Judith Campbell Exner, a reputed mistress of President John F. Kennedy, says in January's issue of Vanity Fair that she aborted his child 10 months before he was assassinated.
Exner, 62, was interviewed by syndicated columnist Liz Smith for the magazine. Excerpts appeared in New York newspapers Wednesday.Exner says she ended her two-year affair with Kennedy in 1963 because she hated being "the other woman." Exner said she then went to Chicago and discovered she was carrying his child.
Kennedy asked Exner if she wanted to have the baby and then urged her to have Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana arrange for an illegal abortion.
Exner has receipts for the January 1963 procedure performed at Grand Hospital, the magazine reported.
"I was 26 and in love," Exner says in the article. "Was I supposed to have better sense and more judgment than the president of the United States?"
Exner, who is living in Orange County, Calif., with advanced bone and breast cancer, said she disclosed her abortion because she wanted to "demystify" the Kennedy legend.