JFK cheated on his wife Jackie for years. She was 'paid to keep it quiet'.

John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy were once one of the worlds most influential and famous couples. He, a charming and aspirational presidential senator from a wealthy, notorious family, she, a glamorous and intelligent socialite whose family had its own scandals.

Both of them were attractive, aspirational and complex, as was their marriage.

Back when Jackie Kennedy was still Jacqueline Bouvier, her mother Janet had a profound and interfering influence on her daughter's choosing a husband. In fact, the decision to marry JFK was made by both Jackie and her mother.

Watch: John F. Kennedy Jr. speaks to Larry King about living up to his father's legacy. Post continues after video.

Whilst the Bouvier girls (Jackie and her younger sister Lee) exuded glamour, wealth and prosperity, the family didn't necessarily have the means to keep up with their appearance. Janet had divorced their father when the girls were young, some say due his financial losses during the 1929 crash, and then remarried the wealthy stockbroker and lawyer, Hugh D. Auchincloss, predominantly for money, according to the book and podcast, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret.

The Bouvier Sisters. Image: Getty.

As also detailed in the same podcast, despite the transactional approach to securing her girls a suitable stepfather, Janet's marriage to Hugh was also somewhat genuine. In that he developed a deep and loving relationship with his stepdaughters - eventually giving Jackie away at both of her weddings - and generously provided for Janet and her girls. But this would only go on for as long as he lived, and upon his death (he was a decade older than his wife) his fortune was set to be inherited by his own natural children.

Janet, herself had a fickle approach to teaching her girls about money. It's said that once, when the girls were just children, Janet said to her daughters, "Do you want to know what the secret to happily ever after is? Money and power."

So when Janet and Jackie selected JFK as a suitable spouse for the eligible young girl, they each actively overlooked his downfalls. He was rich and powerful, and this marriage would surely secure Jackie's financial future. They both knew of JFK's reputation as a philanderer but went ahead with the engagement anyway - a fact that Janet is said to have regretted for the rest of her life, forever wishing she hadn't pushed her child into a marriage that was bound to be full of heartbreak.

Jacqueline Lee Bouvier married John Fitzgerald Kennedy in Newport, Rhode Island, September 1953. Image: AP.

In his new book, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret, author and journalist, J. Randy Taraborrelli, says that Jackie considered leaving her husband in the early years of their marriage, before he was president, after he reportedly had given her sexual transmitted diseases as a result of his transgressions.

As reported by the Daily Mail, JFK and Jackie's first pregnancy ended in miscarriage, and their second pregnancy ended with their first child, Arabella, being delivered stillborn.

Jackie told JFK's father, Joe, she was not prepared to put up with his son's cheating. And so Joe Kennedy brokered a deal.

In his desperation for his son to create an image of perfection, to present a 'perfect union' in a bid for presidency, and to ultimately create a family, he offered his daughter-in-law $100,000 – the equivalent of $1 million today (almost AUD $1.5 million)  – for any child 'carried to term', the Daily mail reported. 

According to the book, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret, Joe Kennedy followed through on his word, paying Jackie per child as their family grew. But then, after the shock assassination of JFK in 1963, Jackie could no longer rely on the Kennedys to keep her solvent. As she lost her husband, she lost her financial footing too, and the Kennedy family only paid her a relatively small allowance to sustain herself and her children on - bearing in mind this family were used to the absolute best of everything.

Jackie with her children during JFK's funeral. Image: AP.

After JFK's death, Jackie was "out of her mind with grief" according to her biographer, J. Randy Taraborrelli. However, she soon started a private, three-year long romance with architect John Warnecke (who was responsible for designing JFK's memorial in Arlington). Even though she had other lovers, John Warnecke had wanted desperately to marry Jackie, taking her Hawaii to propose.

Yet before the proposal, he admitted to Jackie that he was $1 million in debt (partly because he'd spent so much money on much wining and dining her, taking her on exclusive holidays and showering her with gifts). What he didn't know was that shipping magnate and multi-millionaire, Aristotle Onassis, was "waiting in the wings". When Jackie found out the man she loved was broke, she opted for the other option, and soon became Mrs Onassis, Daily Mail reports.

Jackie Kennedy with Aristotle Onassis. Image: Getty.

Jackie and Aristotle's marriage was not one of love, not to mention he'd previously been a lover to her younger sister, Lee, and was essentially in a relationship with opera star, Maria Callas, as they became engaged.

According to the Jackie: Public, Private, Secret podcast, their time together went on, it is said Jackie found him sexually repulsive. Beyond that his children loathed their new stepmother - in fact his son, Alexander, paid photographers to take nude photographs of Jackie on their private boat, subsequently selling them to all kinds of publications, all in a bid to embarrass her and his father.

After Aristotle died, Jackie finally got her own fortune, though not without struggle. Their pre-nuptial agreement was a Greek contract that wasn't legally viable in US courts and she ended up fighting her stepdaughter, Christina, to secure her part of Aristotle's legacy (that being the modern equivalent of $150 million - approximately AUD $221 million). At last she and her children were set for life.

She remained tight-fisted despite this windfall though. In one amusing story from Pamela Keogh's, Are You Jackie or Marilyn?, the author shares that when Jackie hired workmen to fix up her apartment, she would deliberately pay them by cheque, knowing the contractors would value her autograph over cashing in on the job. This happened so often that the wives of these tradesmen cottoned on, and demanded their husbands be paid in cash instead.

That's to say Jackie wasn't all cunning. In her defence, she had been brought up in a world that taught woman to sacrifice in order to secure themselves, and that one must always remain "perfect" in the eyes of the public. In her private life she is said to have been warm and open, even if she was a little stingy.

In her later years she successfully worked at Doubleday as an editor and lived with her children in New York. She socialised with a variety of friends, including her ex-lover John Warnecke, with whom she remained very close. Whilst she was very open with those in her inner circle, she remained very private to the outer world, all in a final bid for control over her image.

Feature Image: Getty/Mark Shaw/mptvimages.com.