Jackie Kennedy’s intimate letters to UK diplomat auctioned, reveal Onassis link - Hindustan Times
close_game
close_game

Jackie Kennedy’s intimate letters to UK diplomat auctioned, reveal Onassis link

Mar 30, 2017 12:57 PM IST

Private letters written by Jackie Kennedy to British diplomat David Ormsby Gore, Britain’s ambassador to the US during Kennedy’s presidency, were auctioned in London. In them, not only does she reject his marriage proposal, Jackie also explains why she chose Greek shipping mogul Aristotle Onassis instead.

Letters written by Jackie Kennedy to a British diplomat rejecting his marriage proposal years after the assassination of her husband, US president John F Kennedy, were sold in a London auction on Wednesday.

David Ormsby Gore was Britain’s ambassador to the US during John F Kennedy’s presidency. Jackie Kennedy, the letters reveals, always saw him as a brother.(AFP)
David Ormsby Gore was Britain’s ambassador to the US during John F Kennedy’s presidency. Jackie Kennedy, the letters reveals, always saw him as a brother.(AFP)

The correspondence between Kennedy and David Ormsby Gore, Britain’s ambassador to the US during Kennedy’s presidency, show her explaining her reasons for not wishing to wed the former diplomat.

Hindustan Times - your fastest source for breaking news! Read now.

“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,” she wrote to Ormsby Gore after his proposal in 1968.

“You are like my beloved beloved brother -- and mentor -- and the only original spirit I know -- as you were to Jack,” she added.

The letters are part of a larger cache of papers found at Ormsby Gore’s family home, including correspondence from John F Kennedy and British prime ministers, which was sold for £100,000 (Rs 80,73,000, $124,000, 116,000 euros) at Bonhams auction house in London.

Ormsby Gore had suggested a “secret marriage” to Kennedy during the summer of 1968 and said he found the categorical rejection “unbearable”.

His wife was killed in a car accident in 1967 and Kennedy, whose husband was assassinated while president in 1963, had written to offer her condolences.

“Your last letter was such a cri de coeur of loneliness -- I would do anything to take that anguish from you,” she told the former ambassador.

The collection of 18 letters from Kennedy to Ormsby Gore covers the period from her husband’s assassination until her marriage to Onassis in 1968.
The collection of 18 letters from Kennedy to Ormsby Gore covers the period from her husband’s assassination until her marriage to Onassis in 1968.

Kennedy went on to marry Greek shipping mogul Aristotle Onassis, explaining her choice in her final letter to Ormsby Gore.

“You and I have shared so many lives and deaths and hopes and pain -- we will share them forever and be forever bound together by them,” she wrote.

“If ever I can find some healing and some comfort -- it has to be with someone who is not a part of all my world of past and pain -- I can find that now -- if the world will let us.”

The collection of 18 letters from Kennedy to Ormsby Gore covers the period from her husband’s assassination until her marriage to Onassis in 1968.

Ormsby Gore served as British ambassador from 1961 until 1965, when he returned to the UK, and died after a car crash in 1985.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for more

Catch your daily dose of Fashion, Health, Festivals, Travel, Relationship, Recipe and all the other Latest Lifestyle News on Hindustan Times Website and APPs
SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Share this article
SHARE
Story Saved
Live Score
Saved Articles
Following
My Reads
Sign out
New Delhi 0C
Saturday, February 24, 2024
Start 14 Days Free Trial Subscribe Now
Follow Us On