2 – Marlene Dietrich & the Kennedys
It seemed as if there was a competition amongst the Kennedy men to see who could get to a specific woman first. If one of them ‘won,’ it didn’t perturb the other family member who would look to sleep with the lady in question anyway. It is widely believed that both John and Robert had affairs with Marilyn Monroe for example. Janet Des Rosiers claimed that John tried to bed her while she was in the midst of her affair with Joseph.
As the senior Kennedy, Joseph would have had his work cut out competing with his sons but in the case of his secretary at least, he apparently ‘held his own.’ Not that Des Rosiers was the first woman who gained the affection of John after his father had already had sex with her. Marlene Dietrich was one such lady as the movie starlet had a fling with Joseph in 1938. The elder Kennedy flaunted the star in front of John; whether he was trying to make his son jealous or merely inspire him is unknown.
John once said that Joseph told his sons to get laid as often as possible. The Kennedy men were open about their infidelity which was encouraged by Joseph. Dietrich later wrote that she enjoyed her relationship with Joe Kennedy and believed the feeling was mutual. She even claimed that she tried to change his mind over U.S. involvement in World War II. Kennedy was fighting against American interference, but Dietrich told him that America could not escape Hitler and the Nazis and had to act.
Disturbingly, John refused to retreat from his ambition to sleep with Dietrich and invited her over for an affair in 1963. Although she was now in her sixties, John brought her to his bedroom in the White House, and they allegedly had sex. When he asked her if she ever slept with Joseph, she lied and said no. John apparently replied: “I always knew the son of a bitch was lying.” Whatever strange relationship Joseph had with his sons, it was at least better than what he did to one of his daughters, Rosemary.