Oprah, The Royals, Jackie Kennedy: Kitty Kelley - Author Books (2013)

• published: 20 Jan 2015
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Kitty Kelley (born April 4, 1942) is an American journalist and author of several best-selling unauthorized biographies of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Reagan, the British Royal Family, the Bush family, and Oprah Winfrey. Although Kelley has been called "the consummate gossip monger, a vehicle for all the rumor and innuendo surrounding her illustrious subjects" she maintains, "I am an unabashed admirer of transparency and believe in the freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment" and, to that end, her writing is about "moving an icon out of the moonlight and into the sunlight". However as her work endured more scrutiny, many of the facts she reported did not hold up. Kelley's first celebrity biography was Jackie Oh! (1978), a life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, which was written at the request of Lyle Stuart, who launched the book into the New York Times Best Seller List. In the book, Kelley describes John F. Kennedy's womanizing and includes "revelations" about Onassis's love life, her depression and electric shock treatment. Kelley's publisher Lyle Stuart was later quoted saying "at the time I believed her shock-treatment story. Looking back, I feel I was had and the whole thing was a fable. I doubt that it ever happened. And knowing how she makes things up, I believe she was sure she could get away with it because no one would sue."[9] Journalist Michael Crowley stated Jackie Oh! contained "core truths—including an unflinching look at JFK that showed him to have been 'more of a Romeo than has been previously revealed.'"[1] This book was followed by Elizabeth Taylor: The Last Star (1981). Kelley's next book, His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra (1986) was declared "an act of bravery."[1] Kelley discussed Sinatra's marriages, affairs and his links to the Mob. Sinatra filed a $2 million lawsuit to prevent it from being published but subsequently dropped it.[10] The book was number one on the New York Times Best Seller List and hit best-seller lists in England, Canada, Australia and France. William Safire of the New York Times said "His Way...turns out to be the most eye-opening celebrity biography of our time."[11] In the Washington Post, Jonathan Yardley, wrote that "His Way is such an improvement over her two previous books ... that comparisons border on the pointless."[1] People magazine story In 1990, Kelley wrote a piece for People magazine based on interviews she had conducted with Judith Campbell Exner, a former girlfriend of Frank Sinatra's who claimed to have had an affair with John F. Kennedy.[12] Exner told Kelley that she had arranged ten meetings between Kennedy and Mafia gangster Sam Giancana, and they discussed having the "mob" kill Fidel Castro. It was subsequently revealed that Exner had been paid $50,000 to talk with Kelley and had not mentioned these "revelations" in her own autobiography, published years earlier.[1] A former FBI agent said that Giancana had been under a federal wiretap, so these multiple meetings with Kennedy would have been impossible to cover up.[1] Nancy Reagan biography In 1991 Kelley published Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography. She was paid $3.5 million to write the book.[13] The book claimed that Reagan had had affairs with Frank Sinatra,[1] that she frequently relied on astrology, that she had lied about her age, and that she had a very poor relationship with her children, even alleging that she hit her daughter, Patti.[1] The reliability and sources were questioned.[1] Slate magazine said that Kelly's book "was no more dishonest than the Reagans' own carefully groomed Norman Rockwell facade."[1] According to Newsweek, "Despite her wretched excesses, Kelley has the core of the story right. Even her staunchest defenders concede that Nancy Reagan is more Marie Antoinette than Mother Teresa.". However Newsweek also criticized the book's basic factual accuracy, noting that Kelley had reported that Ronald Reagan had allegedly date raped a 19- year-old, when the accuser would have actually been 25 at the time.[1] Former President Ronald Reagan issued a statement saying the book "has no basis in fact and serves no decent purpose."[14] British royal family and the Bush family In September 1997, Kelley wrote The Royals (Warner Books, New York, ISBN 0-446-51712-7) about the British royal family. Kelley stated that the Windsors obscured their German ancestry and described scandals surrounding the members of the royal family. The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty was published in September 2004. Kelley announced plans for the book shortly after George W. Bush's election in 2000 and worked on it for four years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Kelley