The Eccentric Life Of Jackie Kennedy Onassis' Cousin

April 2024 · 2 minute read

Edith Bouvier Beale and her mother, Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale, allegedly loved the documentary about their lives, "Grey Gardens." As revealed by The Vintage News, both women received $5,000 each for their involvement — no doubt enough to keep them afloat for a while after filming was completed.

Sadly, two years after the release of "Grey Gardens," Big Edie died, leaving her daughter with the crumbling property (via Town & Country). Beale decided she would finally sell the estate, spending the next two years looking for a buyer. According to "The Georgetown Ladies' Social Club," the former socialite tried selling the property to her famous cousin, Jackie Kennedy Onassis (who, at this point, was married to Aristotle Onassis). "My impoverishment ... became a vast public relations problem for Jackie," Beale recalled, adding, "She wanted nothing to do with it."

With her cousin out of the picture, Beale set out to look for a buyer that wouldn't bulldoze the house and, as such, priced it at $220,000 per Town & Country. Finally, in 1979, Ben Bradlee and his wife, Sally Quinn, purchased Grey Gardens. In a haunting tale Quinn later recalled to Town & Country, although she was horrified by the dilapidated state the home was in, she saw its potential. "I said, 'Oh my God, this is the most beautiful house I've ever seen.' And Edie did this little pirouette in the middle of the hall and she said, 'Yes, all it needs is a coat of paint.'"

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