JFK got stewardess pregnant, sent her $400 for abortion: Book
What's the story
Former United States President John F Kennedy had an affair with flight attendant Joan Lundberg, which resulted in an unexpected pregnancy, a tell-all book has alleged. The details of this affair are revealed in J Randy Taraborrelli's upcoming book, JFK: Public, Private, Secret. According to the book's excerpts, Lundberg met Kennedy in 1956 when she was a 23-year-old single mother working as a cocktail waitress and for Frontier Airlines, and he was a married US senator.
Affair details
Jackie confronted Kennedy about the affair
Lundberg claimed that she and Kennedy had an affair, which continued over time, even after his wife, Jackie, gave birth to a stillborn daughter, Arabella. Taraborrelli wrote that Jackie eventually confronted her husband about the affair. "Your sister told me all...about her!" Jackie said before Jack tried to explain that Lundberg was "someone he'd met in Los Angeles." Within weeks, JFK's father, Joe Kennedy, received a call from an attorney who had been hired to defend Jackie in a divorce.
Pregnancy aftermath
Lundberg informs JFK about her pregnancy
"Joe told Jackie that if she agreed to stay in the marriage, he could give her the freedom to do whatever she liked....He would offer her $100,000 upon the birth of her and Jack's first child," the book said. Jackie accepted the offer. But the affair continued into 1958, even after Jackie gave birth to Caroline Kennedy in November 1957. In June 1958, Lundberg called JFK to inform him of her pregnancy, who "told her she couldn't have the baby."
Abortion
'News was like a knife to Jack's heart'
"Joan would recall that her news...was 'like a knife to Jack's heart," read the book excerpt. "Joan wrote that they shouldn't have been so surprised: 'I didn't like wearing a diaphragm, and Jack wouldn't wear a rubber,'" she wrote. "Jack couldn't help but wonder if Joan had purposely planned the pregnancy given that she'd seen his devotion to Jackie after Caroline's birth. He also wondered if he was really the father, and Joan assured him he was," Taraborrelli wrote.
Legacy impact
JFK was known for his numerous affairs
Following their phone call, Kennedy told Lundberg he would mail her $400, telling her, "You'll know what to do"—an apparent reference to abortion. The revelations of this affair and subsequent abortion add to the long list of extramarital relationships that have marred JFK's legacy. The former president was known for his numerous affairs, including one with Marilyn Monroe. He and Jackie had four children, but only two survived infancy: Caroline and John F. Kennedy Jr., who was born in 1960.