Socialite and younger sister of Jackie Kennedy
Born: March 3, 1933;
Born: February 15, 2019
LEE Radziwill, who has died aged 85, was a socialite and younger sister of former US first lady Jackie Kennedy. She shared her older sister's affinity for fashion and globe-trotting, as well as her dark, wide-set eyes and high cheekbones.
The sisters were confidantes as young women, and Ms Radziwill was a frequent guest at the White House during President John F Kennedy's administration. She was with the president when he made a trip to London in 1961 and Mr Kennedy was godfather to Ms Radziwill's daughter, Anna Christina.
The Kennedys and Radziwills spent Christmases together in Palm Beach, Florida, and the sisters travelled to India and Pakistan.
Ms Radziwill helped select the wardrobe for what became one of Jackie's signature moments - her trip to Paris with her husband in 1961.
"She had to travel a lot and liked to have me with her," Ms Radziwill wrote in Happy Times, a memoir published in 2001, seven years after her sister's death. "Apart from mutual affection, I think our strongest bond was a shared sense of humour."
But tensions emerged after Mr Kennedy's assassination in 1963. Ms Radziwill had worried that her brother-in-law's ascent would overshadow her and said that her life during the JFK years was "empty, cold, and not true".
In 1968, Jackie wed the Greek billionaire Aristotle Onassis, whom Ms Radziwill had once thought of marrying, only to have her sister urge her not to.
Ms Radziwill's life apart from her sister was eventful. She married a prince, Stanislas Radziwill of Poland, and had two children, Anthony and Anna Christina.
There were friendships with Ms Steinem, Rudolf Nureyev, Andy Warhol and Truman Capote, whom she joined for a 1972 Rolling Stones tour. "I can see how people found him (Mick Jagger) sexy," she told interviewer Sofia Coppola for the New York Times. "But I found him a little repulsive."
She began work on a film with collage artist and photographer Peter Beard about her childhood in East Hampton, New York. But after a few creative evolutions, and the introduction of filmmakers Albert and David Maysles, it became Grey Gardens, the classic documentary about her eccentric aunt and cousin. Edith Bouvier Beale and her eponymous daughter were immortalised in the 1975 release, later a Broadway musical and Emmy-winning HBO movie.
Ms Radziwill also made forays into interior decorating and fashion event planning. A brief, unhappy acting career in the 1960s proved she was best at playing Lee Radziwill, with critics panning her work in a stage production of The Philadelphia Story and a TV adaptation of the Otto Preminger film Laura.
It seemed at times that tragedy followed tragedy. In the aftermath of the death of her beloved nephew, John F Kennedy Jr on July 16 1999, her own son died of cancer less than a month later, on August 10, at age 40.
Her 10-year marriage to Herbert Ross, her third husband, ended that year as well. The choreographer and award-winning director of Funny Girl and Steel Magnolias died in 2001.
Her first marriage was to Michael Canfield in 1953. The marriage ended in divorce and was later annulled. Mr Canfield died in 1969.
She married Mr Radziwill, a descendent of Polish royalty who became an English subject, in 1959. They divorced in 1974 and he died nearly two years later.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here