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Time Warner Bookmark presents

Biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli
Chatting about his latest work, "Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot"

February 3, 2000

Biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli chats about his latest work, "Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot," an in-depth look into the lives of the three most prominent Kennedy wives.

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TWBookmark: Welcome to TimeWarnerBookmark! Little, Brown and Company and The Talk City Network are proud to present our special guest for tonight, J. Randy Taraborrelli, author of "Jackie, Ethel, Joan." His new book chronicles the lives of the Kennedy wives. Thank you, Mr. Taraborrelli, for joining us today in Talk City!

J. Randy Taraborrelli: It's wonderful to be here. Thank you for having me.

Palm Person: What made you write this book?

J. Randy Taraborrelli: The Kennedy's are a family that has, for years, been shrouded in secrecy and mystery. I felt that the women, these 3 wives, were perhaps even the most private of the bunch. It was as if they had taken a vow of silence that somehow prevented them from discussing their relationships to each other, and to each other's husbands, as I eventually learned. Since no other book had been written on this subject, and there have been hundreds of Kennedy books written, I looked at this as a golden opportunity to do something no other writer had ever done.

Barbara: This is the first book to focus on the extraordinary lives of all three Kennedy wives -- Jackie, Ethel and Joan. Why has it taken so long?

J. Randy Taraborrelli: Most of the focus has been on the men. The women, the wives, have been overlooked by the media. Also, because of that vow of silence that I metaphorically referred to earlier, there hasn't been a whole lot of grapevine information available. So any writer who tackled this subject had to start at the beginning, and it was a daunting task. I'm actually happy that nobody tackled it before me.

Zephyr: It is well documented that JFK had a romantic relationship with Marilyn Monroe. Surprisingly, though, you say in your book that Jackie had a particularly strong reaction to this affair. Tell us about that.

J. Randy Taraborrelli: A big surprise for me, in the course of researching this book, was to learn that Jackie Kennedy had a surprising amount of empathy and compassion for Marilyn Monroe. Basically, Jackie looked at Marilyn as an emotional cripple whose vulnerabilities ran deep. As Jackie learned more details of the affair with Monroe, these facts didn't so much raise the level of her anger toward Jack, as much as they raised the level of compassion she felt for Marilyn. So this was really the first time that Jackie took a proactive role in ending one of her husband's affairs. The first thing that she did was refused to attend the well-publicized JFK birthday gala in NY in 1962. That's when Marilyn sang "Happy Birthday" to the President in that now- famous see-through dress. After the concert, Jackie issued a surprising ultimatum. Basically, according to the Secret Service agent that I interviewed, Jackie told JFK that if he continued seeing Marilyn, she would leave him. She would do it at a point in his political career when it would be most damaging, right before the 1964 election. So he complied, and that is the real reason why the relationship between Kennedy and Monroe ended -- because Jackie put an end to it.

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