Jackie Kennedy battled an eating disorder that left her hospitalized and fighting for her life, a new book reveals.
In ‘Don’t ask: The Kennedys and the women they destroyed’DailyMail.com columnist Maureen Callahan details Jackie’s many health battles, from “eating disorders” to post-traumatic stress disorder after the assassination of her husband, President John F. Kennedy, in 1963, and a series of lost pregnancies.
While married to her second husband, Aristotle Onassis, Jackie “lost 24 pounds in nine days, started having panic attacks, and could barely stand,” Callahan writes, adding, “She ended up in the hospital.”
Jackie Kennedy battled an eating disorder that left her hospitalized and fighting for her life, a new book reveals.
In ‘Don’t Ask: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed,’ DailyMail.com columnist Maureen Callahan details Jackie’s many health battles, from ‘eating disorders’ to post-traumatic stress disorder after her husband’s murder, President John F. Kennedy, in 1963, and a series of lost pregnancies.
The extreme weight loss was apparently sparked by a National Enquirer cover that featured a photo of Jackie with her belly “looking distended.” The Enquirer’s headline read: “Is she pregnant or not?”
“Always a fan of her weight… Jackie went on a starvation diet,” Callahan writes. “Each day, she allowed herself only half a grapefruit, a little yogurt, 2½ ounces of meat, an apple, 3½ ounces of green vegetables, and a salad with no dressing.”
‘Do not ask’ The Mail publishes it exclusively in installments in a major series. Among Callahan’s many surprising revelations are details of Jackie’s numerous health problems.
In her ten years of marriage to JFK, who was serially unfaithful, Jackie suffered at least three miscarriages. She also suffered a stillbirth, and her son Patrick died at just two days old in 1963, months before JFK’s assassination in Dallas.
Jackie’s pregnancy problems were, Callahan reveals, “probably caused by all the sexually transmitted diseases (including asymptomatic chlamydia) that Jack had passed on to her.”
If left untreated or contracted recurrently, chlamydia can cause infertility.
Years after JFK’s death, Jackie was also diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. “His trauma to her was not only due to that day in Dallas, but also due to her marriage to Jack: her constant infidelities,” Callahan writes.