Devoted to a Cheater

Most of us can't fathom how Jackie Kennedy stayed committed to such a dysfunctional marriage. It wasn't as though she was unattractive. Far from it, and men, from world leaders to the average Joe, admired her beauty and grace.

It wasn't as though JFK worked hard to conceal his tail-chasing, as the Secret Service (Ah!...new meaning there...) and much of JFK's inner circle kept his activities from the press. Even if they hadn't, at that time, there's a chance the press would've looked the other way, not wanting the nation's leader to look immoral.

It wasn't as though Jackie didn't know about her husband's infidelities; she once quipped after introducing someone to one of her young aides: "That's the woman my husband is currently sleeping with." Plus, there was that agonizing moment she plucked strange underwear from her marital bedsheets and told her husband: "You might want to ask around and find out who these belong to; they're too big to be mine."

So what WAS it that kept these two together? Simple. They shared the same devotion to public image. Jackie had been well-trained by her father-in-law Joe with the mantra, "Image is everything."

To read a more in-depth look at the Kennedys--and to crawl into bed with them--get your copy of O! Jackie.