Jackie Kennedy affair

Jackie Kennedy 'had an affair with ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev and so did Bobby Kennedy', new book based on interviews with Jackie's 'closest confidantes' reveals

• The Pink Triangle penned by Hollywood biographer Darwin Porter and independent publisher Danforth Prince comes out next month
• It reports alleged conversations with Gore Vidal and Truman Capote about the extra-marital affairs of Jackie Kennedy
• Porter claims Capote told him about Jackie's affair with Rudolf Nureyev while Vidal revealed her affair with another dancer
• A separate 'rumor' exists claiming Bobby Kennedy was caught in a passionate embrace with Nureyev
• Paris gossip magazine Paris Match allegedly claimed Nureyev once drunkenly boasted of an affair with Jackie Kennedy
• In an interview he also boasted that everyone thought he was the sexiest man alive including the Kennedys
• Capote also believed Bobby Kennedy was a closeted homosexual, according to the book

By David Gardner In Los Angeles
PUBLISHED: 18:42 GMT, 15 January 2014 | UPDATED: 00:57 GMT, 16 January 2014

Claims: The book reports alleged conversations with Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal and Truman Capote, including Vidal and Capote's 'revelations' about Jackie Kennedy's love life

Driven to distraction by the amorous betrayals of her husband, Jackie Kennedy embarked on a wild fling with ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev while she was still in the White House, according to a new tell-all book.
Nureyev, who was nine years younger than the First Lady, was also once spotted with Jackie’s brother-in-law Robert F. Kennedy ‘kissing each other passionately in a phone box’, the book claims.

Much has been written through the years about President Kennedy’s dalliances while in office. His mistresses were famously said to include actresses Marilyn Monroe and Angie Dickinson, mafia moll Judith Exner and a 19-year-old White House intern.

But ‘The Pink Triangle’ – due for release on the 20th anniversary of Jackie Kennedy’s death from cancer in 1994 – suggests the First Lady wasn’t content to sit idly by while her husband had countless affairs.

According to Globe magazine, which has an advance copy of the book, it claims Jackie flew Nureyev to Washington in 1963 and they soon ‘plunged into a secret love affair that lasted years.’

‘Jackie first fell for Rudi the day she invited him and his legendary dance partner Margot Fonteyn to perform at the White House during Jack’s administration,’ writes co-author Darwin Porter.

The First Lady arranged a private jet for Nureyev and the dancer reportedly sat in JFK’s rocking chair and informed the president’s wife: ‘Unlike your husband, I have a powerful back.’

Later days: Jackie Kennedy allegedly had an affair with Rudolf Nureyev in the 1960s, but they remained close for decades as they are pictured here in 1983 when she was married to Aristotle Onassis

While only a few close friends in America allegedly knew about the fling, the couple remained close after JFK’s 1963 assassination.

They were photographed together in the English countryside in November 1968 and that same year, Paris Match magazine claimed the ballet star had been overheard drunkenly boasting about his conquest.

Nureyev, who defected to the west from the Soviet Union in 1961, made no secret of the fact that the Kennedys fell under his spell. 

‘I am the sexiest man alive,’ he told a Danish newspaper before his death from AIDS in 1993. ‘Just ask Lee Radziwill. Just ask Jackie Kennedy. And if you don’t believe me, ask Bobby and John-John Kennedy. Nobody can resist me. Everyone who has gone to bed with me has fallen in love with me,’ he added.

The book details the lives of playwright Tennessee Williams and two of Jackie’s closest friends, authors Truman Capote and Gore Vidal.

Robert Kennedy pictured with the dancer (top) and with Jackie Kennedy (bottom) with whom he allegedly had an affair

Capote told Porter at a 1977 dinner in Key West, Florida, that Jackie and her sister Lee Radziwill both competed for Nureyev’s affections.

‘I think Rudi systematically plans to seduce every member of my family, even my son when he grows up,’ the book says Jackie confessed to Capote. 

Capote was also said to be shocked to learn about Nureyev’s affair with Bobby Kennedy, whom the writer had long suspected of being a deeply closeted homosexual,’ says Globe.

An outraged Jackie only ended the relationship when she saw the dancer paying too much attention to her son, JFK Jr., writes Porter.

He says she clashed with Nureyev in 1993 when she learned he was encouraging her son to become an actor rather than go into politics as his family wanted.

A second ballet dancer, American John Kriza, was also linked to Jackie, according to the book.

All in the family: A new book claims that not only did Jackie and Bobby have romantic affairs with Nureyev, but so did her sister Lee Radziwell (seen with Nureyev in 1987)

‘Each of us launched an affair with him,’ writer Gore Vidal is quoted as saying. ‘Jackie using my apartment when I did not have John otherwise engaged.’

Although Jackie played the part of the picture-perfect wife during the marriage, she did spend some time apart from her husband.

At a low point in their marriage, she escaped from the pressure cooker life in D.C. on an Italian cruise in 1962 with Fiat’s millionaire kingpin Gianni Agnelli and then sailed the Aegean Sea with Aristotle Onassis on his yacht, the Christina, the following year.

Camelot's controversy: For decades, it was only former President John F. Kennedy's love affairs that were public

There were rumors of a close relationship with actor William Holden, although it was never more than speculation.

The new book claims Richard Nixon also tried to seduce Jackie before the 1960 presidential election.

‘One afternoon, when Jack was making one of his endless speeches, Nixon made a pass at me,’ Jackie revealed to Tennessee Williams, writes Porter, who co-authored the book with Danforth Prince.