Jackie, Janet & Lee

by J. Randy Taraborrelli

  Lee was happy for her sister and appreciated the gesture of having her niece named after her, but she couldn’t help feeling melancholy at the same time. In her mind, Jackie always had it so good. First, she married a United States senator. Then she had a baby with him. In addition to the Georgetown home, she had an apartment in Boston with him and they had just bought a home in Hyannis Port in the Kennedy compound. Of course, there had been the tragic stillbirth, but Jackie was such a survivor, Lee mused, she’d gotten past it in the great tradition of Bouvier women. Jackie also seemed to have taken Lee’s advice to try to overlook Jack’s philandering. Not only that, but Lee felt that Janet was much more proud of Jackie than she was of her and, as she put it to one relative, “still loves her more than me, as always.” All of this good fortune for Jackie just made Lee feel a little frustrated and unhappy. As if it wasn’t bad enough living in a foreign country away from all of her friends and family members, she was now also involved with a married man.

  While Lee believed Janet preferred Jackie over her, one person who didn’t was Stas. As far as he was concerned, there could be no comparison. He viewed Jackie as more circumspect and guarded than Lee, more concerned about how she was being perceived. “[Lee’s] bawdy in a way that many women these days aren’t,” he said, “yet she also has a certain kind of class, a certain refinement that’s a paradox, really. It makes her more intriguing.”

  The prince was right about Lee. While she could swear and drink and have mad fun until all hours of the night, she also had more than a few habits that spoke to the kind of decorum to which even Stas’s royal colleagues couldn’t stake claim. For instance, after she flushed the toilet at home, her maid would always somehow appear from nowhere and rush into the bathroom to drop a gardenia into the bowl. “It keeps things fresh,” Lee explained to Stas, who was completely dumbfounded by it. Typical of their relationship, though, he could get away with a gentle ribbing of her. Once in a restaurant when Lee rose from her seat to use the powder room, Stas asked, “Are you forgetting something, my dear?” as he reached into his vest pocket. From it, he pulled out a gardenia and handed it to her. She found it hilarious.

  It would be a bit of a winding road to get to the altar, though. Before he took Lee’s hand, the prince decided he wanted her marriage to Michael Canfield annulled. It was the only way Stas, a devout Catholic, would be able to marry his intended in the Church. Stas had been down this road before. He had tried to have his first marriage to Rose annulled so that he could marry his second wife, Grace, in the Church. However, when he had trouble securing that annulment, he went ahead and married Grace anyway in a civil ceremony. When the annulment finally came through, the marriage to Grace was already over. However, since that second marriage had never been recognized by the Church, and the first one had been officially annulled, Stas could now marry in the Catholic Church, provided Lee got an annulment of her marriage.

  At this same time, Jackie and Lee finally had a meeting of the minds over Lee’s marriage. Lee told her sister that she was disappointed that she had not been there for her when she was grappling with what to do about Michael. Instead, Jackie was, at least in Lee’s estimation, judgmental and sanctimonious about Lee’s affair with Stas. According to one of their intimates, Lee asked Jackie, “Haven’t you ever done anything crazy for love?” Jackie answered quickly, “For love, yes. But not for this. This isn’t love.” Lee insisted that she did love Stas, though. She wanted her sister to accept it and just wish her happiness. What could Jackie do? Though she would never change her mind about infidelity, all she really ever wanted was for Lee to be happy. The deed was done, anyway: the broken-down book editor was out of the picture and the dashing prince was in it. Therefore, Jackie said she would help Lee secure an annulment from Michael so that she would then be able to marry Stas in the Catholic Church. This gesture would, hopefully, set things straight between the sisters.

  Jackie asked her father-in-law, Joe Kennedy, for advice as to how to proceed with an annulment. He suggested that Lee enlist a friend of the family’s, Cardinal Spellman in New York. Therefore, in June of ’58, Lee wrote to the cardinal to ask if he would begin the process. Lee then retained an attorney whose specialty was Vatican law. She stated that the marriage should be annulled because she was never really sure of the wisdom of marrying Michael and had questions as to whether or not they should have had children.

  Then there was a surprising twist: Lee got pregnant with Stas’s child. Now the situation had suddenly become even more complicated. How would it look if she had a child out of wedlock? The annulment papers had been filed, but who knew how long it would take to process them? Janet wouldn’t hear of her daughter having a baby without the benefit of marriage, and Lee wouldn’t have allowed it, either. “So, my dad left my mom for Lee,” recalled John Radziwill, Stas’s oldest by Grace Maria Kolin. “It was sad for the family because my father had been the love of my mother’s life. But when Lee broke the news, he said, ‘That’s it. I’m going to marry you.’ It’s always a shame when a family breaks up, but Dad was with Lee long before she became pregnant. I was upset, yes, but I certainly didn’t hold it against Lee. My father made his choice.”

  Since Stas, of course, was still a prince, marrying him would make Lee a princess. Again, there was some question about the authenticity of his princely title, just as there had been with Michael’s lineage, but at least there was more historical and factual accuracy to Stas’s claim. If she married him, Lee would become Princess Lee Radziwill.

  Lee eagerly married Stas in a civil ceremony on March 19, 1959. They then had a small reception at Jack and Jackie’s home; maybe twenty-five people attended.

  After the wedding, Stas purchased a home at No. 4 Buckingham Place, a small street in London that is parallel to Buckingham Palace. Lee designed the place beautifully with eighteenth-century Polish, French, and Italian antiques long owned by the Radziwill family. (The home would be later be redecorated by the famous designer Renzo Mongiardino, who would use many yards of hand-blocked Indian fabrics to help create living spaces with a Turkish influence.) Then, on August 4, 1959, Lee gave birth to her and Stas’s first child, Anthony Stanislaw Albert, in Lausanne, Switzerland. For anyone inspecting the calendar while wondering about her pregnancy, the Radziwills said that the baby was born three months prematurely. She was now happier, Lee said, than she’d ever been. Those who knew her well, though, couldn’t help but wonder how long would that last.

  Campaign Trail

  Still uncomfortable with politics, Jackie Kennedy seemed unable to find a way to balance her husband’s public career with her own fierce and innate need for privacy. She did the best she could, though, while also stumping for Jack across the country in the fall of ’58 as he ran for the Senate again, this time as the incumbent. He would win the seat handily, defeating his Republican opponent, Boston lawyer Vincent J. Celeste, by a wide margin.

  When Jackie had enough of the Kennedys, she would retreat to Merrywood or Hammersmith with Caroline and use that time away to recharge her battery. Janet was proud of her. She knew how difficult it was for her daughter to live such a public life and was impressed by the many ways she rose to the challenge. In January of 1960, when Jack announced his intention to run for President, Janet and Hugh (both still staunch Republicans) were present at his side along with Jackie. “This is a proud moment for our family,” Janet said. Though she smiled broadly and put forth much enthusiasm for the public, secretly she found the prospects of a JFK presidency disconcerting. She would soon find the process of campaigning for office to be overwhelmingly invasive, foreign to her in every way. For instance, when Jackie began hosting teas in her home on N Street, Janet was perplexed. “Perfect strangers in the home sitting on your antique furniture?” she asked at the time. “It is a new world, isn’t it?”

  Julian Balridge was at Merrywood with his parents, Carolyn and Edward, for another party that Janet hosted for Jack and Jackie in the days after Jack announced his candidacy. Janet
had spent the day making certain that, as she put it, “everything is just so.” Always an exacting woman, Janet considered no detail too small to address, even after the guests had arrived. Julian recalls her walking by the dining room, stopping, and doing a double take. “Those candles are not right,” she told one of the maids as she stared at a huge floral display in the middle of the table.

  “But, madam, you said you wanted candles,” the maid told her.

  “Come with me,” Janet said as she took the young woman by the elbow. They walked to the table and stood at its side in front of the elaborate centerpiece. Janet then told the maid that the wicks on the candles were too big at two inches. They should be no more than an eighth of an inch, “otherwise the whole centerpiece will go up in flames.” She asked the woman to go into the kitchen, get a ruler and a pair of scissors, and cut the wicks down to size. The maid scurried off. At that moment, Janet saw Julian Balridge’s mother, Carolyn, walk into the dining room. That’s when she turned on the charm. “Oh, my darling,” she exclaimed with a radiant smile. “How lovely to see you!”

  Despite Janet’s instant composure, Julian Balridge recalls her as being anxious not only about how well the party was going but about what the future might hold for her family. “This is just not us,” Janet fretted to Carolyn. “We are not the Kennedys. I am private; Jacqueline is private; Lee is private; Hughdie, Yusha, Janet, Jamie—all of us in our family are very private people.” She said that she wasn’t sure how they would ever be able to become public personalities. “It’s impossible,” she concluded.

  Janet then talked about her own contribution to the campaign; she said that she’d recently gone to Kentucky to stump for Jack. When asked if it was at JFK’s request, Janet said no. Apparently, a college roommate of hers who hailed from Kentucky was a big supporter of Jack’s. She telephoned Janet and said she was concerned that Jack wasn’t doing well in her state. She wondered if one of the Kennedy relatives might go to Kentucky to stump. Janet made some calls and was told that no one was available. Her former roommate then told her that it didn’t matter who came, just as long as it was someone connected to Jack. She suggested that Janet might be the one to do it. “I was completely floored,” Janet said. “Me on the campaign trail? Heavens no!” She called Jack and asked him what he thought. “He was very much amused,” Janet recalled, and he encouraged her. “So I did it,” she said, explaining that Lois Combs, the daughter of Kentucky governor Bertram Thomas Combs, drove her to the districts pinpointed for her participation. At each stop, she shook a lot of hands and attended a great many ladies’ teas. In doing so, she felt about as uncomfortable as “I do when I have to make a tape recording of my voice. But, anyway, for Jack, I did it even though I felt very foolish.” She proudly added that he carried two counties in which she campaigned. (In the end, JFK did lose the state, however.) She therefore understood how “intoxicating” politics could be. However, “a person simply can’t do this every day, especially a woman!”

  At that moment, Jackie swept into the room, wearing a simple black shift with white pearls. She looked understated but glamorous with her bouffant hairstyle and meticulous makeup, including bright pink 1960s-style lipstick. Mother and daughter then engaged in a conversation about the new china being used at Hammersmith, Flora Danica, said to be the most expensive in the world, with each piece priced at between five hundred and a thousand dollars. Jackie’s question was how could Janet trust that her guests wouldn’t be careless and break one of the pieces. Janet explained that she does her research and plans the guest list accordingly. If she suspects someone might be careless with her expensive belongings, that person simply will not be invited. “Never have anyone in your home that you can’t trust with your good china,” she said. She added that this was precisely why she took issue with the teas Jackie was hosting at N Street. Jackie listened intently and nodded. “Mummy is so smart with these things,” she told the others.

  “My father was bowled over by both Janet and Jackie,” recalled Julian Balridge. “He also believed JFK would make a great president. ‘This country needs shaking up, anyway,’ Jackie said. ‘Jack has a great platform,’ she told us. ‘You should listen to what he has to say. He wants to make this country great and he knows just how to do it, too.’ After she left our side, Janet told my mother she was concerned about Jackie’s wardrobe. ‘She needs to look more traditional, maybe like that woman on Leave It to Beaver. She was speaking of Barbara Billingsley. ‘Now, she looks like a First Lady,’ Janet said. ‘Don’t you agree?’”

  On July 13, 1960, Jack Kennedy won the nomination of his party at the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles; later, Lyndon Johnson would be announced as his running mate. Jackie was in Hyannis Port at the time. Janet, Hugh, Jamie, and Janet Jr. were with her, keeping her company and watching the exciting events on TV. “This is when we knew that it was getting real,” said Jamie Auchincloss, who was thirteen at the time. “I also remember one of the press conferences after Jack won. It was me and my sister Janet Jr. [fifteen] and Mummy and Daddy along with, of course, Jackie. Jack was in New York. I was standing there with flashbulbs going off and reporters shouting questions and I remember thinking, Whose life is this? Mummy was beside herself with pride that this was happening to us. She couldn’t stop telling Jackie how proud she was of her. ‘There’s nothing you could do that would make me any prouder of you than I am in this moment,’ she told her.”

  The excitement just continued to grow for the family, especially after Jackie officially announced that she was expecting her second child. The baby was due in November.

  “The Bitter and the Sweet”

  By the summer of 1960, Lee and Stas had arrived in America from Europe for an extended visit in order to share in the family’s excitement about Jack Kennedy’s campaign. Stas eagerly became involved, strategizing with organizers about ways to secure the Polish vote. He stumped from Los Angeles to Boston, barely getting through each event while battling extreme performance anxiety. He almost fainted before giving certain speeches. Jack was extremely grateful; he could see how tough it was on Stas. “There are an awful lot of Poles in America,” Lee told the Associated Press, “and Stas talked to most of them.” As a result, Jack and Stas would go on to become great friends. Jackie would also be appreciative of her new brother-in-law’s help and, after the election, presented him with a drawing she’d done of a map of the USA with a figure of Stas going coast to coast. She inscribed it with the words: “You really did do it, Stas!” She’d gotten over the way Stas had come into their lives, and was now just wanting to put any unhappiness about it behind them. Janet agreed. She hadn’t been a fan of Stas because of the way he came into her daughter’s life, but once she saw how devoted he was to family ideals and goals, she began to accept him.

  Lee traveled with Stas as much as possible. However, because—like Jackie—she was also pregnant with a baby due in November, Stas wanted to curtail her activity. Therefore, Lee enjoyed the Democratic Convention from the sidelines and then went back to her suite at the Beverly Hilton early to giddily call Jackie with her observations of the event. It was an exciting time for the sisters with no disagreements between them, just a sense that their lives were really working out for them.

  Some observers found it unusual that, at this time, Lee asked the media to refer to her as “Princess Lee Radziwill.” It was as if she wanted to ensure that the press understood that Jackie wasn’t the only Bouvier woman of distinction. For instance, at Merrywood shortly after the convention, Janet and Lee were confronted by reporters at the front entrance to the property. One writer, Eddy Gilmore of the Associated Press, called out, “Any comments, Mrs. Canfield?” Lee corrected him. “It’s Princess Lee Radziwill,” she said, “and, no, I have nothing to say!” Janet didn’t think Lee’s comment was appropriate. “This is Jackie’s moment, not yours,” she was overheard telling Lee. Lee flinched, Janet’s rebuke obviously stinging. Standing corrected, Lee then went back to the reporter and said, “It’s
not that I want to appear elusive or uncooperative. It’s just that I shrink from talking about myself. I believe that a person should have accomplished something on her own before she starts giving interviews.” Janet stood by, pleased. “So … that’s Princess Lee Radziwill?” the reporter asked, writing in her pad. “Yes, it is,” Lee confirmed. “You see, I was born Caroline Lee Bouvier,” she explained, “but I was always called Lee—and I absolutely hate it. I just detest it so much!” And that’s when Janet’s smile disappeared.

  On August 18, 1960, Jackie was in Hyannis Port when the phone rang in the middle of the night. It was Stas. “Lee is in the hospital,” he told her. “They had to call an ambulance and take her into emergency. It’s the baby.” Jackie was immediately frantic. She wanted to know what she could do; should she come? Stas told her that he was in Los Angeles and on his way, and suggested that she not make the trip because of her own pregnancy. “Just stay put and I will keep you posted,” he told her. Jackie then called Janet to tell her the news. When Janet tracked Stas down in California, she found out that Lee had given birth prematurely to a girl and that, at three pounds, the baby wasn’t doing well at all. Both mother and daughter were at New York Hospital. The next morning, Janet had a car drive her straight to Manhattan. She was there by ten o’clock and at Lee’s side. She had with her the Book of Common Prayer, which contains the liturgy of the Episcopalian faith, and she brought it with her into Lee’s room.

  At just four years to the month since the stillbirth of Jackie’s daughter, Janet found it hard to believe that Lee was now facing the mortality of her child, too. So bereft, Lee could barely speak to her mother through her tears. As it happened, the infant was dealing with a serious respiratory problem. Luckily, Janet knew of a specialist in the field, Dr. Samuel Levine, Professor of Pediatrics at Cornell University. He’d just retired a few years earlier. After his retirement, he continued as professor emeritus at CUMC and as a consultant pediatrician at New York Hospital, where Lee was now. Janet had met him at a cocktail party shortly after Jackie’s stillbirth. The two had a conversation about what had happened to Arabella, and the doctor had a few theories that Janet found interesting. She took his card and put it in her wallet, thinking, for some reason, that she might need it one day. That day had come. She called his office only to find that, by coincidence, he was at the hospital already, looking in on another patient! He joined her in front of Lee’s room and agreed to treat the baby.