Was Jackie Kennedy a "victim" in her relationships with Jack Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis, or could her marriages more accurately be described as acts of self-preservation?

The Kennedy attitudes, says Sarah Bradford, reflected Irish tradition and divided women into two distinct groups, "procreational" and "recreational". Presumably falling into the former category, Jackie famously tolerated Jack's many affairs. But she seems to have loved him despite his frequent sexual liaisons. Her husband's presidency, however, seemed to give that love "a different dimension", as the extracts show.

Her attraction to the fantastically rich Onassis seemed not only a reflection of her "primeval fear of poverty", but he also seemed to fit the roguish, "piratical" image that appealed to her. Both men's attitudes towards women left a lot to be desired - but perhaps by ignoring these traits at the outset it was, in the end, all she deserved.

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