by Mimi Alford
First published 2012
Mimi Alford breaks decades of silence to reveal her extraordinary secret. In 1962, she was an eighteen-year-old White House intern, naive and unprepared for the powerful world she had entered. She had attended the same elite school as Jackie Kennedy, but nothing could have prepared her for what happened next. Within four days of starting her internship, President John F. Kennedy initiated a sexual relationship with her. The affair lasted eighteen months, ending only with his assassination in November 1963. For over forty years, Alford kept this secret, even as countless JFK biographers and historians chronicled the president's other relationships. Her name appeared in just one passing reference in a book, leading a reporter to track her down in 2006 as a married grandmother living in New York. Now she tells her full story, examining not just the relationship itself but its profound impact on her subsequent life, her long silence, and her decision to finally speak out.
Genres: biography, 20th-century, memoir, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: power-dynamics, secrets
Setting: White House
Period: 1962, 1963
198 pages · Hardcover · Random House
Content warnings: sexual-content