John F Kennedy was with his mistress on a yacht while Jackie O gave birth to a stillborn child, reveals Carly Simon
Carly Simon has revealed in her new book, 'Touched By the Sun: My Friendship with Jackie', how First Lady Jackie Kennedy was quite aware of her husband's extramarital affairs but didn't "mind their presence as much as she might have."
During an interview with NBC News, the singer opened up about her friendship with the former first lady and her then husband's extramarital relationships.
"In a cheerful but resigned way, she told me that of course, she knew about them," Simon wrote in her book. "She just didn't mind their presence as much as she might have. Because she knew he [Kennedy] loved her much, much more than any of his dalliances."
According to Simon, some of those transgressions were very difficult for her good friend to accept.
"For instance, his not being there for the birth of a child, his being off with a mistress while she was in the hospital," Simon said of Kennedy allegedly being absent for the birth of one of his children. "There are various things that he did that by comparison to having a mistress must have hurt more."
While the president was present for the birth of his sons John Jr., Patrick, and daughter Caroline, he was reportedly not present when Jackie delivered a stillborn child in 1956. According to Simon, he was instead on a yacht with his friends and an alleged mistress at the time.
Simon also recounted in her memoir how Jackie helped her when she entered rehab to battle opioid addiction. She remembered how she could make only one call a day from the facility, and she would always call the former first lady.
"She was being the mother that I never had. And she was not judging me," Simon recalled. "She was just so supportive and funny at the same time."
The 74-year-old singer-songwriter said that Jackie's brutal honesty was her most valuable asset over the years.
"She gave me advice like nobody else did," Simon told NBC News. "Other people would be too nervous to tell me what they really thought about certain things...But Jackie was forthright."
Simon piqued Jackie's interest after John F Kennedy Jr introduced the two in a Martha's Vineyard restaurant in 1983.
"I think she saw in me something that she wanted to have a little bit of herself," Simon said. "I think she saw a free spirit who had the license to be, in a rock and roll kind of way, loose as a goose. And I could smoke a joint if I wanted to."