A few months prior to meeting her future husband, John F. Kennedy, Jackie reportedly ended her engagement to a stockbroker named John Husted Jr. in March 1952 — and in an incredibly brusque manner (per The Telegraph). According to the 2018 biography Jackie, Janet & Lee, the relationship hit the skids after Jackie’s mother, Janet Auchincloss, learned Husted’s annual salary, which was reportedly $17,000 (via People). That’s about $94K in today’s economy. Auchincloss reportedly told Jackie to end the relationship — while they were both attending the “engagement party,” reported People.
It sounds like Jackie didn’t let Husted down easy, either. Shortly after dumping him, Jackie reportedly “dropped the ring back into Husted’s coat pocket” (per People). “She was ice cold,” Husted says in the biography. “Like we never knew each other.” Author J. Randy Taraborrelli writes that “Jackie was not a mercenary person. Whenever she had to make one of those decisions, it was usually her mother behind it” (per People). According to Reader’s Digest, Auchincloss “didn’t want her daughters to ever struggle financially.”
In the back of her mind, Jackie may have known this relationship wasn’t built to last. In January 1952, Husted reportedly took Jackie to meet his mother, who tried giving her potential daughter-in-law a photo of Husted as a boy (per The New York Times). “No, thank you,” Jackie reportedly said. “If [I] want any photos I can take my own.”
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