Before living in the White House with President John F. Kennedy, first lady Jacqueline “Jackie” Kennedy Onassis grew up surrounded by her brothers and sisters, including Hugh Jr., Lee, Nina and Janet.
Born to stockbroker John Vernou Bouvier III and Janet Norton Lee, Jackie was an only child until March 3, 1933, when her sister Caroline “Lee” Radziwill was born.
Jackie’s family got even bigger in 1942 when Janet, who split from Bouvier III in 1940, married Standard Oil heir Hugh D. Auchincloss, giving Jackie and Lee three new stepsiblings: Hugh “Yusha” D. Auchincloss Jr., Hugh Sr.’s son with ex-wife Maya de Chrapovitsky, and Thomas Gore Auchincloss and Nina Auchincloss Straight, whom Hugh Sr. shared with his second wife, Nina Gore.
Nina was particularly enchanted with her new big sister, telling The New York Times in 1981, “I traipsed after [Jackie] everywhere. … She remains an idol to me. She has great character, courage and discipline. She has been a good friend.”
Their family wasn’t yet complete, however: Janet and Hugh Sr. welcomed Jackie’s youngest sister Janet Jennings Auchincloss in 1945 and youngest brother James Lee Auchincloss in 1947.
Here’s everything to know about Jackie Kennedy’s siblings.
Jackie and Hugh Jr. were friends before their parents got married
Jackie Kennedy with her mother Janet Lee Auchincloss
Credit: Bettmann/Getty
As kids, Jackie and Hugh Jr. spent summers together before becoming siblings, as he recalled to NBC10 in November 2013.
After their parents married, they enjoyed the privileges of being the oldest two members of the Auchincloss/Bouvier clan.
“When she became part of the family, and my stepmother moved up here in the summer of 1943, everything got moved around,” Hugh Jr. recalled to The Providence Journal in 1999. “I moved up from the room downstairs. Since I was the eldest in the family, I had the first pick of the rooms.”
He continued, “Jackie was the second oldest so she got the second-best room, which is this room with its view of the Bay at sunset. She was always [in] the room next to me.”
Following his death of cancer at age 87 in June 2015, Hugh Jr.’s daughter Maya spoke to the Associated Press about her father’s connection to Jackie in his later years.
“They had a lot of respect for each other and whoever the other one was seeing, they would introduce and meet and get each other’s approval and advice about things,” she said.
Jackie and Lee often traveled together
Caroline Lee Bouvier and Jacqueline Bouvier on September 15, 1951 on a boat from Europe to the United States
Credit: Apic/Getty
Jackie and Lee, who referred to each other as “Jacks” and “Pekes,” were travel companions who first headed abroad together in 1951 when Lee was 18 years old.
According to Vanity Fair, the trip was a gift for Lee’s high school graduation, and a chance for Jackie to return to Paris, where she had studied abroad at Sorbonne.
“That summer was my first trip to Europe,” Lee recalled to The New York Times in October 2000. “Jackie was leading the way, as she had lived here for two years … It was such an organized trip. We had to call our mother all the time.”
In 1962, Lee accompanied her sister on her goodwill tour to India and Pakistan, where they rode elephants and ceremonial camels, Lee told The New York Times Magazine in February 2013.
Nina was Jackie’s maid of honor
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (left) with her sister Nina Auchincloss Straight (left) in New York City, circa 1981
Credit: Robert R McElroy/Getty
When Jackie wed JFK on Sept. 12, 1953, her sisters Lee and Nina were by her side as her matron of honor and maid of honor, respectively.
“I always viewed myself as Jackie’s ‘Sancho Panza’ or sidekick,” Nina told The Intelligent Collector. “I did the dirty work. We had so much fun. Ours was a very close relationship.”
Jackie opened up about the mutual respect she had for Nina — who worked as Washington bureau chief for the Chattanooga Times from 1963 until 1971 per the outlet — at a book launch for her novel Ariabella: The First in April 1981.
”I’ve been fond of [Nina] since she was 5 and came into the family,” Jackie told The New York Times. “I was 12 at the time. I regarded her as the cutest, most mischievous little girl I’d ever seen. She made our small family a large family.”
Jackie and Janet wed in the same church
John Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier at their wedding in 1953
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Thirteen years after Jackie and JFK said their “I dos,” Jackie’s younger sister Janet tied the knot at the same location.
Janet wed financier Lewis Polk Rutherford at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Newport, R.I., on July 31, 1966, as reported by The New York Times.
Jackie and JFK’s daughter Caroline served as one of Janet’s flower girls, alongside Lee’s daughter Anna Christina and Hugh Jr.’s daughter Maya.
John F. Kennedy Jr., Lee’s son Anthony Radziwill, Hugh Jr.’s son Cecil Lyon Auchincloss, Thomas’s son Thomas Gore Auchincloss Jr. and Nina’s sons Ivan and Hugh Steers, meanwhile, acted as pages.
Jackie’s brother Hugh Jr. got along with JFK
Jackie’s older brother Hugh Jr. was not only close to the first lady, but to her late husband as well.
According to his daughter Maya, the two men hit it off after being introduced by Jackie over dinner, despite her misgivings about their opposing political parties.
“She was living in Washington and invited my father over for dinner this wonderful evening,” Maya recounted to the Associated Press. “She [told Hugh Jr.], ‘Now, you should remember Jack’s a Democrat and you’re a Republican. Be careful what you say.’ ”
She continued, “But it went very smoothly. She made a nice dinner, and [Hugh Jr.] made drinks that then became a favorite of Jack’s.”
Jackie had at least 12 nieces and nephews
President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy with their extended family at the White House in Washington, D.C. on December 25, 1962
Credit: John F. Kennedy Library/Courtesy of Getty
In addition to being a mother to Caroline and John F. Kennedy Jr., Jackie was an aunt to her brothers’ and sisters’ children, of which there are at least 12.
Her oldest brother, Hugh Jr., had two children, twins Maya and Cecil, according to The Newport Daily News.
Lee welcomed son Anthony and daughter Anna Christina with her ex-husband Prince Stanislas “Stash” Radziwill. Notably, JFK was Anna Christina’s godfather, according to The Clarion-Ledger.
Anthony went on to become an award-winning TV producer and married his wife Carole Radziwill in 1994. He died at age 40 from cancer on Aug. 10, 1999, and Carole later joined The Real Housewives of New York.
Nina and her first husband, politician Newton Ivan Steers Jr., welcomed three sons together: Hugh, Ivan and Burr.
Hugh was a figurative painter whose work has been exhibited in the Whitney Museum of Modern Art, per The New York Times. Meanwhile, Burr is an actor who starred in the 1994 flick Pulp Fiction and directed 2009’s 17 Again.
Jackie’s younger brother Thomas, meanwhile, shared two children, Diana Luise and Thomas Gore Jr., with ex-wife Diana Lippert.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Jackie’s youngest sister Janet and Rutherford had three kids: sons Lewis and Andrew and daughter Alexandra.
Jackie was at Janet’s bedside in her last days
Though Janet lived in Hong Kong for much of her married life, teaching French at Chinese University until 1968 and helping to found the first overseas chapter of the League of Women Voters in Hong Kong in 1979, she remained close to her sister.
When Janet died of cancer at the age of 39 in 1985, the Los Angeles Times reported that Jackie, who had regularly visited her half-sister in life, was at her bedside.
Jackie and her children Caroline and JFK Jr. were also in attendance for Janet’s intimate funeral, which took place at Trinity Church in Newport, R.I.
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