'There's something Greek about Jackie," mused Aristotle Onassis as he watched the newly widowed First Lady standing, heavily veiled, on the steps of the White House, with her children on either side, as her husband's coffin passed slowly by. Kennedy had been shot three days earlier, and Jackie was now the most famous woman in the world.
Onassis watched the endless coverage from the Paris apartment of his lover, Maria Callas, commenting that Jackie was "so brave, so courageous". Maria, at the time, thought nothing of his words. She had no notion that this woman, whom she was only ever to meet once, briefly and inconsequentially, would contribute so much to her unhappiness. But perhaps the tone of Onassis' comment should have alerted her; to him, "Greek" was something powerful, a state of mind more than a nationality.
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Independent
