• Jackie, Janet & Lee

  • The Secret Lives of Janet Auchincloss and Her Daughters, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill
  • By: J. Randy Taraborrelli
  • Narrated by: Ann Marie Lee
  • Length: 20 hrs and 16 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (367 ratings)

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Jackie, Janet & Lee  By  cover art

Jackie, Janet & Lee

By: J. Randy Taraborrelli
Narrated by: Ann Marie Lee
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Publisher's summary

A dazzling audiobook biography of three of the most glamorous women of the 20th century: Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis; her mother, Janet Lee Auchincloss; and her sister, Princess Lee Radziwill.

"Do you know what the secret to happily ever after is?" Janet Bouvier Auchincloss would ask her daughters, Jackie and Lee, during their tea time. "Money and Power," she would say. It was a lesson neither would ever forget. They followed in their mother's footsteps after her marriages to the philandering socialite "Black Jack" Bouvier and the fabulously rich Standard Oil heir Hugh D. Auchincloss.

Jacqueline Bouvier would marry John F. Kennedy Jr., and the story of their marriage is legendary, as is the story of her second marriage to Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. Less well known is the story of her love affair with a world-renowned architect and a British peer. Her sister, Lee, had liaisons with both of Jackie's husbands in addition to her own three marriages - to an illegitimate royal, a Polish prince, and a Hollywood director.

If the Bouvier women personified beauty, style, and fashion, it was their lust for money and status that drove them to seek out powerful men, no matter what the cost to themselves or to those they stepped on in their ruthless climb to the top. Based on hundreds of new interviews with friends and family of the Bouviers, among them their own half brother, as well as letters and journals, J. Randy Taraborrelli paints an extraordinary psychological portrait of two famous sisters and their ferociously ambitious mother.

Jackie, Janet & Lee will drop listeners directly into the gilded, tangled web of secrets surrounding one of the most recognizable families in American history.

©2018 J. Randy Taraborrelli (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Taraborrelli's gossipy narrative revels in luxurious decor, stunning outfits, and soap-operatic fights in this entertaining saga." ( Publishers Weekly)

"More gossipy than "Page Six," J. Randy Taraborrelli's latest celebrity biography, Jackie, Janet & Lee, compellingly narrated by Ann Marie Lee, bring you up close and personal with the ever fascinating, superrich and superpowerful clan of Janet Auchincloss...Though I started listening with a jaded ear, I found myself mesmerized by the intriguing, intricate details of the trials and tragedies in these women's lives." — BookPage

"Riveting. For all the sisters' dramatics, the true star of this particular show is decidedly neither the directionless Lee nor the determined Jackie. It is, in fact, the third figure in the book: Janet Bouvier Auchincloss...Taraborrelli brings her to splendid renewed life. His trick of turning incidents into highly colored tableaus threaded with dialogue makes excellent use of well-trodden material."— New York Times Book Review

What listeners say about Jackie, Janet & Lee

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Terrible narration! No way to give no stars.

The super sugary narration, the excessive details (name of the owner, company, type of airplane, etc. for a flight??), multiple details about style, fabric, color, etc. of each room, who wore what again with all the details. I am not a Kennedy fan but thought the book might be of interest. I, too, was a sudden, unexpected widow with children to raise so I was interested in that aspect of the book. I also remember vividly the assassination and a nation in mourning. It was a tremendously jarring point in our history but at the half-way point in this book I can't take listening to this anymore. Maybe another time.

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Sounds like fairy tales being read to little girls

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Ann Marie Lee?

Anyone else. Anyone. The narration sounded as if the reader was telling a fairy tale to little girls. Unlistenable.

Any additional comments?

Unlistenable

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Boring.

Sometimes social tell-all's are amusing, or give a picture in a historic context to catch my interest. I'm a number of hours into this debased epic and I'm giving up. All I've heard here is the snipe-fest of the rich and famous. No petty argument goes unexposed, and no ill-mannered snub, tail-twitch or adulterous betrayal is left to our imagination.

Add Ann Marie Lee's vapid reading and you've got something that runs along in your ears without requiring much attention until, of course, you hear the loud clinkers.

When I heard, ......"Presidential hopeful, Adelaide Stevenson..", I had to get out of there.

What a waste of life.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

NOT the Camelot I had hoped for!

WOW! I was so disappointed in these three women. I constantly wondered what Caroline must think about this book-although I'm sure she hasn't read it. I sort of hope not. I felt they were all tough, cold, social climbers who were so calculating and in each others business entirely too much. What a mess.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good Listening

Enjoyed this booked and learned a lot. I felt there was a lot of repartition through out the book.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Unbelievably Great

Couldn’t stop listening. Lee and Janet are at least as fascinating as Jackie. Learned a great deal about what made Jackie tick as well as why she married Onassis. Very little on JFK unless as directly related to the women which was good in this context.
So much juice. So well written and researched. Beautifully narrated. This is in my top three for sure and I listen to about 6 books a month. The only problem with this book is that it ends!

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Terrible narrator

Book content is very mediocre, more fictional imaginings of what happened than well-researched facts. Length should have been halved, it just ran on and on. The negative review has more to do with the narrator’s voice and diction, which lends itself to the impression that this book is full of drivel. Her voice is fluttery and falsely happy with overly enunciated words, especially names—so slow and exaggerated you can hear every syllable like a pronunciation app, very very annoying. Couldn’t finish.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Somewhat amusing

mainly because this was the only book I have read about Lee for her mother. Some things do not add up as usual in a gossip book but it was interesting

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

The Truth has a Lively Changing Face --Franz Kafka

Engaging, but leaves a mouthfeel like the Real Housewives of the Hamptons. Author pigeon holes the subjects into their basest qualities. Feels vitriolic, and indeed, an ostracized half brother (who later went to prison) is listed as a major source. It is no secret this book leaves leaves one with a sad feeling. I wish I hadn't listened to it, actually, yet I looked forward to finishing it. Feel it is likely the truth but merely a truth, and certainly not the whole truth.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

The sisters and their mother

Perhaps this is what life was really like for the Bouvier sisters and their mother but what came across was these three women were all neurotic and self centered. If you like gossip this book is for you.

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1 person found this helpful