Diane Sawyer's 'Explosive' Jackie Kennedy Special Airing In September (VIDEO)

ABC is scheduled to air never-before-heard interviews with Jackie Kennedy on September 13. On Wednesday, the network released its first trailer for the show.

The much-anticipated recordings, which are rumored to contain revelations about the former First Lady's romantic affairs and her husband's infidelities, will broadcast as part of a two-hour special with Diane Sawyer called "Jacqueline Kennedy: In Her Own Words."

Jackie Kennedy recorded the interviews with historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. shortly after her husband's death, but had ordered them to be sealed until fifty years after her death. The Daily Mail reports that daughter Caroline agreed to release the tapes early in exchange for ABC dropping its Katie Holmes-led drama series about their family, though the network pointed out that she had planned to release the interviews in a book months beforehand.

The special will put an end to the speculation about the content of the tapes, which was rife when ABC first announced their release in August. The Daily Mail reported the network had called the tapes "explosive," and that Kennedy addressed a possible affair between her husband and an intern as well as a theory that Lyndon B. Johnson was behind her husband's assassination.

The network has since denied those rumors, calling the report "total nonsense." A spokesperson told the New York Post, ""ABC isn't releasing any content from those tapes until mid-September, at which time it will be clear how off base these reports are."

According to the network, the tapes include Jackie Kennedy's reflections on her husband, and life in the White House through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Bay of Pigs, and her husband's last days.

WATCH TRAILER:

Comments

[linbee50]

10:53 PM on 09/18/2011

I admire the Kennedy Clan. They were not perfect people; they were human beings. They all loved their country and tried to serve it well. Just that and that alone makes them deserving of our respect.
Yes, they were a family of priviledge and had everything that money could buy. One thing they shared with all of us is the pain of losing people beloved to them.

[harriettubman]

01:56 AM on 09/14/2011

I watched the show and Jackie was a typical subservient '50s wife. She was ahead of her time, in her early 30s, with tackling the redecoration of the WH though.

However, she was no innocent woman either. I was listening to a radio show today and the daughter of one of Clint Hill's good friends called in discussing the affair Jackie & Clint had. I don't know too many '50s wives who didn't secretly step out while their controlling husbands were sleeping with anything with a skirt.

[robjh1]

04:58 PM on 09/12/2011

What I just read an article on the HuffPost that Jackie did not discuss her husband's infidelities but did mention Martin Luther King's indiscretions. Ha!

[Joann Vallo]

02:14 PM on 09/02/2011

Why do we need to know this stuff? Oh yeah, sawyer's career is about over.

[JTWallace]

11:38 AM on 09/02/2011

You can bet the more controversial tapes won't be included. The joke will be on ABC

[harriettubman]

01:57 AM on 09/14/2011

Carolyn said she didn't edit anything. She thought about it but said it wasn't her story to edit. I think that was a good idea.

[Mij13]

07:41 AM on 09/02/2011

This might be a good program, but the hype is ridiculous! Does anyone really believe Jackie talked to Schlesinger about her sex life or what she thought about LBJ? I don't. Mrs Onassis was notoriously private about anything that personal.

[Stephen Thorpe]

03:45 AM on 09/02/2011

All I want to know is why did George W. Bush seal the Kennedy assaination files for 50 more years?

[JTWallace]

11:40 AM on 09/02/2011

At this point in time, who cares! When the most "powerful" Washingtonians got together to find out who did what, they closed the books and pronounced their official findings. They declared their findings a done deal and closed the books.

[Stephen Thorpe]

12:11 PM on 09/02/2011

It seems to me that the only reason to seal them for another 50 years would be to protect someone or group of someones, like a family, who are powerful, for another 50 years.

[chrisincalif]

01:56 PM on 09/02/2011

At the end of the Warren Commission, the people in DC at that time declared the Kennedy assassination evidence would be sealed for *75* years. Even to a high school kid at the time, it seemed obvious that people whom we would recognize were involved, so those names were being protected until that current generation had passed.

[Stephen Thorpe]

03:00 PM on 09/02/2011

Yes, so they've extended the protection an additional 50 years to protect any decendants who might bear the scrutany of a backlash would be my take on such a move. Just who is that powerful?

[NoSillyName]

02:27 AM on 09/02/2011

I'd like to know why the VO is pronouncing her name as "JackeLEEN". She's always been called "JackaLIN", as most people with the name Jacqueline". Now, if that is how she pronounced it, fine, but I've never heard the "LEEN" ever and I've been hearing her name since she was the First Lady.

Am I the only one who's heard this promo? Like a few hundred times?

[ShannonHiggins]

04:52 PM on 09/02/2011

Jackie did pronounce her name-ending in "leen", but was ridiculed for that (among other things) by the Kennedy sisters and Ethel reportedly said it rhymed with "queen". She also hated being called 'Jackie'.

[NoSillyName]

05:33 PM on 09/02/2011

Ok, thanks. Take your word for it. Never heard it pronounced that way. I can understand not liking "Jackie". "Jack & Jackie", sounds like an early '60s singing duo, à la "Paul & Paula" ("Hey Hey Paula...")

[edfou5]

11:26 PM on 09/01/2011

I admire Caroline Kennedy tremendously, but I really don't understand this trade-off. I'm assuming we'll find that the "bombshells" in the "Jackie Tapes" aren't really bombshells. Perhaps I'll be proven wrong. I hope I am, for history's sake. The truth is a good thing.

I've seen the miniseries she managed to keep off the air, it's easy to find online. It doesn't portray any aspect of the Kennedy saga that hasn't been common knowledge for decades, it portrays her mother in a very positive light, it includes exceptional performances (the actor portraying RFK nails it, as does Greg Kinnear as JFK, as does Ms. Holmes, in all three cases the best portrayal of those three Kennedy's I've ever seen, and I've seen them all,) it's well done and it's pretty harmless. Any cats it brings to light are already long out of the bag. Much ado about nothing.

Surely Ms. Kennedy knew that the miniseries would be aired somewhere, someday, and that it would end up on DVD...

[harriettubman]

02:03 AM on 09/14/2011

Carolyn tried to fight any viewing of the movie, period but it didn't work. Republicans banished the film of the Reagans too but I found it for rent and it was a good movie too. All that fussing for nothing.

While she was alive, Elizabeth Taylor stopped any movies from being made about her life too.

[AsISaid]

09:39 PM on 09/01/2011

Is Jackie Kennedy, shortly after her husband's death going to actually say she suspected LBJ?

I doubt it. Have to see and hear it to believe it.

Is Jackie Kennedy, a classy woman, going to say that her husband had a fling with an intern?

I doubt it. Have to see and hear it to believe it.

Is Jackie Kennedy, a private woman in reality, going to admit to having affairs herself as paybacks to her husband?

I doubt it. I have to see and hear it to believe it.

I would bet none of this stuff is addressed directly. It would go against anything that has been the image of this woman.

[Queso Grande]

10:15 PM on 09/01/2011

Amen. FF'd.

[springsm]

10:59 PM on 09/01/2011

Well I for one, hope that none of the gossipy crap is brought up. Those happenstances have no place in these history lessons.

[franwnyc]

09:22 PM on 09/01/2011

Please,let the dead rest. Now, Caroline is caught up in the Kennedy mystique. The president has been dead for almost 48 years. Mrs. Onassis since 1994. Please let the dead rest!

[springsm]

10:57 PM on 09/01/2011

These kennedys never will be able to rest. And I think Caroline has tried to NOT release materials. Gosh, she deserves what little she has of her parents and brother. I don't think Caroline is "caught up" in anything..she is a Kennedy and she has the key to releasing ..and pressure has to be great to do that.

[NoSillyName]

02:28 AM on 09/02/2011

Anything thing for ratings. Sadly.

[teeniechino]

06:57 PM on 09/01/2011

I remember hearing about this when I was a kid -- as I remember it, it was what she really thought happened. I don't think it was all that long after the assassination, maybe a few years. I thought they were documents, though. I remember doing the math as to my age in 50 years.

[GiantsFan44]

06:31 PM on 09/01/2011

NatGeo played the Kennedy Assassination this week with tapes never before seen. I was surprised at how they put it together and provided a much better understanding of what went on in the background those 4 days in November. There was more detailed info on happenings in Dallas that I had never seen and witnesses who spoke wih anchors during those days, including Zagruder. The Dallas police handling of evidence was pretty poor, no gloves etc and no evidence bags but that was more a sign of the time period and what was known about investigating, I guess.. Any good lawyer probably could have gotten Oswald off on evidence handling alone. I was really surprised the FBI let Dallas PD take the lead. I will watch this special as well. Diane Sawyer is not a fave of mine but the Jackie content is what I will be looking for and at. I am sure she knew what her husband was up to and there are stories about her taking vacaions to Scorpios during his administration..

[Queso Grande]

11:48 PM on 09/01/2011

"Any good lawyer probably could have gotten Oswald off on evidence handling alone."

In 1995, Norman Mailer published his brilliant biography of Lee Harvey Oswald, "Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery." Speaking at a book signing in Dallas shortly after his book was released, Mailer (never one to doubt his own prowess in any endeavor) stated that he was 95% sure he could have have gotten Oswald acquitted for the JFK assassination. I wish that I would have thought to ask Mr. Mailer if he was as sure that he could have gotten Owald acquitted for the murder of Dallas police officer J.D. Tippitt, whom Oswald shot in broad daylight, in front of several witnesses, an hour after JFK was shot.
Shortly before the JFK assassination, Oswald attempted to murder Gen. Edwin A. Walker at the general's home in Dallas. There were no witnesses to this shooting, but there was strong evidence suggesting that the same rifle, Oswald's rifle, was used in both crimes.
People who promote conspiracy theories about the JFK assassination pretty much have to either ignore Oswald almost completely, or present him as a weak, ineffectual, one-dimensional figure. He was anything but.
Read Mailer's book. Oswald was a manipulative, violent, sadistic, murdering sociopath. The whole time he lived with his wife, Marina, he beat her. Furthermore, and in my opinion, Oswald's personality was such that he would have been incapable of conspiring with anyone to do anything.
Great discussions here on HP, as usual.

[CenaW]

01:35 AM on 09/02/2011

Did you know Edwin A. Walker was a Bircher?
And the theories about Bircher involvment in shootings.

[springsm]

05:56 PM on 09/01/2011

I wonder how Caroline Kennedy Schlosser (sp) feels about seeing these.

[AsISaid]

09:34 PM on 09/01/2011

She's the one releasing them.

[springsm]

10:55 PM on 09/01/2011

Well as i said, "I wonder how Caroline K S feels about that"....she was no doubt pressured because it has been so many years. I hope she sits on the rest.

[harriettubman]

02:06 AM on 09/14/2011

At this point, time has healed some of CKS's wounds. It gave us an insight into her notoriously private mother.

[NorthWoodsVoice]

05:42 PM on 09/01/2011

Diane Sawyer? C'mon, couldn't they find a real journalist? She's just too dopey for words.

[teeniechino]

06:46 PM on 09/01/2011

Speaking of dopey......

[NoSillyName]

02:31 AM on 09/02/2011

Cannot stand that woman. ABC Evening News is now just more infotainment with her. And yet, the ratings are high. Says a lot about the appetites of the GP. Sickening.