It was no secret that John F. Kennedy had mistresses outside of his marriage. While it's not the most noble thing to do, and likely caused strain in his 10-year marriage to first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, he was still viewed as a good president before his untimely death.
Letters to one mistress were unveiled, and they seem to reveal a lot about the former president. The letters were written to a woman named Gunilla von Post, who was an aristocrat. It's believed that JFK met her right before his wedding day.
Gunilla knew how special the relationship was. So much, that prior to her death in 2011, she wrote a book about their relationship titled Love, Jack.
The pieces of history were sold for over $88,000. For fans of JFK, they're a worthy possession. The letters reveal a different side of him, and he made it quite apparent that his relationship with Gunilla was one he really treasured.
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According to CNN, the collection in full was eight pages. In those pages included one full letter and two shorter messages that were up for auction. While historians felt like the collection could easily sell for around $30,000, they likely had no clue that someone would buy them for close to triple that estimation.
The letters were written between 1955 and 1956. JFK served as president between 1961 and 1963, meaning that Gunilla knew him before his presidency, yet still during the period of his marriage. It's believed that Jackie Kennedy knew that her husband was unfaithful to her, but those who knew her personally feel as if they might have had a set arrangement.
"It was a marriage of its time," a family friend revealed to People. "At the end of the day, Jack came back to Jackie — and that was it. They loved each other. It was kinetic between them. She wasn’t trying to change him."
"She came from a world where that is what men did, and it was accepted," added author Pamela Clarke Keogh, who penned the book Jackie Style. While Jackie kept the secrets, it was likely tough to learn that her husband had emotional relationships with many of these women.
In one of the letters to Gunilla, JFK talks about a trip they took together to Sweden, which the auction description described in a tantalizing way. It's believed that this may have been the trip in which the couple "spent a very blissful and intimate week consummating the relationship." In the letter, he said he was "anxious" to see her again and referred to her as being "wonderful," which are both high compliments.
The auction house went even deeper into their relationship, reportedly stating that "efforts on Kennedy's behalf to end his marriage and to bring her to the United States" were "thwarted by his father, his political ambitions, and Kennedy's and von Post's mutual sensitivity to the miscarriage suffered by Jacqueline in 1955." While he likely did feel love for Jackie, it does seem as if the marriage may have been more troubled than people realized on the outside, even before his presidency.
One of the letters expresses displeasure at the fact that Gunilla was set to wed someone else, meaning that it's possible that JFK had truly hoped to leave Jackie for someone else. "I must say I was sad to learn that, after all, you are not coming to the U.S. and you are marrying a farmer," he wrote.
While Gunilla had made up her mind, the letters from the former president were very convincing, in regard to his intent. "I was planning to come back again next summer to see you…& now what will happen," he wrote. "In any case let me know what you are going to do. If you don't marry come over (to America) as I should like to see you. I had a wonderful time last summer with you. It is a bright memory of my life — you are wonderful and I miss you."
The couple only met one other time, according to the auction house. But they were with their married partners, and Gunilla was pregnant at the time. That doesn't mean that the two still didn't have a connection. In 2015, a jacket that JFK lent to Gunilla was auctioned off. By then, Gunilla had died.
Gunilla wasn't the only woman whom JFK connected with outside of his marriage, but the bond seemed to be one of the strongest. It makes his personal story even more interesting, but it also might make you wonder if Jackie was truly putting on a brave face the entire time. Or if she knew how strongly her husband felt about Gunilla.
As Cornelia Guest, whose mom was personal friends with Jackie Kennedy, told People, "It was all just, you turn the other cheek. For these women, if they ever did discuss [their husbands’ infidelities], it was more like, 'This is what’s going on; let's go out and get the kids and get on a horse.' They were much more pragmatic about the whole thing."
