Like her husbands, Jackie Kennedy Onassis was appalling

Details in "Jackie: Public. Private. Secret." paint a portrait of a complicated person. But it is often not a flattering picture.

Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. offered Jackie Kennedy $100,000—the equivalent of $1 million today—for a first child she would carry “to term.” The phrase “to term” being key because Jackie had suffered multiple miscarriages. Joseph Kennedy wasn’t going to cut a check for a stillbirth.

Jackie was threatening to divorce John. F. Kennedy. He had continued multiple affairs while barely keeping it a secret. Jackie contracted an STD during the first few weeks of a pregnancy and knew JFK had given it to her. She wondered if the STD had contributed to the stillbirth of the child.

When Jackie suffered the miscarriage, JFK wasn’t there. He was on a private cruise off the coast of Italy. Many of his fellow travelers were women. He decided not to end his questionable cruise early to be there for his wife, and this was the last straw. Jackie and her parents had already met with a divorce lawyer.

But she could be bribed into carrying JFK’s child and staying in the marriage. The family lawyers drew up the papers and Jackie signed.

These rich and disturbing details are just some of the insights in J. Randy Taraborelli’s “Jackie: Public. Private. Secret.” The New York Times bestseller was drawn from “hundreds of interviews with friends, family and lovers” over a 30-year period.

With a compelling narrative that weaves intriguing anecdotes and new reporting, Taraborelli sheds light on the darker details of a revered figure in American life.

A material girl. Living in a material world.

A few months after her husband was assassinated, Jackie Kennedy Onassis lobbied the Kennedy family for more financial support. She was barely getting by on the $150,000 per year she received from a trust fund created by JFK and the additional $50,000 she received from the government.

The combined $200,000 annually is roughly $1.7 million in today’s money.

Jackie had a 14-room penthouse on Park Avenue in New York City across from Central Park. She also had a 4,500 sq. ft. second home on the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.

Within these lavish living quarters, she had a large staff to cater to her every whim. The following is a description of the upkeep of her home(s):

Her white tiled bathroom floor had to be shined three times a day. Night gowns were worn just once, washed and ironed, and then put into rotation. A menu appeared every day for all three meals. Her leather gloves were cleaned after every use with a toxic fluid, and then spread out on a crisp, white towel and massaged with baby powder for softness. She had at least 200 pairs of high heels and boots, and every time she wore a pair, it was quickly polished for the next time.

Clearly, times were tough. Bobby Kennedy eventually relented and offered an additional $50,000. The average annual salary in 1964 was about $4,000.

Money was important to Jackie. It was a big reason why she married JFK. It was why she agreed to stay in both marriages after all their affairs. Money was also a reason she ended relationships. When she learned the man she’d had a relationship with for nearly two years was in considerable debt, she ended things. She simply stopped returning his calls.

It was no secret Jackie had expensive tastes and was accustomed to a certain lifestyle. Even the White House wouldn’t do. “I absolutely hate it,” she said through tears after her first visit to the White House. “I’m sorry, but I refuse to live there.” When asked how bad it could be—it was the White House—Jackie replied, “It looks like a Holiday Inn decorated with wholesale furniture by some suburban woman during a clearance sale.” (You can view photos of the inside of the Eisenhower White House and decide for yourself if it resembles a Holiday Inn.)

Jackie even called JFK to ask if she could just visit the White House during the day, but still live in one of her family’s estates—at least until the White House was refurbished to her liking. JFK said no. “It figures,” Jackie said. “Why would he ever do anything to make me happy?”

Decades later, when her son, JFK Jr., began dating the pop idol Madonna, Jackie questioned why he must go out with a woman who called herself a “material girl.”

“Oh really, Mummy?” JFK Jr. replied. “Who in the world is more materialistic than you?”

Money can’t buy love. But it can buy marriage.

Even after the $250,000 annual stipend from the Kennedy trust funds and government pension, Jackie continued to have financial troubles until she married her second husband, the Greek business titan Aristotle Onassis. He was among the wealthiest men in the world. And he could provide security. Beyond that, it’s not clear love was part of the equation.

Jackie and Aristotle had an agreement: Jackie was not attracted to Aristotle and was not interested in sex being part of the relationship. She would allow Aristotle to carry on an affair with his mistress, Maria Callas. It appeared they both got what they wanted out of the marriage: he got the bragging rights of being married to Jackie O. and access to her wealthy and powerful social circle, she got the wealth and security she always craved.

During the final years of her second marriage, she lived in New York City with her own life while her husband lived in Greece. She was often seen about town dancing with Peter Beard, an attractive photographer to the stars. In her New York City penthouse, she still hung a large photo of JFK that greeted visitors. Toward the end, Aristotle felt taken advantage of.

When Aristotle was on his deathbed in a Paris hospital, Jackie flew in to see him. But she had to quickly return to New York for a party she was throwing for a documentary she had helped with. Although she intended to fly back after the party, Aristotle died before she could return.

She inherited $25.5 million from Onassis (roughly $150 million today).

“Men who honor their principles and values”

After Ted Kennedy entered the 1980 presidential race, Jackie overheard an acquaintance state, “the last thing this country needs is another Kennedy.” Jackie could not let this outrageous statement stand. “You have a problem with men who honor their principles and values?”

And just what were those principles and values? After all, in defending Ted Kennedy, Jackie was defending a man who got drunk, drove home with a woman who was not his wife, crashed into a lake and then left her to drown. He never faced any consequences. And was now—barely more than a decade later—running to be president of the United States.

Like his brothers, JFK had affairs—with multiple women—who came in and out of the White House, many aided by the Secret Service. One of his mistresses—who called JFK at the White House more than 70 times—had ties to the mob. JFK named his brother to be his attorney general. Bobby Kennedy was 35! RFK is remembered as a champion of civil rights, but as attorney general, he approved wiretaps on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The patriarch of the political dynasty, Joseph Kennedy Sr., served as U.S. ambassador to the U.K. during the lead-up to World War II. He’s the guy who tried to appease Hitler.

The whole idea of Camelot is a myth. JFK is revered more because of what happened to him on November 22, 1963, than because of anything he did in the 2.5 years before. And no one worked harder to promote the mythology of Camelot than Jackie. She authorized a book about JFK, “The Death of a President,” but then sued to have it canceled before the book was even published. It wasn’t that the book was inaccurate. Bobby Kennedy had read and approved, unlike Jackie who hadn’t read the full manuscript.

Over the years, Jackie fought with many other authors—and any family member who corroborated with them—over books written about her and JFK. She largely estranged herself from her brother, Jamie, after he cooperated with an author for a book. They had once been very close.

Other people’s lives should be revealed, just not her own

All this wrestling with authors and journalists made her final years all the more ironic.

Having spent years fighting against books that revealed too much about her life—or revealed anything but a whitewashed sense of history—Jackie spent her final years as an editor for a major book publisher, Doubleday. Her role was to acquire and shepherd books from and about major figures, ideally sharing revealing details about their lives.

It was during this period that the author of “Jackie” and the real-life Jackie crossed paths. Of course, Jackie would have no idea the conversation would appear in a revealing biography about herself, written by the person sitting across her desk. As Taraborrelli sat in her office, discussing public figures they had known, Jackie made a striking observation:

“Like it or not, a person’s secrets are what makes any biography worthwhile.”