Bombshell JFK E book Finds ‘Wild’ Romance with Flight Attendant Joan Lundberg — Alongside with Her Pregnancy and What Jackie Knew (Queer)

NEED TO KNOW

• A bombshell unusual e book, JFK: Public, Private, Secret by J. Randy Taraborrelli, comes out July 15 and PEOPLE has an recurring first excerpt

• It reveals that JFK had an affair with a flight attendant named Joan Lundberg, main to her pregnancy

• Under, read what took region — and the draw in which Jackie reacted to her husband’s affairs

Joan Lundberg used to be “one among a form,” says her son Zachary Hitchcock. “She used to be unconventional and self reliant — a voluptuous elegance with an fabulous smile.”

In step with a bombshell unusual biography, JFK: Public, Private, Secret by J. Randy Taraborrelli, the young flight attendant met JFK in 1956 when he used to be a senator from Massachusetts — and married. It’s a chunk of-known chapter in the life of the thirty fifth president and could perchance also want remained that diagram had been it no longer for Lundberg’s family, who shared her unpublished memoir and internal most diaries with Taraborrelli.

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The author tells her fable intimately for the vital time in his unusual e book, a follow-as a lot as his 2023 biography, Jackie: Public, Private Secret. Says Taraborrelli, “With this e book, I needed no longer to protect JFK but I needed to point him.”

“Joan used to be an fabulous revelation for me,” the author provides. “She acted as his therapist in some ways. Because she used to be outdoors of his Washington circle, he opened as a lot as her — and began to reckon with his flaws.” By weaving Lundberg’s fable and parts of her manuscript into his unusual e book, he says, “You’re left with a portrait of a extremely attention-grabbing girl.”

Learn extra below, in an excerpt from JFK: Public, Private, Secret shared exclusively with PEOPLE.

On August 19, 1956, the senator from Massachusetts met Joan Lundberg, 23, standing in entrance of the jukebox at The Sip and Surf, a dive bar in Santa Monica, Calif. “What are you gonna play?” he requested her. “I used to be thinking Elvis Presley, but what would you love to hear?” she requested. He stated he needed to hear one thing “so I pays consideration to you.” Corny, but no longer sinful.

Joan, a single mom of two, used to be then residing with a man named Norm Bishop and working as a flight attendant for Frontier Airways (and as a cocktail waitress on the facet).

When Jack requested where she lived, she told him it used to be in a “trailer court docket nearby,” no longer hesitating. “What the hell’s a trailer court docket?” he requested. She laughed and answered, “You don’t must know.”

After about 15 minutes Jack, then 39, stated goodbye and returned to his guests.

Half an hour later, bar owner Pat Dorian referred to as her to the cell phone. She picked it up. “How ah ya?” came succor the disclose with its tremendous Bostonian accent. It used to be Jack. He used to be leaving metropolis the next day for Italy but would return in two weeks.

On Aug. 24 Jack came across out Jackie, then 27, had given birth to their stillborn daughter Arabella. Four days later he returned to Hammersmith Farm, her family’s property in Newport, R.I., where she used to be recuperating — and fed up.

She’d consistently felt one thing used to be lacking in his nature, and now she knew what it used to be: empathy. When Jackie wept at the breakfast table and stated, “How could perchance also I admire been so insensible?” her mom, Janet, reached out and took her hand. “You’re no longer insensible,” she told her. “You correct save your belief in the pass person.”

In early September, Jack returned to L.A. and invited Joan to a dinner celebration at the dwelling of his sister Pat and her husband, actor Peter Lawford.

Joan later remembered feeling insecure and out of her facet, although she with out a doubt regarded classy in an outfit from Jax in Beverly Hills, a boutique most in trend by Marilyn Monroe. She would later write: “He lit up the room. Other folks came over correct to be end to him, his energy magnetic. I idea, effectively in spite of the entire lot, that’s the flesh presser in him. But I rapidly realized that, no, that’s correct who he is.”

At about hour of darkness, Jack drove Joan up Pacific Waft Toll road to a nondescript Thirties motor court docket referred to as the Sunset Motel. They checked in as “Mr. and Mrs. Robert Thompson.” The sex that evening used to be “wild,” claimed Joan. The next morning over breakfast, he unburdened himself. His fears, his insecurities. It used to be as if she used to be so a ways flung from his circle, he could perchance also portion the relaxation. In step with what Joan later recalled, Jack admitted that he and Jackie had been the fabricated from “an arranged marriage” and, as such marriages stoop, he stated it used to be “comely. No longer tremendous, but okay.”

Jack stated his family had became against him for no longer being there for Jackie after Arabella’s stillbirth.

He admitted that “We Kennedys aren’t the finest at expressing emotion.” Joan told him, “I’ll bet that’s the tremendous excuse of your life.” Joan requested him if he’d grown to love his important other. He hesitated. “I don’t know that I love the relaxation,” used to be his solution. That could perchance perhaps’t be correct, she stated. After a moment, he added, “I love politics. I don’t know solutions to love the relaxation else.”

Jack Kennedy had no sooner walked into the foyer of Hammersmith Farm upon his return to Newport when Jackie hit him with an remark: “Who’s Trailer Park Joan?” As he serene his thoughts, she clarified issues: “The divorcée! Your sister told me all about her!” He defined that Joan used to be anyone he’d met in Los Angeles. Joan is imprecise in her unpublished memoir about how noteworthy Jack told Jackie, handiest that he told her comely noteworthy the entire lot.

Within weeks his father, Joe Kennedy, purchased a name from a high Fresh York legal professional who’d been retained to picture Jackie in a divorce. Joe met Jackie for lunch in Fresh York to focus on it.

Joe told Jackie that if she agreed to preserve in the wedding he could perchance also give her the freedom to cease whatever she liked. He would supply her $100,000 upon the birth of her and Jack’s first miniature one.

Jackie permitted the supply but had to discover a diagram to contend with her husband’s infidelity.

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A protracted time later, Jackie told architect John Carl Warnecke, “He didn’t must lie to me about this Joan girl. I used to be already mendacity to myself.” Warnecke recalled, “She told me issues changed for her when Jack became provocative with Joan but that it wasn’t a enviornment she needed to gather into. It used to be very painful, that noteworthy I knew.”

By 1957 JFK used to be being talked about as a presidential contender. In internal most he persisted his affair with Joan, flying her to meet him on different airways and covering her charges.

“She told me, ‘I by no diagram apprehension about trouble when I’m with Jack on fable of I stoop for his sister, Pat, the entire time,’ ” stated Joan’s sister, Linda Lydon. Joan later recalled that she and Jack purchased alongside effectively, “excluding normal lovers’ tiffs between two high-engaging folks.” They on the total mentioned his political occupation, with him taking off sentences with, “After I’m president . . .”

One evening in Could additionally just (1957) Jack and Joan had been sharing a cigarette in bed when he with out warning requested her, “Snort me the true fact, Joan. Kind you watched Jackie is screwing other guys?” He defined that Jackie used to be “so tremendous,” he couldn’t factor in her no longer having one more person in her life. Before the entire lot of the twelve months, he stated, they’d began having sex on occasion, but “there’s too noteworthy left unspoken between us.” No longer too prolonged ago after having sex, she’d requested him, “What you cease with me in bed, is that what she likes?” clearly which diagram Joan. He could perchance also perceive the “damage in her eyes,” he stated, “and it killed me.”

After Jackie gave birth to Caroline on Nov. 27, Joan seen a alternate.

She later wrote: “I disclose I used to be now very noteworthy in love, and I used to be so enraged at myself on fable of I knew better. I knew better!” While Jack and Joan would all another time portion their bed in Minneapolis on April 25 and 26, 1958, issues had been indubitably different.

On June 25, per her calendar, Joan referred to as Jack.

She used to be pregnant.

Joan would recall that her news about the toddler used to be “like a knife to Jack’s heart.” While it used to be a shock, Joan wrote that they shouldn’t admire been so bowled over: “I didn’t like carrying a diaphragm, and Jack wouldn’t wear a rubber,” she wrote. Jack couldn’t abet but shock if Joan had purposely planned the pregnancy provided that she’d seen his devotion to Jackie after Caroline’s birth. He also questioned if he used to be in actuality the daddy, and Joan assured him he used to be. When he requested her how she felt about the pregnancy, she stated she cherished the two young folks she used to be elevating on her admire and knew she’d also love any miniature one she and Jack introduced into the arena. He didn’t know solutions to acknowledge.

“I don’t admire any words,” he stated.

“Receive some,” she told him.

He took each and each her hands in his admire. “I’m so very sorry, Joan,” he told her. “I’m, too,” she stated.

Later that summer they had a nerve-racking cell phone name.

Sounding edgy and no longer like himself, he told her he’d decided she couldn’t admire the toddler. Joan tried to argue, but she didn’t know the draw. Jack stated that he’d mail her $400.

He told her, “You’ll know what to cease, Joan. Please,” he stated, his tone desperate. “Being a flesh presser is who I’m,” he told her. “Politics is all I know. If you rob that away . . .” His disclose trailed off. Before she could perchance also acknowledge, he disconnected the motorway.

A week later she purchased an envelope with out a return take care of. It used to be empty. She told him the money had been stolen.

He became positively unhinged. Joan later wrote: “My God! You had by no diagram heard any one use expletives so noteworthy in the total historical previous of Washington.” Jack used to be very obvious; he didn’t want Joan to admire the toddler. He wired extra money that very same day, and he or she took care of issues a day after that. She used to be furious and upset, but additionally realistic.

“From what she later told me, Mom realized the celebration used to be over,” stated Zachary Hitchcock in 2024. “She couldn’t be on the sidelines. The presidency, Jackie, the abortion, there used to be no diagram mom could perchance also very effectively be marginalized in that diagram. She had diagram too noteworthy pleasure.”

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It ended no longer in person but on the cell phone. When Jack referred to as Joan to verify on her, she told him, “I’m going to must save a ways between us.” He understood. “I owe you so noteworthy,” he told her. “One thing I must assert to you, Kennedy,” she told him. “You are provocative on Caroline, and I know that, but I’m anyone’s daughter, too. Endure in thoughts that the subsequent time you contend with a lady the diagram you’ve treated me.”

On Nov. 8, 1960, he became the thirty fifth president. His relationship with Joan by no diagram came to gentle. But Jackie did install a peep, a lady she advisable for a job in the region of industrial of JFK’s internal most secretary Evelyn Lincoln, to preserve her posted of suspicious calls.

From all on hand proof, Jackie by no diagram came across out about the abortion, both. A protracted time later, she told a member of the family, “I used to be doing my handiest with the cards I’d been dealt. I cherished Jack. I know he cherished me. I had to push apart the relaxation of it. My marriage used to be like a deep dusky hole and I knew if I regarded down, I’d tumble in.”

Kennedy had a telling dialog with his friend Florida senator George Smathers in early 1962. “Kind you apprehension Jackie will discover about the other ladies folk?” George requested. Jack became straight away frustrated. “There are likely to be now not any other ladies folk. I’ve by no diagram told any other girl I love her. There is handiest Jackie. Apart from,” he stated, “we could perchance also all be blown up in an atomic war the next day. That’s what worries me. No longer this bullshit.”

After their son Patrick died on Aug. 9, 1963, two days after being born upfront, Jackie decided to sprint with her husband to Dallas that November.

A few months earlier, at the celebration of their tenth marriage ceremony anniversary, Jackie and Jack gave every other items. She presented him with a unusual St. Christopher’s medal on fable of he’d placed his admire in Patrick’s coffin. In flip, he gave her a gold-and-emerald ring, which represented the battling spirit of the Irish he’d seen of their son’s fight for survival. He slipped it onto Jackie’s finger subsequent to her marriage ceremony band and requested her to marry him. There’d by no diagram been a accurate proposal, excluding for just a few words in an airport when she returned from her stoop back and forth to England in 1953. Jack used to be a unfamiliar man.

They planned a internal most ceremony to renew their vows for September 1964 at Hammersmith,
marking their 11th marriage ceremony anniversary. Jackie planned to wear a faded blue or yellow dress.
But it by no diagram came to stoop.

Joan (who had married Freemont Hitchcock in 1963) used to be devastated by the assassination. She wrote: When the true fact struck dwelling, I closed my bed room curtains and shades, and I cried, screamed, and cursed by myself for hours.

Excerpted from JFK: Public, Private, Secret, copyright © 2025 by J. Randy Taraborrelli, with permission from St. Martin’s Press.

JFK: Public, Private, Secret comes out July 15 and is on hand now for preorder, wherever books are purchased.

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