Maurice Tempelsman, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' companion in her later years, was a safe, tranquil refuge after her turbulent marriages to two of the world's most famous and powerful men.
He amassed a fortune in diamond dealing but was not as rich as Mrs. Onassis' second husband, Aristotle Onassis, who died in 1975.Described as plain and dumpy, he was the polar opposite of the dashing John F. Kennedy, whom Tempelsman assisted early in his career.
"They look like an aging and devoted married couple as they stroll arm in arm in Central Park," said a recent profile in the London Daily Mail, in which Tempelsman was described as "the undisputed `third man' " in Mrs. Onassis' life.
Tempelsman, 64, was separated but never divorced from his wife of 45 years, Lily, the mother of his three grown children.
The unlikely pairing of Tem-pelsman and Mrs. Onassis became public in 1980, after decades in which he had been associated with her as a friend and financial adviser.
Short and grandfatherly-looking, although the same age as the slim, ever-stylish Mrs. Onassis, Tempelsman was born in Belgium in 1929 into a Yiddish-speaking, Orthodox Jewish family that fled to the United States in 1940.
He went to work for his diamond broker father when he was 16 and early in his career established a lasting tie with the De Beers diamond empire.
He and the Kennedys met in the 1950 when Tempelsman arranged a meeting for Kennedy with South African diamond interests.
After Mrs. Onassis was widowed a second time, Tempelsman guided her finances, reportedly quadrupling her worth to nine figures.
In 1982, after the breakup of his marriage, Tempelsman reportedly was spending several nights a week in Mrs. Onassis's 15-room apartment on Fifth Avenue, assuming the host's role on social evenings.
The couple spent summers in Martha's Vineyard and sailed in his 70-foot yacht. They entertained President Clinton and his family on the yacht last summer.