Welcome to People as Books. I’m glad you’re here. Let’s explore a story that reveals more than meets the eye. Remember the lessons Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis shared with us? The first time you marry for love, the second for money, and the third for companionship. Quite a statement, right? Let’s dive into the fascinating story of Maurice Tempelsman, her last love and a man who lived life in the shadows of power and diamonds.
One of her many biographers noted that she was always attracted to outsiders. John Kennedy, a Boston Irishman on both her father’s and mother’s sides, then Aristotle Onassis, an ethnic Greek born in Ottoman Turkey, and Maurice Tempelsman, a Jewish immigrant of Belgian descent. As one of the journalists quipped, balding and burly, who clearly lacked the impetuosity of her first husband and the brilliance of her second.
This mysterious Belgian-American diamond magnate with extensive political connections, a refined taste for French cuisine and Havana cigars, and a business legacy in Africa that drew media attention was the least known and final companion of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis until her death in 1994. After her death, he never gave a single interview, never wrote a memoir, even though he had so much to share, so many memories to tell.
And about his family of diamond dealers, who in 1940 had to flee Belgium to escape the Nazi invasion. And about his father’s business in New York, which had to start from scratch in a fiercely competitive environment. And about his long-running African saga, years spent in countries where diamonds were not just an economy, but a part of politics itself.
Over time, Maurice Tempelsman became one of the key informal intermediaries between the leaders of several African nations and US officials on issues of diamond mining and export, which is concluded from the investigation of the Pambazuka News, Voices of Freedom and Justice in Africa. His role was complex, sometimes ambiguous, and often debated, but he was the one who kept the dialogue going where others couldn’t or wouldn’t step in to negotiate.
He knew both, according to the Times, Mobutu Sese Seko, the kleptocratic ruler, and Patrice Lumumba, the passionate nationalist. Two very different figures on opposite sides of Zaire’s political story. He felt equally at home in the palaces of African autocrats and in the halls of the White House, moving comfortably among diplomats.
Mr. Tempelsman was one of only six non-family members to stay at the White House the night Mrs. Kennedy returned after her husband’s assassination in Dallas. He even flew aboard Air Force One as part of President Bill Clinton’s official delegation during a visit to Moscow. He was a lifelong supporter of the US Democratic Party.
For Kennedy’s campaign alone, he contributed around a million dollars. A man with serious connections, a mysterious past, immense wealth, and impeccable French. Maurice was born on August 26th, 1929 in Antwerp to Helen Nater and Leon Tempelsman, Orthodox Jews who spoke Galician Yiddish at home. His father was an importer and commodities trader.
In 1940, fleeing the advancing Nazis, the family hurriedly escaped to America and settled on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with other refugees. He matured early. By the age of 16, he was already working alongside his father, mastering the craft and learning that in jewelry, a stone’s quality is not everything. Reputation, precision, and keeping one’s word matter just as much.
He would later say that diamonds are like people, the true value is always hidden inside. It took him only two years at New York University to realize that academia wasn’t his path, and he returned to his father’s new business venture, Leon Tempelsman and Son, which was a diamond merchant company.
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Fate, though not without his own efforts, was preparing him for a truly remarkable twist in his life. When he was still a teenager, Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, head of De Beers, the company that controlled nearly the entire global diamond market, called him a child prodigy. As time proved, the title was well deserved.
According to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, in 1950, Maurice Tempelsman persuaded the US government to buy African diamonds for industrial and military purposes, acting as a de facto intermediary. He became a millionaire at just 21. Most African mines were then controlled by De Beers, blocked from the US market.
The young Tempelsman built direct ties with leaders in Congo, Sierra Leone, Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Rwanda, and Ghana, sometimes dealing with controversial figures like Mobutu Sese Seko, which he may have later regretted. Ultimately, Mr. Tempelsman played a prominent role in organizing the diamond industry in many African countries.
In 1984, he acquired America’s largest diamond company, Lazare Kaplan International, LKI, known for its perfect cut diamonds. LKI I helped set up one of the first cutting factories in Africa and had investments and business ties with nearly all major diamond mines and operations across the continent and beyond.
According to sources, Mr. Tempelsman also held stakes in African copper and cobalt mines. Lazare Kaplan International Company remains the only natural diamond wholesaler ever traded on the US stock exchange. According to an official document from NYSE Arca, Lazare Kaplan International was delisted in August 2010 due to the fact that it did not file its financial statements.
His close ties within the political world also proved significant. Mr. Tempelsman became well acquainted with people in the circles of several US presidents, from John F. Kennedy’s speechwriter, Ted Sorensen, to Secretary of State under Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright, and National Security Advisor, Anthony Lake.
In later life, Mr. Tempelsman supported various charitable causes, including the Elton John AIDS Foundation. He kept his personal life private, but in the professional sphere, he was a regular presence at major industry events, from GIA symposiums to World Diamond Council meetings. And now, we arrive at the most unexpected and perhaps the most romantic chapter of his life, his connection with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
The media reports that they first met at one of the receptions in the White House. In fact, there is accurate evidence that the personal meeting took place at the historic Mount Vernon estate of the American presidents at a reception in honor of Pakistani President Mohammad Ayub Khan. Maurice and his wife were among the many guests who trampled the green lawns and stood in a long queue to greet the presidential couple.
Jacqueline was delighted to exchange a few words with him in French. That moment became the beginning of their friendship. He even sent his congratulations when she married Onassis, polite, restrained, impeccably worded as only he could do. Maurice Tempelsman always chose his phrases carefully, dressing his feelings in elegance and understatement.
Only much later would it become clear that his affection for Jacqueline had never truly left him. It began the day he first saw her on the campaign stage. It stayed through her White House years, through the black veil of Dallas, and even through her marriage to Onassis. For decades, he kept his distance, lived his life, built an empire, yet he never stopped holding space for her in his heart.
And eventually, their paths met again at the right time in the quiet way that destiny sometimes works. After the death of her second husband, Aristotle Onassis, in 1975, and her long-time financial advisor, Maurice Tempelsman became Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s principal financial guide. With his help, Jacqueline’s $26 million settlement from Aristotle Onassis in 1975 grew significantly.
According to her executors, it had reached about $43.7 million by the time of her passing and rose to nearly $73 million after the auction of her estate. And in the early ’80s, Mr. Templeman and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis began to be spotted together at parties and restaurants on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Times have changed. Jacqueline did not want to get married anymore. She just felt good and calm with Maurice. In rare photographs, he is always somewhere nearby, half a step behind his lady with an umbrella helpfully open, with that smile of triumph and adoration on his lips. Precise as a clock, impeccably courteous, like a courtier from the time of Louis the 13th.
Even her mother, Janet, who hadn’t really liked any of her daughter’s husbands, approved of Jacqueline’s choice. However, her New York friends were divided in their opinions of Maurice Templeman. Some described him as loving and charming, while others saw him as controlling and a bit insecure. Knowing that people viewed him almost as a kind of Jacqueline’s live-in boyfriend, he remained married and had grown children.
But by that point, it hardly mattered to anyone. According to reports, he arranged a divorce with his wife, known in Orthodox Judaism as a get, and soon moved into his beloved’s 15-room penthouse on Fifth Avenue. The Kennedy clan simply called him MT. They were often seen together in Central Park. Mr.
Templeman always in a suit and tie, while Mrs. Kennedy Onassis sometimes wore a colorful scarf on her head and an oversized coat. He gave her a diamond-studded ring, which she playfully called her swimming ring. At the small dinners she occasionally hosted at her Fifth Avenue apartment, he was in charge of preparing the sauces.
They often spoke in French, enjoyed quiet meals at restaurants, went to the ballet, movies, and theater in the city, and spent weekends at her horse farm in New Jersey or on Martha’s Vineyard. He had a way of bringing into her life what the French call joie de vivre. In 1993, they sailed aboard Templeman’s schooner Relemac with President Clinton and his wife.
It was around that time that the first signs of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma appeared, the cancer that would eventually take her life. Doctors gave her 5 years. For the last 6 months, as Jacqueline was fading away, Maurice was by her side. He even moved his office to her penthouse. Through every medical procedure, to every doctor’s appointment, they were always together.
One of her friends later remarked, with a hint of jealousy, “I don’t think Kennedy or Onassis would have ever watched over her so faithfully, gone to every hospital, every treatment.” At her funeral, Mr. Templeman read one of her favorite poems, Ithaca by Constantine Cavafy, which uses Odysseus’ journey as a metaphor for life.
Maurice will shoulder the sorrowful burden of managing her funeral and estate, and will also organize the legendary Sotheby’s auction in 1996. After her death, he vanished from the public eye just as quietly as he had lived. He gave no interviews, never used her name, and did not sell any memories.
He was very close to John Kennedy Jr., for whose fiance, Carolyn Bessette, he recreated a 16-diamond-studded ring similar to the one he had given Jackie for her engagement, her swimming ring. Templeman also tried to persuade John not to learn to fly, but it was in vain. The international diamond magnate and philanthropist who opened the US market and aid to African countries and the possibility of influence in Africa for the United States passed away on August 23rd,
2025 at a Manhattan hospital. “He knew how to stay close to people without getting too close,” William Bradford, the US chargé d’affaires in Sierra Leone in the early 1960s, told Newsweek, “so that when they fell, he didn’t fall.” The man behind the scenes. Diamonds shine brightest against a black background.
Please share your thoughts on Maurice Templeman and his relationship with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in the comments. Do you believe in love? If you enjoyed this story, don’t forget to like and subscribe. It’s free and really supports the channel. And tell me, who would you like me to cover in the next video? Drop your suggestions in the comments.
I’m excited to hear which stories you want to explore next. I’ve included links in the description to books and documentaries about the political intrigues of that era, investigative journalism, Africa’s blood diamonds, and the behind-the-scenes deals that shaped history.
