# The Kennedy Marchioness

An episode of [Noble Blood](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1468332063), 2 Dec 2025, 29 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/arttrk.com/p/D5CA5/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/55b20558-9add-4d0b-8c42-ae300188d1aa/7cb36ec7-36eb-4a14-94cf-b3a601530bdb/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=0bfdba5f-fcca-4c2f-8772-ae300188d1b8

One of the most glamorous members of the Kennedy clan, Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy dazzled and scandalized British society. But her story would ultimately end in tragedy. Support Noble Blood: — Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon — Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story' See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
[0:04] Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky listener discretion advised. A small
[0:10] Speaker 1: private aircraft tears down a runway. Visibility is low, which
[0:15] Speaker 1: makes flying difficult. The planed passengers were advised against traveling
[0:20] Speaker 1: under such conditions, but these warnings were dismissed. You see,
[0:25] Speaker 1: there's a Kennedy on board, and it's generally a bad
[0:28] Speaker 1: idea to try and tell a Kennedy what to do.
[0:32] Speaker 1: The plane carrying the Kennedy and their romantic partner takes
[0:36] Speaker 1: off into the uncertain sky. Little do they know that
[0:40] Speaker 1: this is the last flight they'll lover take. Think you
[0:43] Speaker 1: know who this episode is about. Think again. Before John F.
[0:49] Speaker 1: Kennedy Junior and Carolyn beset Kennedy's tragic last flight, there
[0:54] Speaker 1: was another Kennedy who lost her life in a surprisingly
[0:58] Speaker 1: similar way. I'm Danish Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood.
[1:06] Speaker 1: The so called Kennedy curse is a favorite conversation topic,
[1:11] Speaker 1: and with good reason. The Kennedys are the closest thing
[1:15] Speaker 1: twentieth century America had to royalty, and their legacy continues
[1:20] Speaker 1: on today, for better and worse. The dual assassinations of
[1:26] Speaker 1: President John F. Kennedy and his little brother Robert would
[1:30] Speaker 1: have been more than enough, But the Kennedy family tree
[1:33] Speaker 1: is heavy of tragedies big and small. Take JFK's eldest sister, Rosemary,
[1:41] Speaker 1: who sustained brain damage during birth that resulted in the
[1:45] Speaker 1: family lobotomizing her and eventually hiding her away from the
[1:49] Speaker 1: public eye. Or JFK's eldest brother, Joe Kennedy Junior, the
[1:55] Speaker 1: namesake full of Promise, who was killed in action during
[1:59] Speaker 1: World War II. But there's another sister who made quite
[2:03] Speaker 1: a splash in her day, whose life was defined and
[2:07] Speaker 1: ultimately ended by her relationship with two different British noblemen.
[2:13] Speaker 1: Kathleen Agnes Kennedy, often called Kick, was born on February twentieth,
[2:19] Speaker 1: nineteen twenty, the fourth of Joe and Rose Kennedy's nine children.
[2:25] Speaker 1: She was born into a rocky relationship. Rose had actually
[2:30] Speaker 1: left Joe while she was pregnant with Kick, finally fed
[2:34] Speaker 1: up with her husband's chronic infidelity. Joe Kennedy was larger
[2:39] Speaker 1: than life, with an insatiable appetite for power, money, and women. Rose,
[2:45] Speaker 1: a devout Catholic and former first daughter of Boston wouldn't
[2:50] Speaker 1: stand for it, but she went back to her husband
[2:53] Speaker 1: before Kick's birth and channeled her energy into raising the
[2:57] Speaker 1: perfect brood to carry on on the Kennedy name. Nine
[3:03] Speaker 1: children eventually filled the Kennedy household, and Kick took on
[3:07] Speaker 1: the role of eldest daughter. Today, Rosemary's condition would have
[3:12] Speaker 1: been handled differently, but one hundred years ago it was
[3:16] Speaker 1: just more natural for the family to hand off big
[3:19] Speaker 1: sister duties to the next girl in line. Money was
[3:23] Speaker 1: never a concern. Joe Kennedy built a staggering fortune through
[3:27] Speaker 1: a variety of shrewd and sometimes shady business deals, including
[3:33] Speaker 1: a stint in Hollywood that earned him millions of dollars
[3:37] Speaker 1: and an extremely public mistress screen legend Gloria Swanson. Throughout
[3:43] Speaker 1: the Kennedy children's young lives, Joe's fortune kept growing, as
[3:48] Speaker 1: did his appetite for power. Against this backdrop of wealth
[3:53] Speaker 1: and dysfunction, Kick flourished. No one called her Kathleen. She
[3:58] Speaker 1: was always Kick, a tiny dynamo who refused to be
[4:02] Speaker 1: left behind by her brothers. She wasn't the beauty of
[4:06] Speaker 1: the family, but she had an irresistible spirit and a
[4:10] Speaker 1: natural charm. That drew people to her. The mythos of
[4:14] Speaker 1: the family name was baked into the Kennedy children from birth.
[4:19] Speaker 1: They were Kennedy's first individual's second. Joe demanded his children
[4:25] Speaker 1: look polished and American. Rose governed the household like a
[4:30] Speaker 1: general commanding the troops. That meant weekly whighand with the result,
[4:35] Speaker 1: meticulously logged. Meal plans were scrutinized, activities scheduled, all in
[4:42] Speaker 1: the name of creating perfect children. Befitting the Kennedy brand,
[4:47] Speaker 1: affection was scarce. Rose's hands were more likely to deliver
[4:52] Speaker 1: punishment than comfort, But Joe's love was never in question.
[4:57] Speaker 1: Joe had a soft spot for Kick that everyone could see.
[5:02] Speaker 1: He loved her fearlessness, her drive, her refusal to back down,
[5:06] Speaker 1: no doubt because those qualities reminded him of himself. Like
[5:12] Speaker 1: most royals, Kick's childhood, as structured and emotionally disconnected as
[5:18] Speaker 1: it was, was also full of privilege, with magical summers
[5:23] Speaker 1: on Cape Cod and the finest education money could buy.
[5:27] Speaker 1: But then in nineteen thirty eight, everything changed. Franklin Roosevelt
[5:33] Speaker 1: named Joe Kennedy the Ambassador to Britain, a job Joe
[5:37] Speaker 1: had aggressively lobbied for the family sailed for London that March,
[5:42] Speaker 1: greeted by hordes of photographers hungry for pictures of America's
[5:47] Speaker 1: most photogenic political family. One magazine joked that Britain had
[5:52] Speaker 1: received eleven ambassadors for the price of one. The British
[5:57] Speaker 1: media couldn't get enough of the Kennedys and their lean,
[6:00] Speaker 1: scrubbed American charm, but Kick quickly became their particular obsession.
[6:06] Speaker 1: Fresh from her eighteenth birthday, she had arrived to participate
[6:10] Speaker 1: in the London season when wealthy families paraded their daughters
[6:14] Speaker 1: before eligible bachelors in hopes of securing a match think Bridgerton.
[6:20] Speaker 1: But the Kennedys hadn't bought in all the way. Joe
[6:24] Speaker 1: and Rose wanted to let Kick get some aristocratic Polish,
[6:29] Speaker 1: then bring her home to marry an appropriate American Catholic boy.
[6:34] Speaker 1: Peter Grace, heir to a shipping fortune, was already circling
[6:39] Speaker 1: with intentions to propose, but Kick was never one to
[6:43] Speaker 1: do what was expected of her. Part of Kick's appeal
[6:48] Speaker 1: lay in her contradictions. Years of running around with her
[6:52] Speaker 1: big brothers and their college friends made her confident and
[6:56] Speaker 1: socially fearless and comfortable with risque he humor, yet convent
[7:01] Speaker 1: schools had shaped her faith into something deep and genuine.
[7:06] Speaker 1: She never missed mass and rigorously prayed for her friends
[7:11] Speaker 1: and loved ones. Kick broke every unspoken rule of British
[7:16] Speaker 1: debutante culture. She cracked jokes, told stories, and laughed at herself,
[7:22] Speaker 1: behavior that was practically revolutionary among the buttoned up aristocracy.
[7:28] Speaker 1: One of her new friends would later say that Kick
[7:31] Speaker 1: possessed a rare gift. She made everyone around her feel
[7:36] Speaker 1: more alive. Her coming out was predictably extravagant, leading the
[7:42] Speaker 1: society magazine Queen to name her quote America's most important debutante.
[7:49] Speaker 1: It seemed as though every man who met Kick fell
[7:52] Speaker 1: in love with her. But one nobleman managed to break
[7:57] Speaker 1: through the adoring crowd. William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington, or
[8:03] Speaker 1: Billy as everyone called him, was every bit the formal
[8:08] Speaker 1: brit to Kicks, brash American. As heir to a dukedom,
[8:13] Speaker 1: he was considered such a catch that people had floated
[8:17] Speaker 1: his name as a match for the future Queen Elizabeth.
[8:22] Speaker 1: He fell hard for Kick, who initially dismissed him as
[8:27] Speaker 1: just another stuffy aristocrat, but Billy surprised her. Yes, he
[8:33] Speaker 1: was thoughtful and serious. He was set to inherit a
[8:36] Speaker 1: serious title and took that responsibility gravely. But he also
[8:42] Speaker 1: had a gentle, self effacing humor that delighted Kick. Then
[8:48] Speaker 1: September nineteen thirty nine arrived, and with it the Nazi
[8:53] Speaker 1: invasion of Poland. Joe Kennedy, worried for his family's safety,
[8:58] Speaker 1: ordered the family to head back to America, and Kick
[9:02] Speaker 1: and Billy started to seem like a case of what
[9:06] Speaker 1: might have been. Back in America, Kick volunteered for the
[9:10] Speaker 1: Red Cross and got a job at the Washington Times Herald,
[9:15] Speaker 1: but her heart remained in England. Of all the Kennedy children,
[9:20] Speaker 1: Kick was the most passionate angliphile and couldn't wait for
[9:24] Speaker 1: the day she could finally get back. Finally, in nineteen
[9:28] Speaker 1: forty three, she made her way back across the pond
[9:31] Speaker 1: and found that Billy Hardington hadn't forgotten her. They picked
[9:36] Speaker 1: up where they left off and made up for lost time.
[9:40] Speaker 1: Their friends didn't understand the pairing. Even Jack and Joe
[9:45] Speaker 1: Junior were baffled by their sister's choice. Kick, having watched
[9:49] Speaker 1: her father's endless affairs and her mother's silent suffering said
[9:54] Speaker 1: she valued Billy's kindness and restraint, and Billy was completely
[9:59] Speaker 1: entramped by Kick's vitality, by her humor, her passionate interest
[10:05] Speaker 1: in politics and ideas around her. Billy seemed to shed
[10:09] Speaker 1: his natural reserve and become more himself. But there was
[10:15] Speaker 1: one problem, and it was a big one. Billy came
[10:19] Speaker 1: from one of the most stridently anti Catholic families in England,
[10:24] Speaker 1: and it didn't get more Catholic than the Kennedys. Kick
[10:28] Speaker 1: remained a devout Catholic and agonized over what this union
[10:32] Speaker 1: would mean for her family. Billy's parents eventually succumbed to
[10:37] Speaker 1: Kick's charms and advocated in supports of their son's proposal,
[10:43] Speaker 1: but Kick remained conflicted until Billy's attempt at a political career.
[10:49] Speaker 1: Billy ran for a Parliament seat, and Kick was there
[10:52] Speaker 1: every step of the way. Politics were in her blood,
[10:56] Speaker 1: and her time around her brother Jack during her us
[10:59] Speaker 1: return had peaked her interest. She was invigorated by that
[11:03] Speaker 1: experience and looked forward to more of those similar experiences.
[11:07] Speaker 1: At Billy's side, Kick decided to follow her heart, and
[11:12] Speaker 1: she accepted Billy's proposal, despite loud objections from her parents,
[11:18] Speaker 1: especially Kick's mother Rose, Kick married Billy Hardington on May sixth,
[11:24] Speaker 1: nineteen forty four, in a civil ceremony attended by his family.
[11:29] Speaker 1: She wrote to her family to let them know it
[11:31] Speaker 1: was happening, but when the day came, only Joe Junior
[11:35] Speaker 1: was in attendance. On Kick's ring, Billy had inscribed, I
[11:41] Speaker 1: love you more than anything in the world. Clearly, the
[11:45] Speaker 1: outspoken American had had a positive effect on the buttoned
[11:50] Speaker 1: up brit They set off for their honeymoon, knowing that
[11:54] Speaker 1: Billy would soon be shipped back out to the front,
[11:57] Speaker 1: but they didn't care. They were flesh with the glow
[12:00] Speaker 1: of knowing they had the rest of their lives ahead
[12:02] Speaker 1: of them. Of course, the rest of their lives turned
[12:06] Speaker 1: out to be much shorter than either of them could
[12:09] Speaker 1: have imagined. Kick Kennedy was a newlywed, counting down the
[12:16] Speaker 1: days until her husband would return home. She didn't know,
[12:20] Speaker 1: of course, that she'd already seen Billy for the last time,
[12:24] Speaker 1: and she didn't know that even that wouldn't be the
[12:27] Speaker 1: only tragedy that would befall her family that year. On
[12:31] Speaker 1: August twelfth, just three months after Kick and Billy's wedding,
[12:36] Speaker 1: Kick's brother, Joseph Kennedy Junior, was killed when his plane
[12:41] Speaker 1: exploded during a classified bombing mission. Kick was at the
[12:46] Speaker 1: Cavendish estate with her in laws when the news arrived.
[12:49] Speaker 1: Billy's parents were quietly relieved she was with them rather
[12:54] Speaker 1: than alone when she received word that her beloved older
[12:58] Speaker 1: brother was killed in action. Desperate to be with family,
[13:02] Speaker 1: Kick flew back to Massachusetts a few days later. As
[13:06] Speaker 1: the last Kennedy to have seen Joe alive, and with
[13:10] Speaker 1: her newly wet glow dimmed but not extinguished, Kik brought
[13:14] Speaker 1: her grieving family some measure of comfort. That comfort was
[13:19] Speaker 1: to be short lived. Less than a month later, Kik's
[13:24] Speaker 1: husband was gone as well. Billy was killed in action
[13:28] Speaker 1: September tenth, nineteen forty four, taken down by a German
[13:32] Speaker 1: sniper on the Belgian Front. The Marchioness and Marquess of
[13:36] Speaker 1: Hartington had spent fewer than five weeks together as husband
[13:41] Speaker 1: and wife. Since there had been no time for Billy
[13:46] Speaker 1: and Kick to produce an air, Billy's younger brother, Andrew
[13:50] Speaker 1: became the next in line for the dukedom. Kick received
[13:54] Speaker 1: a modest inheritance and retained the title of Lady Hardington.
[13:59] Speaker 1: Friends later Roman marked how cruel it seemed that Kick
[14:02] Speaker 1: had lost him so close to the war's end, just
[14:06] Speaker 1: when she'd let herself believe he'd survive. But Kick was
[14:11] Speaker 1: first and foremost a Kennedy, which meant that emotions were
[14:16] Speaker 1: something to be outran, and what better way than by
[14:19] Speaker 1: throwing yourself into work. She returned to the Red Cross,
[14:25] Speaker 1: arranging hospitality for American servicemen and assisting wounded soldiers. Kick
[14:31] Speaker 1: bought a small townhouse near Parliament and began to establish
[14:35] Speaker 1: herself as a political hostess, entertaining great minds like Winston
[14:40] Speaker 1: Churchill and George Bernard Shaw. Kick was a social creature,
[14:45] Speaker 1: and her grief hadn't diminished her charms. She may have
[14:49] Speaker 1: been in mourning, but the men of London were more
[14:52] Speaker 1: than ready to have her back on the market. She
[14:55] Speaker 1: had more suitors than ever. The trouble was none of
[14:59] Speaker 1: them measured up to Billy. Kick spent the next year
[15:02] Speaker 1: and a half immersed in her work, tracking Jack's political
[15:06] Speaker 1: career back in the States and letting the eager bachelors
[15:10] Speaker 1: of London try their best at sweeping her off her feet.
[15:14] Speaker 1: Then she met her next great love, one that would
[15:18] Speaker 1: prove even more controversial than a Protestant nobleman. Peter eighth
[15:24] Speaker 1: Earl Fitzwilliam was a dashing war hero with a fancy pedigree.
[15:29] Speaker 1: He was also a notorious scoundrel, an inveterate gambler and womanizer.
[15:35] Speaker 1: He was also married with a young child, but that
[15:39] Speaker 1: didn't stop him from falling head over heels for Kick Kennedy,
[15:44] Speaker 1: as had so many men before him. They met in
[15:47] Speaker 1: June of nineteen forty six at a charity ball she
[15:51] Speaker 1: helped organize. They danced that night and never stopped. Their
[15:56] Speaker 1: affair began, and London society coiled in horror. Nobody could
[16:02] Speaker 1: understand the relationship. Kick was a devout Catholic whose social
[16:08] Speaker 1: circle was intellectual and politically engaged. Peter was a hard
[16:13] Speaker 1: partying playboy who never met a bet he didn't take.
[16:17] Speaker 1: They made absolutely no sense together. Friends speculated that since
[16:23] Speaker 1: nobody could replace Billy, Kick had found someone much more
[16:27] Speaker 1: like her father. They also whispered that Peter must have
[16:31] Speaker 1: been exceptional in bed. It was the only way to
[16:35] Speaker 1: explain Kick's inordinate attraction to someone so utterly different from gentle,
[16:41] Speaker 1: principled Billy. From the start, their romance caused a sensation.
[16:47] Speaker 1: Though they tried staying discreet, word spread quickly. The following summer,
[16:53] Speaker 1: Kick finally confided in Jack during his visit. He had
[16:57] Speaker 1: always been her closest sibling, so it made sense that
[17:01] Speaker 1: he'd be the first to know. She could trust him
[17:04] Speaker 1: with the secret, but she was terrified of her parents
[17:08] Speaker 1: finding out. After the drama with Billy, she couldn't imagine
[17:12] Speaker 1: what her parents, especially her mother, would say. Now. After
[17:18] Speaker 1: months of agony, the truth finally came out in early
[17:22] Speaker 1: nineteen forty eight at a family reunion. As predicted, Kick's mother,
[17:28] Speaker 1: Rose was apoplectic. Another Protestant, this one with a child
[17:34] Speaker 1: who was planning to divorce his alcoholic wife. Rose threatened
[17:39] Speaker 1: total disownment. Kick would lose her family, her allowance, everything.
[17:45] Speaker 1: Rose threatened to leave Joe if he didn't support her position.
[17:49] Speaker 1: Rose even followed Kick back to England, berating her adult
[17:53] Speaker 1: daughter in front of her own staff. Rose was certain
[17:57] Speaker 1: that by marrying Peter Kick would be rooms winning her life,
[18:01] Speaker 1: but the Kennedy stubbornness was no match even for Rose.
[18:06] Speaker 1: Kick's only hope was appealing to her father. After all,
[18:10] Speaker 1: she had always been Joe's favorite. They were too alike
[18:14] Speaker 1: for him not to take her side in this matter.
[18:18] Speaker 1: She called him and begged him to meet her and
[18:20] Speaker 1: Peter while he was in Paris on business. To her
[18:24] Speaker 1: delight and relief, he agreed. Joe, Kick and Peter would
[18:29] Speaker 1: have lunch at the Ritz Hotel on Saturday May fifteenth.
[18:34] Speaker 1: Kick and Peter planned a quick French getaway that would
[18:38] Speaker 1: end with the happy couple getting the older man's blessing.
[18:42] Speaker 1: On May thirteenth, nineteen forty eight, Peter chartered a private
[18:46] Speaker 1: plane to Nie, planning a brief refueling stop in Paris,
[18:52] Speaker 1: Peter impulsively called some racing friends to meet for a
[18:55] Speaker 1: quick lunch in the city. A thunderstorm was incoming and
[18:59] Speaker 1: the pilot was eager to take off as quickly as possible,
[19:03] Speaker 1: but Peter's pensant for a good time meant that the
[19:06] Speaker 1: quick lunch stretched to almost three hours. The pilot was
[19:11] Speaker 1: reluctant to take off, stating that they hit the storm
[19:15] Speaker 1: at exactly the wrong moment. But Lord Fitzwilliam wasn't used
[19:20] Speaker 1: to taking no foreign answer. Through a charm, offensive and
[19:24] Speaker 1: probable bribe, the plane took off. The happy couple, eager
[19:29] Speaker 1: to start this new chapter of their lives, Kick wore
[19:33] Speaker 1: her signature pearls and carried her rosary beads. As she
[19:38] Speaker 1: was packing, she had asked her housekeeper to wish her
[19:42] Speaker 1: luck on her journey. Should I cross my fingers? The
[19:45] Speaker 1: housekeeper asked yes, replied Kick, both hands. It wasn't enough.
[19:52] Speaker 1: With poor visibility and loss of radio contact, the small
[19:56] Speaker 1: plane flew directly into the center of the storm and
[20:00] Speaker 1: went down in a field in the south of France.
[20:03] Speaker 1: There were no survivors. Days earlier, Kick had spoken with
[20:08] Speaker 1: a friend about Billy, about the joy she had felt
[20:11] Speaker 1: being married to him. Being in love with Peter was wonderful,
[20:16] Speaker 1: but it hadn't erased the joyful memories of her time
[20:20] Speaker 1: with Billy. It was clear that a piece of her
[20:22] Speaker 1: heart would always remain with him, and she fervently believed
[20:27] Speaker 1: one day she'd be reunited with quote our beloved Billy.
[20:32] Speaker 1: No one could have predicted how soon that day would
[20:35] Speaker 1: actually come. Joe Kennedy was in Paris when he got
[20:42] Speaker 1: a call from the Boston Globe letting him know that
[20:45] Speaker 1: his daughter had been killed in a plane crash. Since
[20:49] Speaker 1: he was the only family member in the country. He
[20:52] Speaker 1: was tasked with traveling to the crash site to identify
[20:55] Speaker 1: his daughter's body. When they handed him Kick's personal belongings,
[21:00] Speaker 1: Joe discovered that among her items was a birth control device.
[21:05] Speaker 1: It was an undeniable symbol of exactly what kind of
[21:09] Speaker 1: life his daughter had been living. She had been traveling
[21:13] Speaker 1: alone with a married man. For an old school Catholic
[21:17] Speaker 1: as well as a father, it must have been a
[21:20] Speaker 1: heavy thing to reckon with the news media couldn't find
[21:24] Speaker 1: out about this. The scandal would impact too many lives.
[21:28] Speaker 1: Kick's family, Peter's family, and Billie's family joined forces and
[21:33] Speaker 1: immediately began operation damage control. At Peter's estate, servants rushed
[21:39] Speaker 1: to erase all traces of Kick's presence. For Peter's wife,
[21:44] Speaker 1: Bobby arrived from London. Letters from Peter and Kick were
[21:48] Speaker 1: burned in massive bonfires. Andrew Cavendish, Kick's former brother in law,
[21:54] Speaker 1: worked the phones, making sure that the official story was
[21:58] Speaker 1: consistent and Peter were merely friends who had happened to
[22:03] Speaker 1: run into each other at the Ritz, and that Peter
[22:06] Speaker 1: had graciously offered her a seat on his chartered plane,
[22:09] Speaker 1: nothing more. The misinformation campaign worked headlines announced chance invite
[22:16] Speaker 1: sends Kennedy girl to her death. Billy's parents, the Duke
[22:20] Speaker 1: and Duchess of Devonshire, made an extraordinary offer to the Kennedys.
[22:25] Speaker 1: They'd bury Kick in the family plot at Chatsworth, the
[22:28] Speaker 1: family estate. They knew about Peter, but they had adored
[22:33] Speaker 1: Kick their daughter in law, and didn't resent her for
[22:36] Speaker 1: seeking love after their son was gone. Even more remarkably,
[22:41] Speaker 1: the staunchly anti Catholic family offered to give Kick a
[22:46] Speaker 1: Roman Catholic funeral. Joe was the only Kennedy who had
[22:50] Speaker 1: attended the funeral on May twentieth. Jack JFK had planned
[22:55] Speaker 1: to come, but turned back at the last minute to devastate.
[23:00] Speaker 1: To attend, the Duke and Duchess stood as chief mourners,
[23:05] Speaker 1: alongside Joe and the younger Cavendishes. The Duchess personally selected
[23:11] Speaker 1: the words for Kick's gravestone, Joy she gave Joy she
[23:16] Speaker 1: has found. Rose refused to attend her daughter's funeral, instead
[23:22] Speaker 1: checking herself into a hospital. Not a single Kennedy, ever,
[23:27] Speaker 1: publicly acknowledged the affair. In her memoir. Years later, Rose
[23:31] Speaker 1: would write that Kick died quote flying in a private
[23:35] Speaker 1: plane with a few friends to Paris, where her father
[23:38] Speaker 1: was waiting to meet her. The sanitized version approved by
[23:42] Speaker 1: all three families, putting on a good front until the
[23:46] Speaker 1: very end. Kick Kennedy lived for only twenty eight years,
[23:51] Speaker 1: but she packed more into them than most people manage
[23:54] Speaker 1: in an entire lifetime. She dazzled London society, defied her
[24:00] Speaker 1: powerful family twice for love, and carved out an independent
[24:04] Speaker 1: life as a political hostess and widow, all while maintaining
[24:09] Speaker 1: her faith and her essential warmth. Her legacy was inevitably
[24:14] Speaker 1: overshadowed by her more famous brothers, their political careers and
[24:19] Speaker 1: their own tragic deaths. Her younger brother, Bobby, grew up
[24:24] Speaker 1: worshiping Kick. His first child was born in nineteen fifty one,
[24:29] Speaker 1: a daughter he named Kathleen Hardington Kennedy, but no one
[24:33] Speaker 1: was ever allowed to call her Kick. Kick was a
[24:37] Speaker 1: woman who made her own way in a man's world
[24:40] Speaker 1: during an era when that simply wasn't done. If she
[24:44] Speaker 1: had been a man, there's no telling what she might
[24:47] Speaker 1: have accomplished. Instead, she's something of a footnote in Kennedy history,
[24:53] Speaker 1: the sister who died young in a plane crash with
[24:56] Speaker 1: a married man and in a twist that herself might
[25:01] Speaker 1: have appreciated, Bobby's son, Robert Junior, named one of his
[25:06] Speaker 1: daughters Kick. In twenty twenty four, this modern day Kick
[25:11] Speaker 1: Kennedy made a splash in the tabloids when she was linked,
[25:15] Speaker 1: possibly erroneously, to Ben Affleck, proving that times may change,
[25:21] Speaker 1: but the Kick Kennedy name is still always good for
[25:24] Speaker 1: a headline. That's the tragic life of Kick Kennedy. But
[25:30] Speaker 1: keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear a
[25:33] Speaker 1: bit about another scandalous mistress. Here's the final irony. Kick
[25:46] Speaker 1: died as a mistress to a married man, but she
[25:49] Speaker 1: and all of her siblings owed their very existence to
[25:53] Speaker 1: a different mistress entirely. Rose Kennedy's father, John Honey Fitzger,
[26:00] Speaker 1: was the former mayor of Boston who fiercely opposed his
[26:04] Speaker 1: daughter Rose's marriage to Joe Kennedy. It got so bad
[26:08] Speaker 1: that he was willing to derail her college plans to
[26:12] Speaker 1: keep her away from the young man. A daddy's girl herself,
[26:16] Speaker 1: Rose would have most likely heeded her father's wishes, But
[26:20] Speaker 1: December nineteen thirteen, right in the middle of Honey's reelection
[26:25] Speaker 1: campaign for mayor of Boston, he received a blackmail letter.
[26:29] Speaker 1: Its message was clear, withdraw from the race for mayor or.
[26:34] Speaker 1: The sender would expose his affair with a cigarette girl
[26:38] Speaker 1: named Toodles, who was the same age as his daughter, Honey.
[26:42] Speaker 1: Fitzgerald claimed he had barely done more than kiss Toodles
[26:47] Speaker 1: on a dance floor, but it was enough. The scandal
[26:50] Speaker 1: would bring shame crashing down on his carefully constructed image
[26:55] Speaker 1: of family values. He withdrew from the mayoral race, citing
[27:00] Speaker 1: quote health reasons, and Rose's idealized image of her father
[27:05] Speaker 1: was forever shattered. Not only had he acted immortally, but
[27:10] Speaker 1: he'd been forced to slink away with his tail between
[27:13] Speaker 1: his legs. Rose lost all respect for her father and
[27:18] Speaker 1: hitched her fate to a man who was by no
[27:21] Speaker 1: means perfectly behaved, but who never backed down from a fight.
[27:26] Speaker 1: So Rose married Joe Kennedy, after all, the man her
[27:30] Speaker 1: father had deemed unworthy, And from that union came a
[27:35] Speaker 1: pack of dynamic children who would shape American politics and
[27:39] Speaker 1: culture for generations, including a president and attorney general, a senator,
[27:46] Speaker 1: and one rebellious, short lived daughter who chose a life
[27:50] Speaker 1: of love and excitement over family approval. Noble Blood is
[28:04] Speaker 1: a production of iHeart Radio and Grim and Mild from
[28:08] Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me Dana Schwartz,
[28:12] Speaker 1: with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannahswick, Courtney Sender,
[28:17] Speaker 1: Amy Hit and Julia Milaney. The show is edited and
[28:21] Speaker 1: produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer rima il Kaali
[28:27] Speaker 1: and executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick.
[28:31] Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
[28:37] Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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