- [Announcer] This channel is part of the HistoryHit network. (ambient music) (soft music) - [Rachael] Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis is an icon of US cultural
and political history, defined by her impeccable style as well as the men she married. But there was more to this New Yorker than the outfits and husbands. (mid tempo orchestral music) - I think Jackie will be remembered as one of the great American first ladies and it was not an accident,
it didn't just happen. - She's almost like two
people merged together. You have the Jackie
Kennedy and the Jackie O and how she reconciled these
different phases of her life, to me, has always been really interesting. - I think history will remember her just like they remember Cleopatra. Yes, Cleopatra was beautiful, but Cleopatra was one smart
chick and so was Jackie. - Viva Mexico. - [Rachael] Jackie's mantel as first lady jettisoned her into an A-list celebrity. She regularly appeared on the
front of leading magazines and images of her were
sought after globally. - She was big with all the magazines and they were always hungry
for pictures of Jackie, and I supplied them. I was obsessed with her. - [Rachael] With all the
success, however, came suffering. - [Reporter] Something has
happened in the motorcade route. Stand by please. - [Tina S] That was a very difficult time. But Jackie had a laser-like focus and she knew that she had a mission to take care of the
legacy of Jack Kennedy. - In private she couldn't sleep, she wept, but during the day she did a fantastic job of keeping the dignity
of the presidency going. - She was personally devastated
and what is even more tragic is that, just a few years later, she had to go through it
again with Bobby Kennedy. - [Rachael] But Jackie was seldom alone. Her younger sister, Lee, was always there. - Lee was a supportive presence
for Jackie as first lady, she was always there for her. - The people in the White House said they were always happy when Lee came because Jackie was always happy, and they could relax and
hang out and, you know, smoke and drink, and whisper and gossip. - [Rachael] From the beginning, their lives were intertwined and it is impossible to
understand one without the other. It is a tale of rivalry and
resentment, love and loss. (soft music) (slow orchestral music) Jacqueline Bouvier was born
on the 28th of July, 1929. Her sister Lee arrived four years later. - Lee and Jackie were born into
what was upper class America and they grew up in New York
City on the Upper East Side and summered in the Hamptons. And it was full of a
lot of horses and ballet and reading lots of books, it was almost like an English 18th-century kind of an upbringing. - They grew up in an
apartment on Park Avenue that their grandfather had built. He was a real estate developer so it was, you know, one of the finest buildings
in the city, it was beautiful. And they had lots of money and two parents who didn't
really like each other very much, so that was the source of much
anxiety for the both of them. - [Rachael] Competition
between the girls was fierce. Each sister judged
themselves against the other and, more often than not, it was Lee who found herself overshadowed. Whether it was their school
grades or piano recitals, horse riding, or even the
affection of their father. (soft music) - Blackjack Bouvier was Jack Bouvier. He was one of the few people who managed, at the height of the rush in the 1920s, to lose money on Wall Street. He was unlike Joseph P Kennedy. He was really a man about
town, beautifully dressed. I think he had two
different chauffeurs on call at all times. Always impeccably tailored, a member of a whole bunch
of clubs in New York. He was a club man. - His relationship with his
daughters was very, very close. In fact, he spoiled them rotten and he was always singing their praises to the other members of the family, so much so they got a
little irritated about it. He would take them shopping
and it was from Jack Bouvier that they got their sense of style. He gave them the sense of what
fashion could be all about and he told them "Clothes,
they make the man but they also make the woman." And they both learned those lessons well. - He was very much an indulgent father and I think that, at least for Jackie, he was very much of the role model for the type of husband
she would wanna have. - [Rachael] The marriage of their parents was a troubled one. Jack's business deals
veered from the lucrative to the disastrous. After years of relentless arguments, Janet, their mother, sued for
divorce in the summer of 1940. She would go on to marry Hugh Auchincloss, a wealthy American stockbroker. The young Jackie and Lee were now members of one
of the richest families in the United States, but life at the Auchincloss
estate in Virginia was far from straightforward. Their mother's second husband
already had three children from previous marriages, the Bouvier sisters were
newcomers and outsiders. - I think they were very bonded by the fact that their
mother got divorced, which in those days
was simply unacceptable and it was all over the newspapers and I think they were almost like these two little orphan girls and they had to stick together. - During that time, not a lot of people were getting a divorce and they were teased in school and then accounts of it
appeared in the newspaper. It was very hard time for both of them. - [Rachael] As Jackie and
Lee approached their 20s, the question of marriage
came to dominate their lives. - In the milieu that they grew up in. They had to get educated, certainly, but it was really to make a good marriage, to marry a man who was in a
certain position in society, who was well off. - They weren't, in American
terms of those days, socially grand 'cause America was incredibly
snobbish and clannish in those days and if you had Irish or Jewish blood, you were looked down on. And of course they had
Irish blood on both sides. (mid tempo piano music) - They were expected to marry well. Janet drove that into them to
marry a man with real money because her husband, who supposedly did have money at one time, lost it all. - [Sarah] Janet had
terrific social ambitions for these girls and she was determined to get them into the highest level of society. - [Rachael] First Jackie and then Lee made their debuts at society balls, the glittering affairs
where the eligible children of the wealthy and
well-connected could meet. At this time, it was younger sister Lee who shone the brightest. She matched Jackie's achievement in being crowned Queen Deb of the season, but she was widely thought the prettier, more stylish, and more
approachable of the sisters. In April 1953, aged 20,
Lee wed Michael Canfield. Rumored to be the illegitimate
son of the Duke of Kent, Canfield was tall and handsome, privileged, and popular. He seemed the ideal match. There was speculation, however, that Lee was taken less
with her new husband than with the idea of beating
her older sister to the altar. Indeed Lee's wedding only
heightened the family's concerns about Jackie. The older Bouvier sister
was taking her time finding a husband. An engagement had been made to
a young stockbroker in 1952, but Jackie had broken
off that relationship after just a few months. She had realized she was in
love neither with her fiance nor the life he promised. (ambient music) - [Tina S] What was expected of them was not just what Jackie
expected of herself though. Jackie didn't wanna be
another society matron in New York City. So she had different views for herself than her mother had for her. - I don't think there
were great expectations for either of them in terms of being
professionals in any way, but what's interesting
about what Jackie did is she did go into a profession. She was a photojournalist in Washington. She was a very curious person, so journalism would have been
a fantastic career for her. - Jackie had this newspaper column and she would interview
politicians and celebrities and people on the street, and so she always had
very interesting questions so she took it very seriously. - [Rachael] To her family, however, Jackie was at a dangerous age. Every new debutante season
was bringing younger girls onto the marriage market. Even Jackie's warring father and mother found rare agreement in their concerns. Jackie was being left behind. But then along came
John Fitzgerald Kennedy. (uplifting music) - Senator Kennedy was like
the George Clooney of 1953. I mean he was it, he was the bomb. - [Tina C] I think that
he had a way around women that was magnetic and, you know, here was was Jackie who
was interested in politics. - She saw a man that
she'd never be bored with and I also think he saw a
woman he'd never be bored with. She was not only a woman with beauty but she was also a woman of brains, and so it was kind of mutual. - Jack really was attracted by her. She was very pretty. She'd been to the right schools, which was important in the Kennedy world, and I think that he was also nudged along by the fact that his
father really liked her. (mid tempo orchestral music) - [Rachael] Kennedy had
just announced his run for the Senate, but his growing reputation
as a womanizing Playboy was becoming problematic. Politics dictated that he have a wife. His father, Joe, a former
ambassador to Britain and the director of his
son's every career move, saw Jackie as the perfect
society wife needed. Kennedy proposed in June, 1953, just two months after
Lee's triumphant marriage to Michael Canfield. Jackie was now engaged to one of the most eligible
men in the country. Once again, she had left her
younger sister in the shade. - [Reporter] The wedding
of Senator John F Kennedy recalls Newport's one
time social grandeur. Former ambassador and Mrs Joseph Kennedy, parents of the groom, are
among the personalities on hand to make this the top
society wedding of the year. For the spectators outside the church it's a real storybook wedding, a radiant bride, the
former Jacqueline Bouvier and a handsome groom. With a pretty wife and a
politically rising star, the future seems bright
for the junior senator from Massachusetts. (soft music) - [Rachael] On September the 12th, 1953, Jackie Bouvier married John F Kennedy at St Mary's Roman Catholic
Church in Newport, Rhode Island. Among the hundreds of revelers that day was Jackie's younger sister Lee. She was just five months married herself, having wed publisher
Michael Canfield that April. But Lee was increasingly
disappointed with her own choice. Lee and her husband moved to London where they enjoyed a
packed social calendar, but the marriage was an unhappy one. Lee began an affair with Polish
aristocrat Stash Radziwill. He had come to London in 1946. She was 19 years his junior but Radziwill's old world manners, his wealth, and his
aristocratic connections seduced the beautiful young American. - He was a Polish prince. He wasn't as rich as
perhaps she would've liked, because he was, after all, a Pole who'd had be leave his homeland. But he did know everybody at the top level and he really loved her. - He was an older man, he was
dapper and charming, European. The funny thing is when
Lee's mother met him, she said, "Oh my God, you're marrying an older
version of your father." - [Rachael] Back home, Jackie's marriage to her
dashing Senator husband was also troubled. In 1955 she suffered a miscarriage, and the following August the
heartache of a stillbirth. Her husband, however, was not allowing these setbacks or his chronic health problems to get in the way of his favorite pastime. - I think JFK was
perhaps a man of his time and of his social circumstances. Clearly he liked women, you know, they were a diversion, they
took his mind off things. I mean, JFK actually had no other vices. He drank very sparingly. He would nurse a scotch like all day. He didn't really smoke. And I think, you know, like
his father and his brother, it was kind of a male Kennedy thing. - I don't think that
Jack Kennedy's sex life was that normal, I mean it was straightforward. But I think even for that time
there was an awful lot of it. - I think she thought a
little like most women think, I'll change him after marriage, but she was well aware of it. She sort of took a European
view that if he strays, okay, but as long as he comes
back to me and my children, you know, like every
night, that's what matters. - She knew everything that
was going on everywhere and, you know, part of it was that she
was raised in a certain way where a woman was supposed to, you know, a wife was supposed to
behave in a certain way and she knew what that was and she also wasn't going
to bring embarrassment upon his administration by exposing any of that. I think she was devastated
by it, I really do and she was constantly
trying to figure out a way to keep things together and just appreciate the
special circumstances that she was living in. (eerie music) - [Rachael] In London, Lee left her husband, Michael Canfield, to begin a new life with Polish
aristocrat Stash Radziwill. She was already pregnant when the couple married on
the 19th of March, 1959. They moved into a house
near Buckingham Palace and Lee immediately began renovating. But even as she embarked on
this happy new phase in life, Jackie and her husband were at the start of
something far greater. In July, 1960, Kennedy won the Democratic
nomination for president with Lyndon B Johnson as his running mate. Kennedy began his campaign
against his Republican opponent, the sitting vice president Richard Nixon. It would become the closest
presidential race since 1916. By this stage Jackie was pregnant again, but that was not the only reason behind her limited role
in her husband's campaign. - They were the Irish gang around JFK and they were not that convinced, they were concerned that
Jackie was too exotic, too European, too French, too upper class, and that the average American woman just wouldn't be able to connect with her. So they actually kind of
kept her off the stage for a long time. - But they soon learned that
she was his greatest asset because, for example, when he
was just speaking in Boston, she spoke Italian to the Italians. When she went down to Louisiana, she got up and started out "Mes amis" and finished the the whole
speech, you know, in French. And then she also told of
her own background, you know, like, I am French, my family
has French heritage and so on. But she knew how to unite with people. - Her role really was to
be the princess in waiting and to give a a touch of class to what sometimes was pretty
kind of sordid, boring stuff. (crowd cheering)
(soft uplifting music) - [Rachael] On the 8th of November, 1960, Kennedy won the narrowest of victories. Jackie would be the new first
lady of the United States. She was just 31 years old. - [Pamela] Jackie was actually frightened of the White House, the whole idea of it. - She didn't like the title
first of all, first lady, everybody knows that she thought that that sounded like a horse. She didn't like that. - So the morning that he won, eight or nine o'clock in the morning, they go, "My God, he won,
he got it, California," she actually put on like an old raincoat and just went for a walk
by herself on the beach 'cause she knew her
history, she knew politics, and she knew her life would change. - [Rachael] 17 days after the election, the new first lady went into early labor and gave birth to John F Kennedy Jr, a younger brother for sister Caroline who had been born almost
three years earlier. The new baby had underdeveloped lungs and an incubator was his home for the first weeks of his life. Lee too was facing the difficulties brought on by a premature birth. Her second child had been
born three months early, which meant Lee was unable
to travel to Washington for Kennedy's inauguration. As Lee struggled with depression, Jackie adapted to her new life as an international celebrity. The press adored her
photogenic youth and style. When she accompanied her husband
on his first trip overseas, there was as much attention on Jackie as there was on the president. Newspapers christened her
the First Lady of Fashion. (dramatic music) - I think Jackie was recognized
and loved around the world for the same reasons why
America really appreciated having her as first lady. She was articulate, she
was young and energetic, she saw a future vision for how America and how the world could be. This was a woman who had
spent lots of time in Europe and traveling around the world, she loved exploring new
cultures and so forth. - Jackie made it her business
to connect with people when she represented the US abroad. She would not just study
the culture of a country, she would study how they dressed and she would study the
colors that they liked. So when she went to India she wore pink, because one of the big
fashion editors Diana Vreeland explained to her, "Jackie, pink is the navy blue of India, so wear a lot of pink." - She wore wonderful
clothes, she spoke languages, she had tremendous grace and brilliance in presenting herself. I think she was really
what Sinatra called her, America's queen. (suspenseful music) - [Rachael] The spectacular
success of the overseas tour must have been difficult for Lee, whose superior sense of style had always distinguished her from Jackie. It was now Jackie who was
the international style icon. Lee's marriage to Stash
Radziwill was souring too. They argued constantly. Amid this unhappiness and insecurity Lee began an affair with
Aristotle Socrates Onassis, a notorious Greek shipping tycoon. Unbeknownst to all, Onassis would have huge
importance in Jackie's life. Meanwhile, Jackie was asked
to accompany her husband on a visit to Texas. How Jackie performed was
to be closely scrutinized. Despite her success abroad, doubts remained about her
rapport with a domestic audience. It would be this trip to Texas, though, that would have a devastating
impact on Jackie's life. Lee Bouvier Radziwill
was at home in London on the 22nd of November, 1963. She knew her sister, the
First Lady, Jackie Kennedy, was in Texas alongside her husband on an important political
visit to the southern state. It was the early evening when
the news from Dallas broke. Jackie's husband,
President John F Kennedy, had been assassinated. - [Newsreader] From a high window rings out the shot that
changes American history. Confusion is indescribable. Both the president and
Governor Connally are hit. While they are rushed to hospital, swarms of police and FBI
men search for the assassin. (tense music) - Jackie was next to her
husband in an open convertible and his head was blown off. I mean, I'm here and he was there. - [Reporter] Something has
happened in the motorcade route. Stand by please. - The assassination itself
was just a horrific tragedy for everyone. It's just unfathomable how
anyone could live through that. I don't think she ever really got over it. - I know that the world shares the sorrow that Mrs Kennedy and her family bear. (dramatic music) - The assassination was
indeed a world event. I think most people of my age can remember exactly where they were and what they were doing
when this happened. - I think it was horrifying, I think it was terrifying. To talk about post-traumatic
stress syndrome, whatever, doesn't even
begin to discuss it. And you also have to think about, I think she and her
husband made so many plans for the future and for
bettering the country and moving forward, and then it was over,
it was over like that. So it was not only the
loss of her husband, the White House was over and all the dreams that went with it. (sad string music) - [Rachael] Lee flew to Washington at once and was at her sister's side
throughout the days to come. The funeral took place on
the 25th of November, 1963. The day before, Kennedy's
flag-draped coffin had lain in state at
the US Capitol Building. Thousands had cued to pay their respects. A requiem mass was held
at St Matthew's Cathedral, then President Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Jackie's calm and dignified
demeanor throughout won her widespread respect. - With the whole way she conducted herself during the funeral, I mean, she held the country together, I mean, everyone was falling apart. It was a terrible time for our country and it was a British reporter that said that Jackie Kennedy
gave the American people something they never had before, majesty. - She brought great dignity
and sadness to the affair and standing at the grave side, you know, like a marble statue with a dark veil and the two children holding her hands, the images like that which
went round the world. She did a fantastic job of keeping the dignity
of the presidency going. - Jackie became a saint,
she could do no wrong. There was such an
innocence to America then. And who would've thought that some madman, some crazy little guy who
weighs like 120 pounds, could kill the most powerful,
charming, charismatic, witty, our leader. - [Newsreader] To 190,000,000
Americans he was president, to these three he was a loving
husband, a devoted father. - [Rachael] Jackie was scarred
by what she had witnessed. She retold her account of the
assassination again and again in grim and vivid detail. Barely sleeping, she became
depressed and suicidal. Even those closest to Jackie found her behavior increasingly difficult. Her sister Lee was a great support. However, there was one
person who understood better than the rest, JFK's younger brother Bobby, who became a surrogate father
figure to Jackie's children. - He really assumed the mantle of the leader of the Kennedy brothers. He was very close to Jackie and the kids and they really looked
at him as a father figure and so forth. - They could speak to one
another about their loss and they didn't have to explain, you know, he's dead and
we'll never see him again. They loved him so much and I
think that bound them together. - [Rachael] While Jackie
struggled as the months passed, the American people yearned to leave the trauma
of Kennedy's death behind. Lee too wished to move on with her life. She had often felt hemmed
in by her unofficial role in the presidential family. Now she could carve out
a life that was her own. The writer Truman Capote
was a friend of Lee. She was one of the group of
beautiful and glamorous women he referred to as his swans. He pushed Lee into a career in acting for which she had no formal training. This would ultimately
end in embarrassment. - Capote was a great admirer of Lee. I think he admired Lee
even more than Jackie. There was a time she
kind of fashioned herself a photographer and she was taking photographs and then she was on the road
with the Rolling Stones, hanging out with those guys for a while. I think she was trying
to make a way for herself because I think the old days where a woman could be a great beauty and marry well and hang out, I think those days were ending
and you wanted to be a woman who did something. Truman Capote would build her up and say, "If you wanna be an actress, I'll get a play from Tennessee Williams. We'll open it in Chicago,
Kenneth will do your hair Yves Saint Laurent will do the costumes." And it became a whole production. Whereas Lee couldn't say I'm
gonna take acting classes, I'm gonna study with so and so, and then maybe I'll try a little role. You know, Lee's first
role, she's on television. - [Rachael] On the first night of her run as the lead in "The
Philadelphia Story" in 1967, Lee was paralyzed with fear. She looked the part certainly,
but couldn't act it. The reviews were terrible. After one further attempt
appearing in a panned TV movie for ABC in early 1968, she left acting for good. Jackie meanwhile tried
to rebuild her life. She had moved away from Washington and bought an apartment in
Manhattan at 10 45th Avenue overlooking Central Park. With her two children, she attempted to settle into
a life away from politics. However, still being very much
in the public consciousness, she became target for
photographer Ron Galella. He was one of the few
paparazzi based in New York. - I lived in the North Bronx, which was about 12
miles from mid Manhattan and I would spend the whole day, my routine was I developed
the film the night before and I'd sell 'em. In the morning was more marketing. I would go to these fan magazines,
they would pick pictures, all the celebrities, not
just Jackie or Liz Taylor, Doris Day, Liza Minnelli, Calvin Klein. All these stars were hot. Would get $1,000 for a cover, so it was a big marketing in the morning. Then I would go to near
Jackie's on Madison Avenue and I would get Jackie
shopping, she would buy shoes. She didn't even know I was there. Great shots. I was obsessed with her. Obsessed because I had no
girlfriend, I was not married. New York was a great place. I spent the whole day
from morning to the night. (soft music) - [Rachael] Ron's pictures would keep Jackie in the spotlight, but he would soon become
an unwanted nuisance in Jackie's life. At this time, however, he was just another photographer. Jackie was still trying to come to terms with the death of JFK, but her suffering was to
deepen in the summer of 1968 when Bobby Kennedy was assassinated
in a Los Angeles hotel. It would be a year of complete
social upheaval in the US. (explosions) - It's hard for us now to
imagine America was on fire, it was in flames. The inner cities were blowing up, there were riots in the streets. I mean, Detroit, New York,
Washington DC were in flames. All this crazy stuff was happening. Bobby's assassinated, Martin
Luther King is assassinated. Jackie, very understandably,
was terrified. She said, "If they're killing Kennedys, my children are next." - [Rachael] If Jackie
was seeking an escape from the traumas of 1968, she could hardly have picked
a more shocking way out. Just four months after the
assassination of Bobby Kennedy, Jackie remarried. Her new husband was only too
familiar to her sister Lee. It was the 62 year-old
Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, Lee's former lover. - [Reporter] The impending marriage of the former president's wife to the colorful Greek ship owner must have been one of the
best-kept secrets in years. It certainly took most by surprise. As the newlyweds headed for
their luxury yacht, Christina, reports indicated that there was dismay amongst the Kennedy family. The Vatican too frowned on them. Mrs Kennedy, said the Vatican official, was old enough and intelligent enough to know perfectly well she was breaking Roman
Catholic church laws. (lively music) - Onassis had been to the White House, he was also one of the first
visitors to the White House after the assassination. And so I think people
also believed that Onassis was always looking for
an angle with Jackie. And, you know, it wasn't until after Robert
Kennedy's assassination that he felt like he had a window and can put the moves on her. - [Pamela] She definitely loved him, but he also opened her life
up to much broader vistas. She was no longer
beholden to the Kennedys. He also had his own
private security force. So, I mean, Onassis
could take care of her. - I think the idea that he
owned an island and a yacht where he could just
literally sail her away from all of her troubles and take her to this private island, a place where she could just be reclusive, was incredibly appealing. - [Rachael] Onassis
offered her the security and privacy she craved. However, her relationship with Ari would cause a rift in the close bond between
Jackie and her sister. - [Tina S] I think that
Lee hoped to marry him. Her marriage to Prince
Radziwill was winding down. I don't think she could have reacted well. - She was just beside herself
with indignation and fury. (suspenseful music) - The American people loved
Jackie, I have to say that, and she was on a pedestal. But when she wanted to marry Onassis, she was warned do not marry Anis, you'll be taken off that
pedestal by the American people. And she said "It's cold and
lonely up there, I don't care." - [Rachael] Her new marriage with Onassis would initially change the
public's perception of Jackie. However, as their relationship went on, she would seamlessly go
from being Jackie Kennedy grieving widow of the former president, to Jackie O, global fashion icon. Wherever she traveled, though, sorrow would always seem to find her. Jackie had made New York home
for herself and her children, despite her husband never taking
permanent residence there. Although life in the Upper
East Side of Manhattan offered some privacy, she was still prime target for paparazzi. Knowing full well that
pictures with her face covered were less desirable, Jackie would often wear
oversized dark sunglasses to thwart truculent photographers. Ron Galella's growing
obsession with Jackie would start to become
uncomfortably invasive, but his dogged persistence
would give the world one of the most iconic images of Jackie. (mid tempo music) - How I got this picture is
there was a a model, Joy Smith, who needed portfolio pictures. So I said, "Let's go to the park", maybe I'd meet Jackie and make some money. I photographed her across Fifth Avenue and there comes Jackie. She didn't see us. And then I made a brilliant
decision, hop a cab, because if I ran after her, she would see me, put on the glasses, I would never get a great picture. I rolled down the back window,
I got two shots of Jackie, but she didn't hear the clicking
of the camera or anything because it was close to five
o'clock, a lot of traffic. And then the driver was
interested of Jackie and he blew the horn, I didn't even ask him, that was luck. And she turned and I had my
camera in front of my face and she gave me the Mona
Lisa smile, which I love. The Mona Lisa smile is the
beginning of the smile, not teeth showing, and that's the best
kind of smile there is. I got out of the taxi,
immediately she recognized me, put on her glasses, and started walking and I got her one more block
walking and Jackie was pissed. She turned toward me, "Are
you pleased with yourself?" "Yes, thank you. Goodbye." (mid tempo string music) - [Rachael] For Jackie, Ron's constant presence would
cause increasing distress. She understood that images of her were all part of her celebrity, but she craved anonymity for her children. Always eager for a great picture, Ron would photograph Jackie
in all areas of her life, which meant Caroline and
John Jr were often targeted. On a number of occasions, Jackie had asked her
security to chase Ron away. Ron, feeling like his
livelihood was at risk or maybe just following his
instinct for grand publicity, decided he would kick back. The result would be an ongoing dispute which would last for nearly a decade. - I got pictures of John Jr on a bike and her on a bike on the pedestrian path. The reason she said "Smash his camera" to Mr Connelly, the agent,
because she's with John Jr, she don't want it published. And she sent two agents to get the film and they took me to the police station and they booked me on
harassment of Jackie. The judge dismissed the cases. "I don't know who was harassed, well, case dismissed", it was nothing. And I paid my lawyer
$450 and I billed her. My lawyers says, "Bill her". And she never paid or answered. And that started the whole
business of the court business. There was a big trial. I was the plaintiff sued her for interfering in my
livelihood as a photo journalist and it was a big court battle, 1972. Lasted 26 days and it was
like a circus, it was crazy. And I couldn't win this case anyway because the judge, Irving Van Cooper, was appointed by President Kennedy. So I lost. - [Rachael] Ron was issued
a restraining order, which forbade him from
photographing Jackie within 25 feet. It is not known what kind of pressures the trial had on Jackie, but her marriage to Onassis this time was becoming difficult. Among other things, he had
returned to his womanizing ways. Tragedy too seemed to follow
in Jackie's footsteps. In 1973, Aristotle's son Alexander was killed in a plane crash. - That was a real pivotal moment. After that, I think, you know, it never kind of got back on
track, it never recovered. - Of course, he was
absolutely devastated at that and used to sit on board the Christina drinking and drinking and drinking, and really not being
particularly good to Jackie, as you can imagine. - [Pamela] Then somehow
he got it into his head, which may have come from his sisters or from his daughter Christina,
that Jackie was bad luck, that she was the black widow, that it was her fault that his son died. - [Rachael] Onassis
entered a terrible decline. By the time of his death
just two years later, the relationship with
Jackie was effectively over. The sisters were nearing middle age. By now, Lee's marriage to Polish
aristocrat Stash Radziwill had also ended in divorce. Still she struggled to
escape her sister's shadow. - Lee was not flighty, but she just went from thing to thing. Like, okay, first she's gonna
follow the Rolling Stones and be a photojournalist, but then she's gonna make a documentary, but then she's gonna be a decorator, but then she's gonna be an actress. I think it was hard for Lee. - Lee was really perceived
as a socialite in New York, somewhat aimless. She always had projects that
she was interested in doing, like a book project or some sort of cause, but nothing that ever really caught fire. And I think Jackie was just
much more in a steady place. (mid tempo music) - [Rachael] Following the
death of her second husband, Aristotle Onassis, Jackie again faced the task
of rebuilding her life. This time, however, would be different. Now 45, she decided she would
no longer rely on others to rescue or protect her, she would help herself. She would go back to work. - March of 1975 is an
incredible turning point in the life of Jacqueline Onassis, because it's the first
time in a really long time where she does not need to be defined by being a wife anymore. - She worked for two
different publishing houses, Viking and Doubleday, and both of them said she
was a brilliant editor. - [Tina C] She was done
being in the public eye. She had been through it
with JFK's assassination and then with Robert
Kennedy's death as well. And then, you know, the whole drama of being
married to Aristotle Onassis. She really wanted a quiet life and that was what book
publishing was offering her. - [Pamela] She was always known
as Jack Bouvier's daughter, JFK's wife, this was her own thing. - This was a woman who
did not need the money. This was a woman who was
searching for meaning in her life and appreciated how having
a career made you feel, made you feel appreciated,
made you feel needed, made you feel productive, and also she just loved the work. - [Rachael] Gradually,
Jackie found a measure of long sought-after peace. In the 1980s she began a new relationship with her financial advisor,
Maurice Tempelsman. He was steady and reliable but, most importantly, put Jackie first, quite the opposite of Kennedy and Onassis. It was Tempelsman as well who was instrumental in
securing Jackie's privacy. Even though Ron Galella had
been issued a restraining order in 1972, by 1980, he was clearly flouting it. Maurice reported him and
a second trial ensued, this would effectively
end Ron's obsession. - I admitted I was guilty. I faced $125,000 fine
or seven years in jail. So I said, "I'm gonna
surrender all of them, Jackie, John Jr, and Caroline Kennedy, for the rest of their lives." (soft emotive music) - [Rachael] Jackie lived
and worked in New York for the last 25 years of her life. She died of lymphatic cancer
on May the 19th, 1994, in her home in Manhattan
with her family around her. She took an active role in
the city she called home, saving Grand Central
Station from demolition and bringing the Temple of Dendur to the Metropolitan Museum. Every street and every building seems to have a story of Jackie to tell. And even long after her death, she lives on in the city,
never to be forgotten. - At her funeral, Senator Ted Kennedy, her brother-in-law, said "No one we knew had a better sense of self than Jackie." - [Sarah] I think people
really admired her and revered her as a historical figure and obviously a hard worker,
not just a rich leech. And I think she was immensely popular. - [Tina S] This was a woman of real depth, real intelligence, but a lot of people
couldn't get past her beauty and her jet-setting ways
and her dark sunglasses. I don't ever think she's
been given enough credit for really who she is. (soft music) - [Rachael] The story of
Lee Radziwill, however, is still being written. A constant in the New York social scene, she has also carved
out a niche for herself as a true fashion icon and still can be seen on
the front rows of catwalks around the globe. If Jackie was America's queen, then Lee is the closest
thing to royalty the US has. And no matter what she
does and where she travels, Jackie will always be with her. - I think there's always
that thing with sisters, you compare lives and so on, but they both admired each other. - It's interesting to think about them as a sisterhood legacy. They were very much foils of each other, I think they're very
different individuals, they led very different lives. Jackie will always be the
sister who was out front, Lee will always be the one
standing behind in the shadows, and I think they were both
ultimately comfortable with those positions. - I think, after Jackie's death, unfortunately, Lee became
and still is, you know, the thing she dreaded most. She's Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' sister, she is the sister of Jackie O. (dramatic music)
