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More fascinating was the speculation on the eligible bachelors whom Jackie dated. In the forefront was Britain's Lord Harlech, 50, the former David Ormsby-Gore, who was British ambassador to Washington during John Kennedy's presidency. A handsome widower, he escorted Jackie to Cambodia and the ruins of Angkor Wat last year, and to many his urbane manner and aristocratic bearing suggested a perfect match. Others felt he was too lenient with his quasi-hippie children, and far too "old shoe" for swinging Jackie, whom few could imagine as the doyenne of a damp and ancient mansion in Wales. Other potential husbands seemed even less likely: Antonio Garrigues y Diaz Canabate, at 64 a widower and the Spanish Ambassador to the Vatican, who escorted Jackie through Rome last year; Director Mike Nichols, 36, who offered amusing nights at the theater and clever chatter; Sportsman-Editor George Plimpton, 41, who was recently married.
Acquisitive Mania
It fell to a few movie magazines to suggest strongly that Onassis was a possible spouse—which suggests that perhaps movie magazines should be considered more seriously. Jackie, at the urging of her sister Princess Lee Radziwill, a close friend of Ari's, had cruised on his yacht in 1963, shortly after the death of her infant son, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy. Onassis was one of the first non-clan visitors she received after J.F.K.'s death later that year. But Onassis appeared too rough-edged ("He's not a man of the salon," says one detractor. "He's a man of the pier") and too old to rate as a suitor.
He was, after all, a notorious collector. He collected status symbols like his yacht, which he purchased after his archrival, Stavros Niarchos, bought a superschooner; art works ranging from a bejeweled Buddha to a $250,000 El Greco; and important people. Winston Churchill, Greta Garbo, Cary Grant—all the famed and beautiful cruised on Onassis' yacht. In Maria Callas, whom Onassis lured away from a dull but decent Italian businessman-husband, he collected the "richest voice in the world," as one intimate puts it, "while hating opera." When he made a special effort to squire Jackie about, it seemed nothing more than another example of his inveterate collection mania, a completion of the Alpha to Omega that were his initials.
She, too, is an avid collector—of paintings, personages and new impressions. "Since Jack's death, she has visited Ireland, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Hawaii, the Caribbean, Canada, Greece, Mexico, Cambodia and all the fashionable U.S. spas in season. She spent some time with Ari in the Caribbean and in Greece. Occasionally, like Onassis, she erupts: her highly publicized legal battle with Biographer William Manchester underscored her keen sense of violated privacy and an equal amount of hubris. "The American public would forgive me anything," Jackie once remarked, "except running off with Eddie Fisher." And indeed that was her problem—what man could possibly fill the demanding American public's specifications for a Jack-surrogate? What man could possibly marry her, many wondered, and not end up as Mr. Jackie Kennedy? Aristotle Onassis, for one. While she will never be known simply as his wife, he will never be known simply as her husband.
Qualified Blessing