Jackie O: INSIDE HER PRIVATE HELL

A shocking new book reveals the agonizing pain Jackie Kennedy endured behind closed doors

- Jackie Kennedy

She was powerless to save him as the shots rang out. In the moments after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated at 46 while being driven through Dallas in 1963, his wife, Jacqueline, cradled him in her arms, her pink Chanel suit covered in blood and brains. In the years that followed, she experienced excruciating, pulsating neck pain that sometimes made it difficult to get out of bed — agony she attributed to nerve damage suffered as she gripped Jack’s shattered head in her lap, a new book reveals. She was also diagnosed with PTSD.

But JFK’s horrific death isn’t the only thing that caused her trauma. In the bombshell book Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed, out July 2, author Maureen Callahan delves into an American dynasty and Jackie’s private hell, revealing that the former first lady’s psychological turmoil was fueled not only by a violent act but also by JFK’s “constant infidelities.” The world Jackie inhabited “was steeped in power, glamour and wealth,” says an insider, “but her life was more deeply marred by pain and tragedy — some of her own making — than anyone realized.”