JFK Could've Ended Up With Another Woman The Night He Met Jackie O

John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy Onassis are one of history's most iconic couples. The President and his First Lady may seem like a match made in heaven — both hailing from wealthy, powerful families that moved in the same social circles. According to many, Jackie was the apparent choice for JFK. Katie Couric Media reported that JFK once said his father "told him it was time to get married, and his father preferred Jackie."

But Jackie wasn't the only girl in JFK's life before, after, and during their marriage. And it could have very well been another woman he ended up with the night the pair met at a dinner party in 1951. The event hosts, Charles and Martha Bartlett, knew both eligible individuals and thought they'd be ideal for one another. However, Martha was worried that JFK "would enjoy Jackie, or that she would enjoy him," according to "'Camera Girl': The story of Jackie before JFK." So she pulled a social faux pas for the era — inviting an extra lady to create a mismatch in the male-to-female ratio.

That woman may have almost become Mrs. Kennedy had Jackie O and JFK not hit it off. 

Speaking to the book's author, Carl Sferazza Anthony, Martha Bartlett said, "I had my other good friend, Loretta Summers. We had an extra woman, which was very peculiar. But we had it anyway! And so, if he didn't like one, at least he wouldn't be bored. Because he did show boredom." Apparently, JFK prioritized excitement in female companions; James Patterson, author of "The House of Kennedy," writes what a close friend said of Jack and Jackie, "'There was nothing Jack liked better than a challenge," and he decidedly saw that challenge in Jackie. It's unknown if he even glanced at Loretta that night with Jackie O captivating him.

But at the end of the night, Jackie knew that "he would have a disturbing effect" on her life. That feeling almost made her want to flee the scene, according to Anthony. Nevertheless, she stuck it out because she knew that "whatever heartbreak he was going to inevitably bring her, it would be worth it." The dinner host, Martha, divulged that though she and her husband could be accused of shamelessly matchmaking, Jackie was always working behind the scenes too.

Loretta faded into history, while the unforgettable couple's story still entices us today.

Unfortunately, John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy Onassis' love story didn't end happily ever after. Their marriage was fraught with problems and hardships. The former president's infidelity was infamous, and the affairs likely caused Jackie great sadness. She wasn't naïve about her husband's activities, but still, it has been said that she deeply respected the permanency of her marriage vows. Then, there was the family's difficult journey to parenthood and JFK's traumatic death that left Jackie feeling like her only choice was to marry her second husband, Aristotle Onassis.

Martha Bartlett confessed about the results of her matchmaking, "I find it terribly sad. It's a sad tale. You don't think so? In the end. But I think we all liked to believe that the beginning was magical," writes Carl Sferazza Anthony in "'Camera Girl': The story of Jackie before JFK."

Still, others, like JFK's close friend and confidante, Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings, claim that Jackie knew about JFK's infidelity long before she married him and still decided to tie the knot. In fact, he told the future First Lady that his friend "had known many, many girls" and "that she was going to have to be very understanding," according to his oral history interview with the JFK Library. And as far as we know, for their decade-long marriage, she exercised the tacit patience of a saint.