he would get married at all. He put off marriage for a long time because he enjoyed being single, and when he finally did it, it was to bolster his political career; he even told a friend that he married so people wouldn’t think he was “queer.” So no, Jack Kennedy doesn’t strike me as a man who would do something romantic in the spur of the moment.
Bradford also asserts that Jackie was too insecure to come up with the idea of convincing actress Grace Kelly to dress up as a nurse to cheer up Jack, who was convalescing after one of his back operations in the mid-1950s. But there’s actually confirmation by Grace herself in an interview with Paul Gallico about Kennedy’s legacy, conducted in 1965 to be part of the oral histories at the presidential library. The audio is even available on Youtube, so I have no idea what compelled the author to make such an assumption.
Questionable moments notwithstanding, she also interviewed people who knew Jackie personally, such as her stepbrother Yusha Auchincloss, sister Lee Radziwill, sister-in-law Joan Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson, Richard Goodwin, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Charles L. Bartlett, Pierre Salinger, and Gore Vidal. That I think speaks volumes of Bradford as an author.
America’s Queen is the best biography of Jackie out there. It doesn’t shy away from her worst qualities, such as her greed, which was endless and downright cruel (when she learned that Jack was donating his presidential salary to charity, she told him she could use that money instead), and her spoiled attitude (she tried to get out of attending Eleanor Roosevelt’s funeral because she wanted to go foxhunting in Virginia).
On the other hand, Jackie could be unexpectedly sweet: during her honeymoon, she wrote a letter to her father forgiving him for not walking her down to the altar because he had drunk himself to a stupor; she became angry at Arthur Miller for his unflattering portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in his plays, even though Marilyn had been the most famous and brazen of her husband’s lovers; she insisted that Bill Greer, the man who had driven the car in Dallas during that fateful motorcade, drive them to the Bethesda hospital where the autopsy of the President was to be conducted, so he knew she did not blame him for what had happened. These actions denote a greatness of spirit undermined by material matters.
The contradictions in Jackie are fascinating, but I cannot bring myself to admire her. The world was on fire when her husband was president (although one can argue that the world is always on fire) and instead of using that power to contribute something meaningful, she dedicated herself to redecorating the White House, with the occasional lavish party thrown in, even after witnessing first-hand the devastating poverty in West Virginia. Fellow First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt came from an even more privileged background than Jacqueline Kennedy, but unlearned her education and became a role model for the ages.
That said, if there’s one thing we can all learn from Jackie is that a person can not only survive personal tragedy, they can also thrive afterwards. She had a miscarriage and lost two newborn babies. Her husband’s head literally exploded next to her. Less than five years later, one of her few sources of comfort was also killed. Her husbands subjected her to humiliation after humiliation. But she managed to raise two well-adjusted children and in her middle age began a fulfilling career as a book editor. And in the end, when death came, she faced it with dignity and on her own terms. Charles de Gaulle said of her after JFK’s assassination:
“She gave the world an example of how to behave.”
I agree.
After watching the biopic Jackie with Natalie Portman, I found myself wanting to know more about the real person. So I began researching books and fell down the rabbit hole. A lot of what has been written about her is tabloid trash (C. David Heymann’s Bobby and Jackie); other literature contains some truth that indulges in a bit of sensationalism (Edward Klein’s All Too Human). Thankfully, I then chose Sarah Bradford’s America’s Queen.
Bradford paints the whole picture without an agenda to either present Jackie as a saint or as a sinner. She writes about her as a human being, which many biographies (especially those about people with legendary status) fail to do. However, Bradford shoots herself in the foot in a few instances, like when she presents as fact the rumored marriage of Jack Kennedy to one Durie Malcolm in 1947, which was apparently promptly annulled and concealed by his powerful father. The source is so far removed from the people involved that it might as well be a game of telephone. Though to be clear, my objection is not to the notion that Jack did something reckless and his father cleaned up the mess; it’s to the conjecture that he would get married at all. He put off marriage for a long time because he enjoyed being single, and when he finally did it, it was to bolster his political career; he even told a friend that he married so people wouldn’t think he was “queer.” So no, Jack Kennedy doesn’t strike me as a man who would do something romantic in the spur of the moment.
Bradford also asserts that Jackie was too insecure to come up with the idea of convincing actress Grace Kelly to dress up as a nurse to cheer up Jack, who was convalescing after one of his back operations in the mid-1950s. But there’s actually confirmation by Grace herself in an interview with Paul Gallico about Kennedy’s legacy, conducted in 1965 to be part of the oral histories at the presidential library. The audio is even available on Youtube, so I have no idea what compelled the author to make such an assumption.
Questionable moments notwithstanding, she also interviewed people who knew Jackie personally, such as her stepbrother Yusha Auchincloss, sister Lee Radziwill, sister-in-law Joan Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson, Richard Goodwin, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Charles L. Bartlett, Pierre Salinger, and Gore Vidal. That I think speaks volumes of Bradford as an author.
America’s Queen is the best biography of Jackie out there. It doesn’t shy away from her worst qualities, such as her greed, which was endless and downright cruel (when she learned that Jack was donating his presidential salary to charity, she told him she could use that money instead), and her spoiled attitude (she tried to get out of attending Eleanor Roosevelt’s funeral because she wanted to go foxhunting in Virginia).
On the other hand, Jackie could be unexpectedly sweet: during her honeymoon, she wrote a letter to her father forgiving him for not walking her down to the altar because he had drunk himself to a stupor; she became angry at Arthur Miller for his unflattering portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in his plays, even though Marilyn had been the most famous and brazen of her husband’s lovers; she insisted that Bill Greer, the man who had driven the car in Dallas during that fateful motorcade, drive them to the Bethesda hospital where the autopsy of the President was to be conducted, so he knew she did not blame him for what had happened. These actions denote a greatness of spirit undermined by material matters.
The contradictions in Jackie are fascinating, but I cannot bring myself to admire her. The world was on fire when her husband was president (although one can argue that the world is always on fire) and instead of using that power to contribute something meaningful, she dedicated herself to redecorating the White House, with the occasional lavish party thrown in, even after witnessing first-hand the devastating poverty in West Virginia. Fellow First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt came from an even more privileged background than Jacqueline Kennedy, but unlearned her education and became a role model for the ages.
That said, if there’s one thing we can all learn from Jackie is that a person can not only survive personal tragedy, they can also thrive afterwards. She had a miscarriage and lost two newborn babies. Her husband’s head literally exploded next to her. Less than five years later, one of her few sources of comfort was also killed. Her husbands subjected her to humiliation after humiliation. But she managed to raise two well-adjusted children and in her middle age began a fulfilling career as a book editor. And in the end, when death came, she faced it with dignity and on her own terms. Charles de Gaulle said of her after JFK’s assassination:
“She gave the world an example of how to behave.”
I agree.
September 8, 2025
I don't know if it's me or the book but I just couldn't finish this one. I don't often dnf a book but this one is getting it
September 21, 2012
Well, that was kind of disappointing.
Sarah Bradford is one of those authors that I have fairly high expectations for. Her Borgia biographies are quite good; but then, this Jackie bio makes me want to go back and fact-check all of her claims in previous books. Maybe she became overwhelmed with the Kennedy legend? I don't know. This just... wasn't up to par.
For much of the book, Bradford comes off less as a biographer and more as a gossipmonger. She has a shoot first and ask questions later kind of attitude, reporting every little scandalous detail without actual wondering if it's true. There is so much rumor surrounding the Kennedys, and so much of it well-recorded, that in my opinion you really have to take everything with a grain of salt.
In his superb biography "Robert Kennedy: His Life" Evan Thomas painstakingly picks apart every major rumor surrounding his subject. He reports what some have said, but admits that it may or may not be true based on x, x, and y reasons. Bradford, on the other hand, chooses to regurgitate everything anyone has ever said, citing several "sources" (a la Us Weekly) without naming names.
She also manages to, for lack of a better term, screw up some fairly big details. She says at one point that Marilyn Monroe had two husbands, while it has been common knowledge for quite some time that she had three. (Bradford specifically forgets Monroe's non-famous husband that she married before becoming an actress; Joe Dimaggio and Arthur Miller, she of course remembers.) She also recounts a tale of JFK talking about assassination the day of his death, making finger guns and lurching into a crouch. But... wait a second. Hasn't Bradford spent numerous pages talking about how bad Jack's back was? If he couldn't pick up his own son, how could he spontaneously crouch down in a dramatic moment of play-acting?
It's just--fishy.
I'm not saying that the Kennedys were pure as driven snow. It's just that Bradford spins so much rumor that I can't really tell fact from fiction. She treats the rumored affair between Bobby Kennedy and Jackie as if it's pure fact, relying on "sources" and rumors spread by RFK's enemies. (Of which he had plenty.) However, numerous biographers have cited RFK as being too sanctimonious to approach infidelity. More still have admitted that, while it's quite possible that he did have an affair with Jackie, we just CAN'T know. (See: Evan Thomas.) This is a huge event for Bradford to just arbitrarily declare truthful. She seems incapable of admitting, "Well, there's no solid evidence but it's possible..." rather jumping to conclusion after conclusion.
Much of what she writes flies straight in the faces of other accounts I've read. So I must conclude that she picked and chose what she wanted to present as fact.
Look--there's a lot of fact here. But there's also a lot of murkiness, and sometimes, I suspect, fiction, even if it wasn't intentional on Bradford's part. The writing is really engaging, which is why I'm giving this three stars. (That, and the aforementioned fact. This isn't all made up, by a long shot! It's just not very well researched.)
So: read this, with that grain of salt I was talking about. And then check out some other Kennedy bios for greater detail and more objective writing.
Sarah Bradford is one of those authors that I have fairly high expectations for. Her Borgia biographies are quite good; but then, this Jackie bio makes me want to go back and fact-check all of her claims in previous books. Maybe she became overwhelmed with the Kennedy legend? I don't know. This just... wasn't up to par.
For much of the book, Bradford comes off less as a biographer and more as a gossipmonger. She has a shoot first and ask questions later kind of attitude, reporting every little scandalous detail without actual wondering if it's true. There is so much rumor surrounding the Kennedys, and so much of it well-recorded, that in my opinion you really have to take everything with a grain of salt.
In his superb biography "Robert Kennedy: His Life" Evan Thomas painstakingly picks apart every major rumor surrounding his subject. He reports what some have said, but admits that it may or may not be true based on x, x, and y reasons. Bradford, on the other hand, chooses to regurgitate everything anyone has ever said, citing several "sources" (a la Us Weekly) without naming names.
She also manages to, for lack of a better term, screw up some fairly big details. She says at one point that Marilyn Monroe had two husbands, while it has been common knowledge for quite some time that she had three. (Bradford specifically forgets Monroe's non-famous husband that she married before becoming an actress; Joe Dimaggio and Arthur Miller, she of course remembers.) She also recounts a tale of JFK talking about assassination the day of his death, making finger guns and lurching into a crouch. But... wait a second. Hasn't Bradford spent numerous pages talking about how bad Jack's back was? If he couldn't pick up his own son, how could he spontaneously crouch down in a dramatic moment of play-acting?
It's just--fishy.
I'm not saying that the Kennedys were pure as driven snow. It's just that Bradford spins so much rumor that I can't really tell fact from fiction. She treats the rumored affair between Bobby Kennedy and Jackie as if it's pure fact, relying on "sources" and rumors spread by RFK's enemies. (Of which he had plenty.) However, numerous biographers have cited RFK as being too sanctimonious to approach infidelity. More still have admitted that, while it's quite possible that he did have an affair with Jackie, we just CAN'T know. (See: Evan Thomas.) This is a huge event for Bradford to just arbitrarily declare truthful. She seems incapable of admitting, "Well, there's no solid evidence but it's possible..." rather jumping to conclusion after conclusion.
Much of what she writes flies straight in the faces of other accounts I've read. So I must conclude that she picked and chose what she wanted to present as fact.
Look--there's a lot of fact here. But there's also a lot of murkiness, and sometimes, I suspect, fiction, even if it wasn't intentional on Bradford's part. The writing is really engaging, which is why I'm giving this three stars. (That, and the aforementioned fact. This isn't all made up, by a long shot! It's just not very well researched.)
So: read this, with that grain of salt I was talking about. And then check out some other Kennedy bios for greater detail and more objective writing.
August 5, 2019
Don't mock: this is an excellently crafted celebrity biography, and does deserve 5 stars in its class. It gave me a lot of ideas for further reading, Jackie being book and art lover that she was.
January 28, 2020
Fascinating but way too long and wordy
January 8, 2019
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' life was like a fairy-tale "with a lot of jewelled beauty... But it is a fairy-tale, and like all fairy-tales it has tragedy in it"
A mammoth, comprehensive portrait of the woman behind the icon. Bradford perfectly captures the glamorous, intelligent, aloof Jackie, with her indomitable spirit which survived two marriages and countless losses.
A mammoth, comprehensive portrait of the woman behind the icon. Bradford perfectly captures the glamorous, intelligent, aloof Jackie, with her indomitable spirit which survived two marriages and countless losses.
August 5, 2016
Very comprehensive biography portraying Jackie as neither saint nor sinner. I enjoyed it start to finish.
January 21, 2019
A well-written biography that makes no apologies for pointing out in several places that the breathy voice Jackie was well known for was an affectation.
Enjoyed it but wouldn't read again.
Enjoyed it but wouldn't read again.
June 29, 2016
A book sale find. My rule is give the book back...but I don't want to..
I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with this book. I’ve read more than a few Kennedy books over the years, I’m familiar with the territory. As with most bios I don't take any as perfectly true. Especially the Kennedy's..there was so much cover up and editing. However, for my taste I thought Bradford wrote this fairly. The positive and the negative. This one is now my favorite. There is so much in this book about her, and there is so much that wasn’t. It read more like a novel, beginning with her early years and ended with JFK Jr’s death. The woman was intriguing and fascinating, that fact can’t be denied.
The author used opinions and comments from others in many cases to explain or suggest why she may have acted a certain way, or caused Jackie to be upset or otherwise. There were lots of comments from my particular favorite person Gore Vidal.
A favorite quote by Ben Bradlee said it was impossible to write a story the Kennedy’s liked. Even if it was favorable, they would find something they didn’t like. They cut people off. “ Maybe that’s where she learned that trait.
An eerie comment made by Jackie about John Jr after the death of his father, was that John Jr. loved planes.
She was groomed to marry wealthy, that was the world she grew up in. So she did. Thankfully she was smart and all the things she loved and appreciated came in handy. I’ll be forever grateful for her decision in making the Whitehouse a historical place and testament to all those that came before. Without her style and grace, I doubt it could have been pulled off. In my opinion Jackie was a woman destined for her role in the US’s history books.
As for Onassis….what else could she do? As for Maria Callas...I do feel for her… the world of power and privilege is not for the week or meek.
There is so much about this woman I admire, yes she sure did have her faults. But with the upbringing she had, who can blame her? Her family was not the greatest of role models. Her Kennedy years and beyond I doubt she was surrounded by people who truly worried about her well being. Anyway...I’m not really discussing the book..just my admiration for a remarkable woman.
I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with this book. I’ve read more than a few Kennedy books over the years, I’m familiar with the territory. As with most bios I don't take any as perfectly true. Especially the Kennedy's..there was so much cover up and editing. However, for my taste I thought Bradford wrote this fairly. The positive and the negative. This one is now my favorite. There is so much in this book about her, and there is so much that wasn’t. It read more like a novel, beginning with her early years and ended with JFK Jr’s death. The woman was intriguing and fascinating, that fact can’t be denied.
The author used opinions and comments from others in many cases to explain or suggest why she may have acted a certain way, or caused Jackie to be upset or otherwise. There were lots of comments from my particular favorite person Gore Vidal.
A favorite quote by Ben Bradlee said it was impossible to write a story the Kennedy’s liked. Even if it was favorable, they would find something they didn’t like. They cut people off. “ Maybe that’s where she learned that trait.
An eerie comment made by Jackie about John Jr after the death of his father, was that John Jr. loved planes.
She was groomed to marry wealthy, that was the world she grew up in. So she did. Thankfully she was smart and all the things she loved and appreciated came in handy. I’ll be forever grateful for her decision in making the Whitehouse a historical place and testament to all those that came before. Without her style and grace, I doubt it could have been pulled off. In my opinion Jackie was a woman destined for her role in the US’s history books.
As for Onassis….what else could she do? As for Maria Callas...I do feel for her… the world of power and privilege is not for the week or meek.
There is so much about this woman I admire, yes she sure did have her faults. But with the upbringing she had, who can blame her? Her family was not the greatest of role models. Her Kennedy years and beyond I doubt she was surrounded by people who truly worried about her well being. Anyway...I’m not really discussing the book..just my admiration for a remarkable woman.
Read
February 21, 2015The book highlights Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's relationships and shows how aspects of her family shaped these relationships. I thought the book was interesting, some of the writing got dull though. The book would touch on aspects of the Kennedy family that I felt were key to making her the way she was. The books was good, not great.
April 27, 2018
An excellent, definitive biography for sure. Bradford spares no detail–even the tabloidish ones; one must distinguish the fact from the fiction through one's own fact-check. All in all a worthy addition to the Kennedys' collection.
February 23, 2009
best jackie bio. You find out all kinds of scandalous things about her that other bios leave out.
December 16, 2015
I really enjoyed this huge brick of a book !! Lots in there I didn't know already, surprisingly.
June 25, 2010
Perfect biography. This is the definite bio of Jackie O. I've read it at least 3 times! And I'll probably re-read it soon ;) If you are a Jackie Kennedy fan, please read this book!
August 16, 2013
Well written. A good account without being salacious - her life was interesting enough!
February 21, 2022
a classic bio
March 21, 2021
II'll start with a couple of negatives: this book would have benefitted from some family trees! There were so many Kennedys and Bouviers and cousins all over the place that I lost track of everyone. There were many names throughout this book and sometimes it felt like a list rather than a description of a party or whatever. There's a little bit of jumping about too, obviously the author sticks to a linear story but several times she drops in events that happened years later or years before and became a little confused about timelines.
I think Jackie O comes across as a very complex woman in this book. Jackie seems strong but also quite sad at times. She married two men who she was in love with and yet both men saw her as a trophy wife. I think her creation of the JFK myth after his death was an intruiging part of the book - how she talked about Camelot and did everything she could to get his good attributes promoted. Which is probably the reason the world forgot he was a cheating playboy who only became president thanks to mafia money. I felt like JFK comes across very badly in this book, and I don't think Jackie would have approved!
Sometimes Jackie became lost in her own biography. So many Kennedys! However, it shows the strength of her character that her and her children came out of that family in tact and regained independence.
Overall this is a solid biography. If you want to immerse yourself in her life then this is a good book to start with, and I liked all the photos from throughout her life.
I think Jackie O comes across as a very complex woman in this book. Jackie seems strong but also quite sad at times. She married two men who she was in love with and yet both men saw her as a trophy wife. I think her creation of the JFK myth after his death was an intruiging part of the book - how she talked about Camelot and did everything she could to get his good attributes promoted. Which is probably the reason the world forgot he was a cheating playboy who only became president thanks to mafia money. I felt like JFK comes across very badly in this book, and I don't think Jackie would have approved!
Sometimes Jackie became lost in her own biography. So many Kennedys! However, it shows the strength of her character that her and her children came out of that family in tact and regained independence.
Overall this is a solid biography. If you want to immerse yourself in her life then this is a good book to start with, and I liked all the photos from throughout her life.
December 31, 2023
3.2
31/12/23
Not on any top lists
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis has captivated the American public for more than five decades. From her introduction to the world as "debutante of the year"in 1947 to her untimely death in 1994, she has truly remained America's answer to royalty. In America's Queen, the acclaimed biographer of Queen Elizabeth and Princess Grace reveals the real Jackie in a sympathetic but frank portrait of an amazing woman who has dazzled us since her teenage years. Using remarkable new sources--including in-depth interviews with Jackie's sister Lee Radziwell, lavish illustrations, and previously unseen photographs from family sources--Sarah Bradford has written a timely celebration of a life that was more private than commonly supposed. Jackie's privileged upbringing instilled rigid self-control while her expedient marriage into the overwhelming Kennedy clan consolidated her determination. Revealing new testimony from many of the couple's friends shows the profound complexities both of this apparently very public relationship and of her controversial marriage to Aristotle Onassis. Here is the private Jackie--neglected wife, vigilant mother, and working widow--whose contradictory and fascinating nature is illuminated by all that Bradford has discovered.
31/12/23
Not on any top lists
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis has captivated the American public for more than five decades. From her introduction to the world as "debutante of the year"in 1947 to her untimely death in 1994, she has truly remained America's answer to royalty. In America's Queen, the acclaimed biographer of Queen Elizabeth and Princess Grace reveals the real Jackie in a sympathetic but frank portrait of an amazing woman who has dazzled us since her teenage years. Using remarkable new sources--including in-depth interviews with Jackie's sister Lee Radziwell, lavish illustrations, and previously unseen photographs from family sources--Sarah Bradford has written a timely celebration of a life that was more private than commonly supposed. Jackie's privileged upbringing instilled rigid self-control while her expedient marriage into the overwhelming Kennedy clan consolidated her determination. Revealing new testimony from many of the couple's friends shows the profound complexities both of this apparently very public relationship and of her controversial marriage to Aristotle Onassis. Here is the private Jackie--neglected wife, vigilant mother, and working widow--whose contradictory and fascinating nature is illuminated by all that Bradford has discovered.
November 26, 2022
This biography of Jackie Kennedy is one that gives me mixed feelings.
On the one hand, it allows me to better understand the woman as a complex being, having had to deal with divorce, a husband murdered in front of her, another husband who was abusive to some degree, and her favourite Kennedy relative also gunned down in cold blood. Honestly, I probably feel more sympathetic than others to her tale - if my hypothetical husband was killed in front of me and people started slandering him, I too would act like Jackie would.
At the same time, it feels trashy at points - its coverage of the Bobby/Jackie affair is where it's most notable, if mainly for the juxtaposition of how the book tries to explain how Bobby wouldn't be with Jackie because it would go against his religion and his wife... only to casually mention without much detail about how he himself cheated frequently. Even some exploration of that would have been interesting.
Also, the post-Onassis years, whilst interesting, felt somewhat undercovered?
Still, a decent enough book.
On the one hand, it allows me to better understand the woman as a complex being, having had to deal with divorce, a husband murdered in front of her, another husband who was abusive to some degree, and her favourite Kennedy relative also gunned down in cold blood. Honestly, I probably feel more sympathetic than others to her tale - if my hypothetical husband was killed in front of me and people started slandering him, I too would act like Jackie would.
At the same time, it feels trashy at points - its coverage of the Bobby/Jackie affair is where it's most notable, if mainly for the juxtaposition of how the book tries to explain how Bobby wouldn't be with Jackie because it would go against his religion and his wife... only to casually mention without much detail about how he himself cheated frequently. Even some exploration of that would have been interesting.
Also, the post-Onassis years, whilst interesting, felt somewhat undercovered?
Still, a decent enough book.
March 9, 2025
The good: lots of inside sources with fresh insights, many of them anonymous, so probably more poignant. The bad: too wordy, a run-on that goes into agonizing detail about architectural projects Jackie was involved with and her clothes but barely touches on her children. I was stuck on trying to get through this book for about a month and just couldn't bring myself to finish the last 40 pages. Too much detail at times, with sentences introducing 3, 4, or 5 people who are irrelevant to the story with a dizzying amount of commas and parentheses. Not a clear narrative with a good amount of non-linear anecdotes thrown around. Whether or not it was the author's intent, it ultimately paints the picture of an entitled, moody socialite who was a fashionable First Lady for 3 years over 6 decades ago. While this is a refreshing view of an iconized celebrity we tried to make into America's Queen, it begs with the question, "Wait why am I reading a 450 page book about this woman?"
October 9, 2025
This exhaustive, authoritative look at the entire 64 years of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' fascinating life was nearly always captivating. The amount of sources and quotes (some from other publications) that Sarah Bradford employs is impressive. Some give contradictory opinions on the same page, letting the reader decide what is the most accurate and meaningful.
A major takeaway is her smart protection of her two children and the hopes she had that they'd lead normal, productive lives. She tried to have them avoid contact with their Kennedy cousins, many of whom ended up extremely messed up. There were many surprises for me -- she had an affair with her brother-in-law Bobby Kennedy after Jack died, for example -- and she was extremely complex, wanting publicity while shunning it and described by many as both warm and cold. Anyway, it was a delightful book to read, as it shuns sensationalism for in-depth reporting.
A major takeaway is her smart protection of her two children and the hopes she had that they'd lead normal, productive lives. She tried to have them avoid contact with their Kennedy cousins, many of whom ended up extremely messed up. There were many surprises for me -- she had an affair with her brother-in-law Bobby Kennedy after Jack died, for example -- and she was extremely complex, wanting publicity while shunning it and described by many as both warm and cold. Anyway, it was a delightful book to read, as it shuns sensationalism for in-depth reporting.
January 25, 2019
A good and very thorough biography of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. It follows all the way from the pretensions of her Lee and Bouvier ancestors (both, especially the Bouviers, apparently inflated the social credentials of their more remote ancestors, to the point where even most family members didn’t realize that the claims were not the truth) all the way through to the time of her death and beyond.
I especially liked the in-depth look at some of the parts of Jackie’s life that I have always known about on the surface but never really understood up close, such as her relationships with John Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis and the details of the day John Kennedy was assassinated. Although there really wasn’t as much detail about them, it was also nice to have a little more information about John Jr. and Caroline, and also some of the Kennedy women.
I especially liked the in-depth look at some of the parts of Jackie’s life that I have always known about on the surface but never really understood up close, such as her relationships with John Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis and the details of the day John Kennedy was assassinated. Although there really wasn’t as much detail about them, it was also nice to have a little more information about John Jr. and Caroline, and also some of the Kennedy women.
June 7, 2021
A powerful book with an extended portrait.
I knew very little about Jackie and what I knew was what most people do, the presidency and its tragic ending.
I was happy to find out that this book was looking at so much more than just those tragic events and I actually felt that I knew the person behind the scenes.
I have to say that if you’re looking to read something strictly looking at Jackie’s life, this is not the book you need. It covers in detail every person coming in and out of her life, extensively talks about Jack, his life family and presidency, entire chapters where Jackie is barely mentioned.
Nevertheless, I found that by the end of this book I had a full picture on the Bouvier, Kennedy and Onassis family and do not need to do any further reading. 4 stars at some parts are hard to get through but all in all very informative, I recommend.
I knew very little about Jackie and what I knew was what most people do, the presidency and its tragic ending.
I was happy to find out that this book was looking at so much more than just those tragic events and I actually felt that I knew the person behind the scenes.
I have to say that if you’re looking to read something strictly looking at Jackie’s life, this is not the book you need. It covers in detail every person coming in and out of her life, extensively talks about Jack, his life family and presidency, entire chapters where Jackie is barely mentioned.
Nevertheless, I found that by the end of this book I had a full picture on the Bouvier, Kennedy and Onassis family and do not need to do any further reading. 4 stars at some parts are hard to get through but all in all very informative, I recommend.
November 29, 2018
I ended up really enjoying this book, it's very well researched (or so it seems).
But I still think it just gets really side tracked when it comes to Jack and Ari, I wanted more on Jackie in the Whitehouse Years and much, much less on Jack's infidelities and failed politics. Also more of Jackie in Greece and less of Ari's failing business and antics.
Some may not mind that, but to me it bored me quite a lot considering I wanted more of a Jackie focus. The very first chapters were especially mind-numbing for me.
But I still think it just gets really side tracked when it comes to Jack and Ari, I wanted more on Jackie in the Whitehouse Years and much, much less on Jack's infidelities and failed politics. Also more of Jackie in Greece and less of Ari's failing business and antics.
Some may not mind that, but to me it bored me quite a lot considering I wanted more of a Jackie focus. The very first chapters were especially mind-numbing for me.
March 5, 2020
Having grown up during the era of JFK's "Camelot", this detailed account of Jackie's life was very compelling to me. She was the epitome of wealth, elegance, and grace but seemed to be very much "of the people." Like a friend, everyone called her "Jackie." I had forgotten about the great controversy created by her liking of French designer fashion. It tells the story of a bygone era that will never happen again and the joys and tragedies of her unique life. It provides a striking contrast to the tawdry glitz of the Trumps.
November 3, 2025
This is a very comprehensive and sensible biography written with just enough time after her death to have some objectivity.Such an interesting story and such a sad one too.It’s always hard to read about Kennedy’s assassination. This examines their marriage with all its problems,how she coped with fame and her widowhood and her marriage to Onassis.Being a man I thought it might include too much about fashion and affairs and not be so interesting but I was wrong and thoroughly enjoyed it.It is also very long read.
September 1, 2017
Needless to say that Jackie had to live through a lot of tough times and it's hard to imagine how anyone can even handle that much tragedy and grief. But besides that what else did she do or achieve in her life for so many people to be appreciative of her or consider her the "Queen of America ". Did she do any good with all that fortune? She was only interested in money and status. At least that's what the book portrays for me.
Nothing against the book but it didn't make me admire Jackie.
Nothing against the book but it didn't make me admire Jackie.
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