When President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jackie, visited Buckingham Palace in June 1961, they caused quite a stir.
The visit came just a few months after Kennedy’s inauguration.
But after the meeting, a rumor spread that Kennedy’s wife had made some negative comments about Queen Elizabeth.
Did Jackie Kennedy say bad things about Queen Elizabeth?
The rumor gained momentum after the second season of The Crown.
According to the second season episode of The Crown, Jackie allegedly said that Queen Elizabeth was: “a middle-aged woman so dull, unintelligent and unremarkable that Britain’s new, diminished place in the world was not a surprise but an inevitability” and called Buckingham Palace “second-rate, run-down and sad, like a neglected provincial hotel.
Although these comments are not supported by the historical record, some accounts suggest that the Kennedys did make some disparaging remarks.
Photographer Cecil Beaton said that Jackie Kennedy was not impressed with the palace’s decor or Queen Elizabeth’s dress and hair. Writer Gore Vidal recalled that Jackie said the Queen was “rather heavy, The Telegraph reports.
In any case, it is difficult to know whether these comments are true or not.
What is clear is that the Kennedys created quite a stir during their visit to Buckingham Palace, and rumors of what was said in private continued to circulate for decades.