Jackie Kennedy: New Book Says Nude Photos Stemmed From Husband Aristotle Onassis

Aristotle Onassis stands with his new wife Jacqueline Kennedy after their marriage in the tiny chapel on the Island of Scorpios in Greece on Oct. 20, 1968. Jackie and Aristotle are seen aboard the yacht "Christina." AP Photo

The nude photos that showed Jackie Kennedy Onassis on a beach in 1972 were made possible by her husband, a new book says.

Jackie married Aristotle Onassis in 1968 after John F. Kennedy died in 1963.

But Onassis continued an affair with opera singer Maria Callas, and tried to divert attention and humiliate Jackie by using his press contacts, Christopher Andersen says in his upcoming book The Good Son: JFK Jr. and the Mother He Loved.

Andersen says that Onassis abandoned Kennedy almost immediately after the wedding, going on a long business trip. He rushed back to her after he obtained a sad note she had sent to a friend, but after several weeks together she left to spend time with family and he rekindled his romance with Callas.

“Right up until a month before his death — for the truth is that Maria was the only true love of Onassis’s life. She was his ’real wife' — even though they weren’t officially married,” Onassis’s longtime chauffeur Jacinto Rosa said.

The couple’s marriage got even worse when the letter fell into the hands of an autograph dealer, along with several others. Onassis then dined openly with Callas at a restaurant with Paris. Kennedy got back at him by making him dine at the same table the next night with her.

Onassis got so fed up with Kennedy that he hatched a plan to teach her a lesson, Andersen says, according to a book excerpt.

He fed detailed maps of the island of Skorpios as well as the dates and times of where Jackie was expected to be to 10 photographers.

Jacqueline Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis are shown following their wedding in Skorpios, Greece, Oct. 20, 1968. Caroline Kennedy can be seen at far left. AP Photo

 

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, left, and Aristotle Onassis, wearing dark glasses, appear with host Fallah and his granddaughter in Iran, May 1972. AP Photo

 

The photographers snapped scores of pictures of Jackie sunbathing nude, and strolling around the beaches.

The pictures caused a sensation after appearing in Italian magazine Playmen, then Hustler.

“Jackie, unaware that her husband was behind the whole fiasco, was livid. Instead of backing down, she demanded that Ari sue every photographer and every publication involved,” Andersen writes.

“Instead, Ari went straight to Roy Cohn’s Upper East Side townhouse and informed him he was divorcing Jackie. Mindful of the fact that Jackie wasn’t about to settle for the $3 million spelled out in their prenup, Onassis agreed to fork over an extra $1 million. ‘That’s all the Widow gets,’ he said. ‘Not one penny more.’”

But Aristotle soon died, before the divorce went through.