Kennedy Mistress Comes Forward

Thursday, May 15, 2003

NEW YORK — John F. Kennedy's "Monica Lewinsky" has come forward and admitted her affair with the former president.

Marion "Mimi" Fahnestock tells the New York Daily News that she indeed was JFK's mistress when she was just 19 years old. And while she doesn't seem to be seeking publicity, she says finally having the secret revealed is a huge weight off her shoulders.

"It's all true," Fahnestock told the Daily News at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, where she's an administrator. "I was 19 years old. It was 1962, '63, and it's the truth."

In a statement released Thursday, Fahnestock said, "From June 1962 to November 1963, I was involved in a sexual relationship with President Kennedy."

According to the paper, Fahnestock met the president when she came to White House to interview Jacqueline Kennedy for her school newspaper. The first lady was an alumna of Fahnestock's school, the exclusive Miss Porter's in Connecticut.

JFK, known for being a ladies man, was taken by the young student, and a year later Fahnestock got an internship at the White House -- even though she couldn't type, the News reported.

Fahnestock said she left Washington just weeks before the president was assassinated, and she got married and had two children.

"For the last 41 years, it is a subject that I have not discussed," she said in the statement. "In view of the recent media coverage, I have now discussed the relationship with my children and my family, and they are completely supportive. I will have no further comment on this subject, period."

Now divorced and a grandmother of four, Fahnestock said she'd like to go back to her anonymous life.

"I have a wonderful job ... a close family, a lot of friends," she told the News. "I have a life to live."

However, it's unlikely that she'll be able to fade into the background now that her story is public. Lewinsky, for instance, has been unable to stay out of the public eye following her famous affair with President Clinton. She most recently was the host of the reality show, Mr. Personality.

FOXnews.com