Sep 5, 2025
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Alexander Onassis and JFK Jr - Parallel lives?
So, for a while now, I've been researching the Kennedy and the Onassis families in parallel, and I just came to a realization: Jackie O's son, JFK Jr died in a plane crash in July 1999, when the plane he himself was the pilot of crashed off the coast of Hyannis Port. Those who have researched the family history know that Jackie O didn't want her son to fly, and that JFK Jr had also waited until after his mother's death in 1994 to pursue his dream. Yet Jackie O's fears weren't unfounded - her stepson, Alexander Onassis, had perished in a plane crash in January 1973, when he was just 24 years old (Jackie was married to Onassis at the time - they never divorced - and JFK Jr was 13 at the time).
Ironically, JFK Jr's love of flying most likely also came from the Onassis family. Aristotle Onassis had founded Olympic Airways in 1957 and that airline is LEGENDARY in Greece: the first-ever Greek national airline to gain worldwide fame, the flag-bearer of the Greek national airlines (before Aegean took over), and the first one that really taught the Greeks that they could travel abroad for fun, not just for immigration. Next to an extensive fleet which included everything from Airbuses and Boeings (incl. two 747s) to passenger helicopters and hydroplanes, the airline is also synonymous with glamour and world class luxury travel. The meals included champagne and turtle soup served with - literally! - golden spoons and crystal glasses (on first class, of course!) and the stewardesses were even sent at Maxim's in Paris and to Monte Carlo to learn how to serve gourmet meals the right way, including how to cut the Chateaubriand correctly. Additionally, Olympic Airways even wrote Greek fashion history. Designers for the stewardesses' uniforms include Jean Desses (who also designed Queen Sofia of Spain's wedding gown), Coco Chanel and Pierre Cardin. It is said that Jackie O brought Onassis in touch with Pierre Cardin in 1968/1969, which resulted in the most legendary - trademark even - Olympic Airways uniforms, which are still considered the most beautiful ones ever worn by Greek air-hostesses:
(The Pierre Cardin uniforms)
Now, when Jackie Kennedy married Onassis, JFK Jr was only eight years old. To him, this marriage resulted not only in gaining a stepfather in Onassis, but also to finding another male role model - his stepbrother, Alexander. Alexander was 20 years old at the time, and he had been raised in a world in which his family was more famous for Olympic Airways than Olympic Shipping. Aristotle Onassis had even famously said, "If the ships are my wife, Olympic Airlines is my mistress", and he had dedicated vast amounts of energy into shaping the airline the way he wanted (he also famously interviewed the stewardesses himself). As a result, Alexander would go on to develop an interest in airplanes and the airline, despite his father's constant reminder that "planes are a nice hobby, but the money is on the ships." Furthermore, Alexander was also considered by the Greeks to be the much-beloved 'Crown Prince' of the legendary Onassis dynasty - much like JFK Jr was dubbed the 'Crown Prince of America' in the 1980s and 1990s.
As a means of "training for the throne", Alexander became the head of Olympic Aviation, a light aircraft and helicopter subsidiary of Olympic Airways, founded by his father with Alexander on the head. Olympic Aviation's main purpose was to provide aviation links between mainland Greece and the Greek islands, so its fleet consisted mainly of turboprop aircraft which were small enough to be able to negotiate even the most modest of Greek airports. Olympic Aviation played a significant role for Olympic Airways, as it basically took over the domestic flights, thus allowing Olympic Airways to focus all its money and energy on international flights. Alexander himself was a trained pilot and he was famously involved in helicopter rescues despite visibility issues that required him to wear very thick glasses.
Alexander's proudest moment was famously his transfer of a man from an island to the mainland at nighttime and amidst a storm. When the man's family gave him a small amount of money as a token of gratitude, Alexander himself described it as his proudest moment and claimed that it was the only money he ever gained by his honest day's work!
Now, it is not difficult to imagine why Alexander became a role model for JFK Jr, who mostly lacked a permanent father figure in his life up until his mother's second marriage. Surprisingly enough, Alexander established a close bond with JFK Jr, even letting him take the wheel of his jets and helicopters - which explains JFK Jr's passion for flying as an adult. Perhaps the two also bonded over another reason. As heirs to legendary dynasties, Alexander knew first hand what it was like for people to expect too much of him and the constant insecurity which resulted from the all-too-common comparisons to his legendary father. Perhaps Alexander sensed that JFK Jr would face the same fate, and he established this closeness as his own means to protect him from what he himself had been through growing up.
Despite this close brotherly bond, however, Alexander and his sister, Christina, weren't very fond of Jackie. After Onassis' affair with Maria Callas reached a halt, Alexander and Christina longed for a reconciliation between their father and their mother, Tina Livanos. But Onassis' marriage to Jackie O put an end to these hopes. Adding insult to injury, Tina would go on to marry Stavros Niarchos, her sister's widower, in 1971, thus entering a quasi-incestuous union, which neither Stavros's nor Tina's children wanted - and sensibly so: this marriage made the first cousins each other's stepsiblings. No wonder that, after Alexander's death in 1973, Christina referred to her stepmother as 'the black widow' and claimed that she had carried the 'Kennedy curse' on to the Onassis family.
Yet how about the relationship between Aristotle Onassis and his stepson? Aristo took a keen interest in the boy - he loved to play games with him, he loved to tease him, and he even laughed out loud when JFK Jr's dog peed on Onassis's - very expensive - shoes. Famously, JFK Jr and his sister Caroline kept Onassis young (he was old enough to be their grandfather).
Aristo also very likely wished to groom JFK Jr into becoming a future POTUS (perhaps the sole thing he and Jackie had in common). Thus, he would achieve two grand victories:
He'd have someone in the White House for four/eight years that would serve Alexander's business interests, if not Onassis' own and
He'd get back at the CIA for constantly being on his neck over his business interests, especially during the Oil Crisis of the 1950s.
Another reason why Aristo established such a close bond with Jackie's kids was because his relationship with his own children was very very fraught (he was a famously absentee father), so he regarded his stepkids as a second chance at fatherhood.
But back to the similarities between Alexander Onassis and JFK Jr. So far we've seen their common love of flying and the burden of living in their legendary fathers' shadow. Alexander was a role model for JFK Jr and Alexander also became a 'big brother' figure for Jr. Further to that, both were the much-loved unofficial 'Crown Princes' of their respective dynasties in their countries of origin, both were said to have insane charisma and were very handsome (in fact, both seem to have inherited the best traits of both their mothers and their fathers).
Plus, both men seem to have fallen for women who did not quite fit into their respective families. Alexander's most famous relationship was with Fiona von Thyssen, who was also 16 years his senior, married (later divorced) and a mother. It goes without saying that neither Onassis nor Tina wanted this match, each for different reasons: Fiona was good friends with Tina (in fact, it was during a party hosted by Tina that Alexander and Fiona met) and Onassis wanted his son to have a son of his own, so that the dynasty would have a future, and a forty-year-old woman wouldn't be able to give him that, especially since she had children of her own, who would collide with Onassis' biological descendants over the vast Onassis fortune. However, Fiona was said to be a good influence on him. Namely, the only gifts of him she would accept would be the ones he had purchased with money he earned on his own.
(Fiona and Alexander)
Now JFK Jr and Carolyn Bessette's romance is more well-known: the 'prince' and the 'commoner', the much-hoped for presidential couple the US never had, hounded by the paparazzi, their fights and reconciliations out in the open for the world to see. Although the Kennedy clan did end up accepting Carolyn (thanks, largely, to RFK's widow and family matriarch, Ethel Kennedy, taking Carolyn under her wing) Carolyn herself did not feel like she fit into the Kennedy clan, at least during the early years of her and JFK Jr's relationship:
The problem John faced was that from the first time Carolyn ever set foot on the family’s property some four years earlier, she didn’t feel that she fit in with his family. While he and his relatives always felt insulated against the world at the compound, cocooned within its familiar, pleasant surroundings, she just felt exposed, as if her deepest insecurities were on display. On some level, he understood that only a person who’d actually been raised a Kennedy could truly fathom the complex machinations of the family’s culture—the competitive nature of their sportsmanship, the constant and not-so-gentle ribbing of one another, their unique camaraderie and secret language, not to mention their constant obsession over the family business: politics, of course. The Kennedys had always existed in an exclusive world, and even John had to admit that sometimes they weren’t welcoming to outsiders. (The Kennedy Heirs, J. Randy Taraborrelli).
Plus, Carolyn had to face intense paparazzi scrutiny (the park row is a highlight of her and JFK Jr's relationship). Fiona was probably spared all that because the paparazzi culture of the 1960s-1970s wasn't as strong as in the 1990s. Or maybe Alexander wasn't as popular abroad as he had been in Greece.
(JFK Jr and Carolyn Bessette)
On another side-similarity between JFK Jr and Alexander - both Carolyn Bessette and Fiona van Thyssen worked as models.
And here we reach the tragic end: both Alexander and JFK Jr perished in plane crashes, and both were the pilots of these fateful planes. But, whereas Alexander's plane crash was due to to technical errors and poor maintenance (even fears of a plot/sabotage aimed to bring down Aristotle Onassis), JFK Jr's crash was due to bad decision-making. Carolyn had had a bad gut feeling about the plane trip to Hyannis (which could explain why she didn't want to go and why she took so damn long to the nail salon to get ready the day of the flight: she likely hoped that JFK Jr wouldn't attempt flying at night, especially since he didn't have the experience needed) and JFK Jr felt too overconfident in his abilities as a pilot.
Sources (selected):
Onassis, Peter Evans
The Kennedy Heirs, J. Randy Taraborrelli
Olympic Airways: A History, Graham Simmons
The Good Son, Chistopher Andersen
THE FATHER
Christina, Aristotle and Alexander Onassis
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