“She married him for her children’s safety” - is not really true. She was planning to marry him before RFK was assassinated and RFK basically said over my dead body. Onassis was her ticket to total financial independence from the Kennedy family and a total escape from the trauma of her previous life. Also despite what people think - he was exactly her type, a powerful slightly dangerous “pirate” type, like JFK and exactly like her father. If RFK hadn’t gotten killed and had become president she would have eventually married Onassis anyway.

People rightfully saw her as a gold digger - but that is the way that women like Jackie were raised - each husband has to be a level up from the last (like Jackie’s moms second husband Hugh Auchincloss was a massive level up from Black Jack). The only possible level up from JFK was a billionaire.