Ladies' Man

The Careless Heart of John F. Kennedy

By: Laurence Leamer

From the New York Times bestselling author of Capote’s Women, a penetrating examination of President John F. Kennedy’s complicated, tumultuous life as told through the lens of the fascinating women left as footnotes in his legacy.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a born leader—bold, charismatic, and able to charm his peers and disarm his critics with nothing more than a witty phrase and a winning smile. He was also obsessive, manipulative, and haunted by complex desires for shiny, remarkable women, collecting them voraciously and carelessly on his rise to the White House and beyond. Once one entered his orbit, she might become his secret lover, only to be summarily dismissed when she no longer suited his needs. But these women were perhaps the only witnesses to the real JFK—and it’s time their stories were finally told.

In Ladies’ Man, six-time New York Times bestselling biographer Laurence Leamer reveals the harrowing, intimate life of JFK. Leamer knew three of Kennedy’s mistresses, and Ladies’ Man is written with unprecedented intimacy and access. From JFK’s youthful indiscretions at boarding school, his early connections with such beautiful aristocratic European women as Inga Arvad and Gunilla von Post, his marriage to the stately Jacqueline Bouvier, his affairs with Pamela Turnure and Diana de Vegh, his liaisons with mafia moll Judith Exner and East German spy Ellen Rometsch, to his relationship with Marilyn Monroe before her death, JFK’s affairs were multifaceted and often tragic. His cautious public persona contrasted sharply with his reckless personal life, where he took bewildering chances that could have destroyed him. And as JFK’s profile rose, so did his rashness.

No one who reads Ladies’ Man will ever think about John F. Kennedy the same way again.

Critic reviews

“From Boston boyhood to his assassination in Dallas, JFK’s love life was prolific—and reckless. Laurence Leamer’s Ladies’ Man captures the story of JFK’s addiction to women so frankly, yet with such human understanding. I doubt Laurence Leamer’s new account can be bettered. Once started, you will have to read on to the tragic end.” —Nigel Hamilton, New York Times bestselling author of JFK: Reckless Youth