Mimi Alford, from New Jersey, divulged the affair she had with the president when she was a 19-year-old intern in her book Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and its Aftermath.
The now 69-year-old grandmother and retired New York City church administrator worked in the White House press office from the summer of 1962.
Four days into her role, the notoriously sex-addicted president invited her to swim in the White House pool.
And later that same day she lost her virginity to Kennedy at a White House party, the book reveals.
After that she would swim with him in the White House pool, then wait at her desk for him to call her upstairs.
In the book, she describes the sex as “varied and fun”.
She writes: “The fact that I was being desired by the most famous and powerful man in America only amplified my feelings to the point where resistance was out of the question. That’s why I didn’t say no to the president. It’s the best answer I can give.”
Alford never ran into Kennedy’s wife, Jackie, and admits that she didn’t feel guilty.
The affair continued after Alford went to college after her summer in the White House, and the president would send flight tickets and cars to pick her up from the airport.
She details how at one party Kennedy used the drug amyl nitrate.
She writes: “I was sitting next to him in the living room when a handful of yellow capsules — most likely amyl nitrate, commonly known as poppers — was offered up by one of the guests. The president asked me if I wanted to try the drug, which stimulated the heart but also purportedly enhanced sex. I said no, but he just went ahead and popped the capsule and held it under my nose.”
The affair only ended when the president was assassinated in November 1963.
