USA: NEW BOOK ABOUT JACKIE KENNEDY "JACKIE AFTER JACK" RELEASED

(12 Feb 1998) English/Nat Few Americans can forget the day in November 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was shot to death, and his wife Jackie's pink dress was covered in his blood. Christopher Andersen's recently released book `Jackie After Jack' is the follow-up to his bestseller `Jack and Jackie'. In the book, the author tells of a side of the former First Lady that even true followers of America's royal family didn't know. Author Christopher Andersen's recently released book, 'Jackie after Jack', starts with the brave image of Jackie Kennedy in Dallas in November 1963, when her husband was shot. Armed with recently declassified information, the scribe follows Kennedy from the assassination to her death last year. Andersen said the country saw Mrs. Kennedy and got strength from her because of her calm demeanour during a time when Americans were coping with having their President shot to death. SOUNDBITE: (English) 'Well, Jackie was the pillar, of strength, that really amazed us all. She really was the glue that held this country together at that time. Anybody that was alive then can remember that she could behave with such calm and dignity, the rest of us didn't have an excuse. But, we had to too. The fact of the matter was that behind the scenes, she was completely shattered, she told her friends that she felt there was nothing, nothing, nothing left for her, that she felt like a wounded animal and wanted to climb in a corner somewhere and hide.' SUPER CAPTION: Christopher Andersen, Author Andersen takes a rare look into the former First Lady's mind, and it's a troubled look. SOUNDBITE: (English) 'She never really got over the trauma of the assassination itself. She came to terms with the loss of Jack, but the event of the assassination was something she replayed over and over in her mind, really for the rest of her life. She would talk to friends, 'What if I had only leaned over to the left, or a little to the right or raised my hand, well, maybe the sniper couldn't have taken the shot, maybe I would have been shot instead of him.' She thought that maybe she could have altered the course of history in some way, and that was something that haunted her, really until her death thirty years later.' SUPER CAPTION: Christopher Andersen, Author Jackie did recover from her psychological wounds, only to see her brother in law Robert Kennedy killed by assassin in 1968. But, the devoted mother of two and arguably, world's most famous widow, got on with her life. She dated the likes of actor Marlon Brandon and other famous luminaries. But, the former Washington D-C socialite settled for Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis. SOUNDBITE: (English) 'People forget, she was thirty-four years old when Kennedy was assassinated, and she had the rest of her life to lead. She was a young widow with two children, she wasn't about to give up on being a woman. And so she had the relationships with Brando, also with Roswell Kilpatrick, an advisor to Kennedy, who many people thought she would marry, she, in fact, when she married Aristotle Onassis, there was huge public outcry.' SUPER CAPTION: Christopher Andersen, Author Her marriage to Onassis shocked many, but her years with him were good for her two children, Caroline and John, because they were out of the American media's constant spotlight. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...