IF JFK was in the White House now, his extra curricular activities would likely be public knowledge during his term in office and in today’s “Me Too” era, one wonders how it would play out. Now, more than 60 years on, one of his alleged mistresses is speaking out.

 

Who is she?

Diana de Vegh is now an 83-year-old grandmother of two who is registered blind.

 

But decades ago…?

She was a college student in a Boston ballroom in 1958 listening to the future 35th US president, John F Kennedy, deliver a campaign speech that electrified the crowd. Ms de Vegh says that he told her afterward, “Give me your seat, so a tired old man can sit next to a pretty girl”, before inviting her to an event a few days later.

 

And then?

The New York-based psychotherapist says it was the beginning of an affair that continued on and off for the following four years. At the outset of which, JFK was already married - to Jacqueline Bouvier in 1953 - and a father - his daughter Caroline was born in 1957.

 

She says it was love?

She has written for the first time of her alleged affair in digital weekly Air Mail News: “I was 20 years old, with a full supply of hormones and madly in love with this compelling man.” She revealed that in 1962, the then-president realised Miss de Vegh’s father was a little too close for comfort - a Hungarian economist he had been consulting with at the White House - and the relationship ended.

 

So why is she speaking out now?

JFK’s love life remained under wraps and nothing more than tittle-tattle during his life, with Miss de Vegh keeping her counsel through the years until her new online article. She told People magazine this week that she “eventually began to question the culture…a culture that concretised the gap between 'accomplished men' and young women who can be brought in and out, a conveyor belt of young women.” She added: “I’m not here to throw dirt at a dead man, but I am here to say the culture is incredibly problematic.”

 

So, was there a “conveyor belt”?

It later emerged Kennedy had a string of affairs and liaisons with women ranging from White House interns to famous actresses, including Angie Dickinson and Marilyn Monroe.

 

As for The Kennedy legend?

Interest in JFK and “Camelot” endures through the ages; Camelot being the glamorous nickname given to the Kennedy Administration. In a 1963 interview for Life magazine in the days after her husband’s assassination at the age of just 46, Jackie referenced a line from the Lerner and Loewe Camelot musical, saying: "There'll be great Presidents again…but there'll never be another Camelot.”

 

In fact…?

In a sign of the level of interest remaining, a sperm whale tooth that was displayed on JFK's Oval Office desk sold for $50,000 on RR Auction online on Saturday.