Jackie Kennedy Onassis allegedly told her former lover, John Carl “Jack” Warnecke, that her marriage to Aristotle Onassis was the “biggest mistake she had ever made.” The claim comes from Warnecke’s posthumously published memoir, which is set to hit shelves on November 10.
As reported by TMZ, the book is titled Camelot’s Architect: The Untold Story of Jackie Kennedy, Lafayette Square and a Secret Romance. The claims appear in an excerpt obtained by People, in which Warnecke details his years-long connection with the former First Lady.
Warnecke claims Jackie expressed frustration about her marriage to the shipping magnate, particularly regarding her living arrangements. He wrote that she “unhesitatingly expressed frustration that this one room was all she was allowed to decorate” before calling the marriage her “biggest mistake.”
Aristotle apparently gave Jackie just one small room to call her own
Warnecke reportedly met Jackie at the Ritz Paris, after which she invited him to her apartment for lunch. He described the space, writing, “The rooms were large and dark and the windows were covered with heavy curtains.”
The setting changed when they moved to a brighter area of the apartment. “Then suddenly we arrived at a light and contemporary room by a garden where a table was set for our lunch,” Warnecke wrote, adding that “Ari had let Jackie free in this small area.” It was in that room that she allegedly shared her frustration over her limited decorating freedom and her regrets about the marriage.
Warnecke, who was 91 when he died, reportedly maintained a close friendship with Jackie for many years. Their romance began between 1964 and 1966, following the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. That day remains widely remembered, with one reality star’s Jackie Kennedy Halloween costume drawing backlash for recreating it.
Warnecke was already part of the Kennedy social circle, having first met JFK in 1956. President Kennedy had recommended Warnecke for a preservation project involving Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C.
After their two-year romance ended, the pair remained friends, and their bond reportedly grew closer after Aristotle died in 1975. Warnecke, a divorced father of four, described their intimate friendship as feeling like an “exciting secret affair,” though he clarified that “nothing physical” was happening between them in those later years.
Warnecke wrote that Jackie “delighted in advising me in what she perceived to be my serious relationships with other women. Or possibly, she was testing me.”
He also recalled Jackie visiting his apartment on her way home from work. “She casually would lounge at the foot of the bed, as I leaned my back against the tall headboard, talking away intimately and easily for hours and giving each other the kind of truthful advice only two people who are very close can,” he wrote.
Jackie married Aristotle on October 20, 1968, and the marriage lasted until his death in 1975. Warnecke divorced his second wife three years later. Jackie died of cancer in 1994, while Warnecke died of pancreatic cancer in 2010.
Warnecke reportedly asked his daughter, Margo Warnecke Merck, who manages the Warnecke archives, to ensure his manuscript would one day be published.
Published: Nov 7, 2026 05:00 pm