Photo credit: Courtesy of Dr. Alma Bond
“I think she was a very wonderful woman and I do not think the people in the United States really saw her for the unique person she was. She was her own person,” said Dr. Alma Bond referring to Jackie O in an interview with Hollywood on the Potomac.
“She was not the standard First Lady at all. For instance, she was supposed to be at a party given for her mother and she never showed up. People said to her mother, “Where is Jackie?” and she said, “She is walking her dog.”
Dr. Alma Bond is a psychoanalyst who was in private practice for 37 years. She is the author of 20 published books and currently producing an “On the Couch” series beginning with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
Jackie O: On the Couch is the story of Jackie Kennedy Onassis as she might have written it highlighting Jackie’s life from her own perspective, as imagined by author Dr. Alma Bond, long-time student of Jackie lore. The facts are all historically correct, as are the ideas, the Washington intrigue and politics, and the examination of the role of women in society and in the White House.
We were obviously curious to know why if the book is based on historical facts, why a novel and not non-fiction. “It is a novel because I am a psychoanalyst and I try to get inside Jackie’s head – and the book is really what I think she thinks and thought and felt; and the book is as I think she would have written it,” she told us. And we also assume that it has to be a novel since the author never really had Jackie O on the couch.
Photo credit: ohumanholiday.blogspot.com
The book delves into her childhood and explores how and why Jackie became the person she was. It also explores the Kennedys and how John F. Kennedy’s background affected his marriage; Jackie’s deep love for Jack, his early inattentiveness, their difficulties together, his outrageous womanizing, happy times at the White House and the tragedy of his assassination-all are viewed through Jackie’s eyes.
“When I retired I did not want to give up my work so I continued on a fictitious level and so far people seem to think, who knew her, seem to think I really got into her head,” Bond said.
We asked her to talk about the difference between the three major men in her life: JFK, Ari Onassis and Maurice Tempelsman.
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“Oh, that is a good question,” she remarked. “I think she was madly in love with Jack. I think that Jack was the love of her life and that after he died, she made do. After Jack died, Bobby Kennedy was a great social support to her, but when he was killed, she became frantic. She said, “They are out to kill Kennedys. They are going to go after my children next!” Aristotle Onassis was a safe retreat for her. That is number one, but that is I think, not the main reason she married him. Jack, with all his shenanigans with women, was really considered a very poor lover. Aristotle Onassis was exactly the opposite. He was a magnificent lover to both Maria Callas and to Jackie. As a result, their early years together were fabulously happy.”
We asked her about her relationship with Maurice Tempelsman. “Maurice Tempelsman was an older Jewish man. He looked like somebody’s obese uncle and nobody would ever have paired Jackie up with him, but he was kind to her. He was loving. He took the money that Onassis left her and he made her a multimillionaire. He stayed with her all the time. He made her last years when she had non-Hodgkin’s disease as happy as anybody possibly could and I think out of all the men in of her life, strangely enough, that was the most successful liaison.
Dr. Alma Bond
When she accepted her battle with her illness, how does one come to accept that outcome? “That is quite a question. She denied it for the longest time. She said, – Doctor, that’s impossible. I am a strong, healthy woman. I have exercised all my life. I have eaten well. You must be wrong! The doctor sent her to someone else and of course, the diagnosis was verified. It took her a long time, but eventually she had no choice but to accept it. As to how one accepts it, I cannot answer that. I think I would have trouble myself.”
Had she not been First Lady, how do you think her life would have been different, we asked?
Photo credit: Cecil Stoughton – Courtesy of JFK Library in Boston
“I think in the last part of the book, I talk about how she became an editor for 20 years which was the only job she ever really had except as a photojournalist. I think that what she did when she became an editor was what she would have done if she had not been First Lady and I really think that suited her better. I think that being First Lady was not an exact fit for her and I really think she was much happier later on in her life when she became an editor.”
The author is currently working on her series and looking forward to her On the Couch with Marilyn Monroe. And, taking a little time out.
