JFK allegedly had an affair with an air attendant whom his wife, Jackie, was fully aware of. An upcoming book details the relationship of the former President with a woman named Joan Lundberg. Here’s everything you need to know about the alleged affair.
American journalist Randy Taraborrelli’s new book, ‘JFK: Public, Private, Secret,’ is set to release on July 15. The author spoke to People about how his book dives deep into JFK’s rumored affair with a woman named Joan, whom he met in Santa Monica when he was the Senator of Massachusetts. The book is a compilation of Joan’s unpublished memoir and personal diaries.
The two allegedly crossed paths in 1956 at The Sip and Surf, which was a dive bar. Kennedy struck up a conversation with the woman who was standing in front of a jukebox. He asked her if she was thinking of playing on the jukebox. “I was thinking Elvis Presley, but what would you like to hear?” Lundberg responded.
John said he wanted to listen to a song that would let him “concentrate” on her. Notably, Kennedy was married and expecting a baby with his wife, Jackie, at the time. Joan, at the time, was a mother of two and living with a man named Norm Bishop.
The mother of two worked as a flight attendant and a cocktail waitress back then. As their conversation went on, JFK asked Lundberg where she lived. She told him that she lived in a “trailer court close by.” Kennedy, unaware of what that was, asked her what a trailer court was. “You don’t want to know,” Joan answered.
An hour after she left the bar, Joan got a call from JFK. In September of the same year, he invited Joan to a dinner party at his sister Pat’s house. In her diaries, Joan notes how out of place she felt at the party. John and Joan drove to the Sunset Motel that night.
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1. John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier, relaxing at the Kennedy family home in Massachusetts on July 4, 1953 pic.twitter.com/5wxweyd44c
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They allegedly checked into a room under the alias Mr. and Mrs. Robert Thompson. That marked the first of many rendezvous that the duo would end up having. By the time JFK entered the Presidential race, his affair with Joan was ongoing. He would reportedly constantly fly her out and cover all the expenses.
At some point, Jackie, who was still married to Kennedy, asked him about who “Trailer Park Joan” was. When he took too long to formulate a reply, she added, “The divorcée! Your sister told me all about her!” JFK then told his wife that Joan was someone he had met in Los Angeles. Joan’s own diaries do not reveal exactly how much Jackie knew about her husband’s affair.
Architect John Carl Warnecke later revealed how Jackie once opened up about her husband’s affair to him. “He didn’t have to lie to me about this Joan woman. I was already lying to myself,” she told Warnecke.
Things between JFK and Joan finally soured when she called him up one day to tell him that she was pregnant. Kennedy got the call on June 25, 1958. Joan has written about how the news was “like a knife to Jack’s (JFK) heart.” In her unpublished memoir, she notes how John apologized to her on the call after he got the news.
President Kennedy takes his first White House portrait photo in 1961 #TBT #POTUS #JFK pic.twitter.com/28vo62RUca
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That summer, Joan allegedly got another call from Kennedy, who told her she couldn’t keep the baby. He also promised he would send her $400 in the mail. “You’ll know what to do, Joan. Please,” he pleaded. He admitted to her that being a politician is who he is. “Politics is all I know. If you take that away…” he added.
A few days after the call, Joan went through with the abortion. Zachary Hitchcock, Lundberg’s son, shared how his mother had the realisation that the “party was over.” He added, “She couldn’t be on the sidelines.” Zachary also noted how his mother had “too much pride.”
