John F. Kennedy’s affair with flight attendant, secret abortion revealed

Former President John F. Kennedy once pressured a woman he was having an affair with to undergo an abortion.

The bombshell revelation is included in the upcoming book “JFK: Public, Private, Secret” by J. Randy Taraborelli, which delves into the former president’s personal and public life.

The alleged affair was with a flight attendant named Joan Lundberg, whose unpublished memoir and diaries were shared with Taraborelli, excerpted in People.

Lundberg wrote that she met Kennedy, then-senator from Massachusetts, in 1956, when he was already married to Jackie Kennedy.

Lundberg, who was a single mother of two at the time, was 23 when she met the then-39-year-old in California.

She claimed that the two flirted briefly before Kennedy left for Italy for two weeks.

While he was cruising in Italy, Jackie gave birth to a stillborn daughter named Arabella. However, he did not immediately return to his wife’s side, which had Jackie reportedly considering divorce.

Despite the trauma, she was talked out of it by her father-in-law, Joe Kennedy, who offered her a hefty cash settlement for the birth of her first child.

In early September, John returned to Los Angeles and invited Lundberg to a dinner party at the home of his sister Pat and her husband, actor Peter Lawford.

Detailing the evening, Lundberg wrote that the future president “lit up the room.”

“People came over just to be near him, his energy magnetic. I thought, well of course, that’s the politician in him. But I soon realized that, no, that’s just who he is,” she wrote.

Later that night, the couple checked into a nondescript motel as “Mr. and Mrs. Robert Thompson.”

The sex that night was “wild,” she claimed.

“The next morning over breakfast, he unburdened himself,” Taraborelli writes. “His fears, his insecurities. It was as if she was so removed from his circle, he could share anything. According to what Joan later recalled, Jack admitted that he and Jackie were the product of ‘an arranged marriage’ and, as such marriages go, he said it was ‘fine. Not great, but okay.’”

The affair with Joan continued, despite Kennedy being talked about as a possible presidential candidate, with the politician flying her out to meet him.

Lundberg’s sister, Linda Lydon, told Taraborelli, “She told me, ‘I never worry about trouble when I’m with Jack because I pass for his sister, Pat, all the time.’”

Lundberg also claimed that Jackie knew about the affair because she’d confronted her husband about it.

“Your sister told me all about her!” Jackie said before Jack tried to explain that Lundberg was “someone he’d met in Los Angeles.”

Lundberg also writes that, after Jackie would reportedly ask her husband after sex, “What you do with me in bed, is that what she likes?” referring to the flight attendant.

However, things began to change after Jackie gave birth to Caroline Kennedy on Nov. 27, 1957.

But by June 1958, Lundberg called John with the news that she was pregnant.

He was not pleased and “told her she couldn’t have the baby” because “politics is all I know. If you take that away….”

He went on to send her money in an envelope, but it was empty when Lundberg received it. She told him the money had been stolen.

“He became positively unhinged,” Taraborelli writes. “Joan later wrote: “My God! You had never heard anybody use expletives so much in the whole history of Washington.” Jack was very clear; he didn’t want Joan to have the baby. He wired more money that same day, and she took care of things a day after that. She was angry and disappointed, but also realistic.”

After that, the affair ended for good.

The 35th President’s legacy has been marred for many years by stories of his extramarital relationships with dozens of women, including Marilyn Monroe.

The politician and his wife welcomed son John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1960 before she gave birth to Patrick Kennedy on Aug. 7, 1963. The newborn died just two days later.

John was assassinated shortly after in November 1963 at 46, while Jackie died in 1994 at the age of 64.