Just Jackie by Edward Klein (trending books to read TXT) 📕

“There was nothing in any written prenuptial agreement about money for Jackie’s children,” said Stelio Papadimitriou. “And there was nothing about a monthly stipend for Jackie.”

In fact, Kennedy had come to Skorpios more to lend moral support than to act as Jackie’s financial adviser. Indeed, die idea of a prenuptial monetary settlement had not been Jackie’s at all. It had originated with Ari, and was prompted by his concern over Greece’s inheritance laws.

Under that country’s laws, the spouse was entitled to 25 percent or at least to a compulsory 12.5 percent of the deceased spouse’s estate. Since Ari was worth about $500 million at the time (or about $2 billion in today’s money), Jackie would have been entitled for her minimum 12.5 percent, an amount of $62.5 million (or $250 million converted into current dollars) in the event of his death.

Ari had put his lawyers to work on the problem, and they came up with a creative solution. They had discovered that under American law, Jackie could renounce her inheritance rights as long as she received reasonable consideration for doing so.

“If I die,” Ari told Jackie, according to Papadimitriou, “you will automatically inherit a large part of my estate under Greek law. That will put you in competition with my children. This is something I do not want. In order to keep my children satisfied in matters of inheritance, I want you to sign a document renouncing your rights to my estate.”

“Jackie agreed to Onassis’s request,” Papadimitriou told the author. “Jackie was victimized by the press, which portrayed her as avaricious, but it was her behavior in this matter that made me dead certain that she was not marrying Onassis for his money.

“Just look at the facts,” Papadimitriou continued. “First, Jackie agreed to renounce her inheritance rights under Greek law, thereby forfeiting a huge financial windfall in the event of the death of Onassis, who was sixty-two years old, and not in the best of health. She did not have to do that.

“Second, she did not demand any money. It was something that we in the Onassis camp insisted on giving her because it was required under American law for a valid renunciation.

“And third, the money she agreed to was ridiculously low given the size of Onassis’s fortune. She got less than the $3 million that has been widely reported. Much less in fact. It was between $2 million and $3 million. And there was nothing in the prenuptial contract about any other payments, either for Jackie’s monthly upkeep or for her children.

“It is true that, as the wife of Aristotle Onassis, Jackie expected to live a wealthy life. But she did not go into the marriage looking for money.

“The irony of this whole story is that it was all for nothing,” Papadimitriou said. “In my view, that prenuptial agreement was not legally binding. I advised Onassis that it would not work. I told him, ‘If you die twenty years from now, when you’re eighty-two, maybe this prenuptial agreement will hold. And maybe it won’t. But if you die any sooner, necessity will undo the agreement. We will not be able to send Jackie away without enough money to live according to her station in life as the widow of Aristotle Onassis.’ ”

It was a couple of years later that Stelio Papadimitriou advised Ari that notwithstanding the prenuptial agreement, Jackie, in the event of his death, would still be entitled to the compulsory minimum of 12.5 percent of his whole estate on the basis of the forced heirship provisions of Greek law.

Ari thought that it was unfair for a Greek national marrying a foreign national to be obliged to give part of his estate to his foreign spouse who could, however, totally exclude him from her estate. This was a matter which did not interest Ari alone, but could interest several thousands of Greeks married to foreign nationals.

On that basis, Ari convinced the government and the legal authorities of the country to change the Greek law to match the foreign law.

ESIAH’S DANCE

A fine drizzle began to fall on the morning of the wedding, October 20, 1968. In Greece, a rainy wedding day was considered an omen of good luck. However, Artemis Garofolidis, who was as superstitious as her brother, was taking no chances. She had once discovered a hairpin with braided hair under Aristo’s pillow, placed there as a spell by Maria Callas. Concerned that Maria might be up to her old tricks, Artemis decided to slip a charm of her own beneath the mattress of the nuptial bed on the Christina.

When she arrived on the yacht, her brother was in the master cabin getting dressed, along with his son Alexander and the chief engineer, Stefanos Daroussos. The three men stood in front of a long mirror, inspecting themselves. Ari was very nervous, and kept adjusting the knot of his necktie. One of his wedding presents to Jackie, a gold cross made by the Greek jeweler Ilias Lalaounis, bulged in its box in the pocket of his suit. His other gifts, a pair of heart-shaped ruby earrings and a huge matching ring, which had been appraised at more than $1 million, were locked away in a safe behind the El Greco in the Christina’s book-lined library.

“What do you think?” Ari asked Alexander. “Do I make a good groom?”

His son was in a foul mood, and did not answer. He had agreed to attend the wedding only because his girlfriend, Fiona Thyssen, had insisted he go as a mark of respect to his father. But true to his word, Alexander had already moved all of his belongings out of the Onassis house in Glyfada and into a suite in the Athens Hilton.

So many guests had been invited to the wedding that there was not a single available bed on the island or the yacht. However, no one had thought about accommodations for Alexander and Christina. They did not have rooms to sleep in.

After