Jackie and Ari had started as dear friends. It wasn’t until a few years after the assassination of her first husband, President John F. Kennedy, that their courtship actually began. Aristotle Onassis, a Greek shipping mogul, was one of the wealthiest men in the world and Jackie, an American icon. The pair married on Onassis’s private island of Skorpios on October 20, 1968, an event that was played out on the small screen by Katie Holmes and Alexander Siddig. The actors were snapped shooting the wedding scene for the ReelzChannel’s The Kennedys: After Camelot, a follow-up to 2011’s miniseries, Holmes looking every bit the beautiful, Valentino-clad newly minted Mrs. O.
The real Jackie and Aristotle Onassis, who were 23 years apart in age on their wedding day, married in a similar fashion with an intimate, happy Greek Orthodox ceremony all those years ago. The Kennedy children, Caroline and John, Jr., participated in the ceremony by holding the candles that were traditionally held by Greek pages during a marriage. Jackie’s sister Lee Radziwill was the matron of honor, and around 40 close family and friends attended the event.
Above is a look back at the joyful, historic nuptials of a former First Lady to her longtime friend and newfound love, Ari.
