JFK's Secret Love Letters to Swedish Woman Offered for Auction

Before John F. Kennedy was president of the United States, he was an ambitious U.S. senator. And before he married Jacqueline Bouvier, Kennedy began a fleeting but passionate romance with a Swedish woman. The relationship continued after he was married.

Kennedy's relationship with Gunilla von Post is documented in poignant letters and telegrams. Up until now, von Post kept the correspondence locked away, so it's never been public.

Today Von Post offers the love letters for auction.

In the letters, Kennedy expresses, in his scrawling longhand, his feelings for von Post.

The two met on the French Riviera in the summer of 1953. He was 36, and she was 21. They danced all night, and parted with a passionate On June 28, 1954, during the summer after he was married, Kennedy wrote to von Post, saying: "I might get a boat and sail around the Mediterranean for two weeks -- with you as crew."

But their plans for a secret rendezvous fell apart when Kennedy badly injured his back.

In November 1954, he wrote to her from the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan. His letter seemed full of longing.

"I am still in the hospital after two months. I was terribly disappointed that at the last moment I was not able to come to Europe, especially when you were going to be in Paris and we could have had such a good time…" He wrote that he was going to see her without fail if she wasn't "all settled down" by then.

In the same letter, he writes at the end: "Is there any chance you will be coming to the U.S.?"

Von Post, now 78 years old, first revealed the affair in a 1997 book. In an interview that year with ABC News' "20/20," she described how her heart went "boom-boom-boom-boom."

"I was very happy to hear from him, but I said 'he's a married man,'" she told "20/20."

It wasn't until the following year that the two got together, slipping away to an old castle in Sweden.

"I borrowed him for a week, a beautiful week that no one can take away from me, from that," she told "20/20."

John Reznikoff, president of University Archives, said the correspondence was "seeping with regret … these two people wanted to be together and it wasn't meant to be."

"We've heard all the rumors, we know that JFK had many mistresses, but here we have proof. But not tawdry … a sensitive love affair that you can understand through the correspondence."

Von Post has described the feelings between her and Kennedy as "electrical." But it wasn't to last.

In his final letter to von Post in August 1955, Kennedy wrote as though he sensed their destinies were drifting apart.

"I just got word today -- that my wife and sister are coming here. It will all be complicated the way I feel now -- my Swedish Flicka. All I have done is sit in the sun and look and the Ocean and think of Gunilla … All Love, Jack."

The letters are being auctioned to the public by LegendaryAuctions.com. Online bidding begins at $25,000.

Doug Allen, president of Legendaryauctions.com, believes they'll fetch far more.

"We'll let the market determine the real economic value of this," he said. "My guess is they'll go for $100,000."

For Inspiration Only

4 things you should never do with your credit cards

1. Don't make only the minimum payments. This stretches out your payment and, thanks to the interest, significantly increases your overall cost.

2. Don't carry too many cards. Multiple cards make it easier to rack up debt because it's harder to keep track of your spending. Having lots of cards isn't necessarily bad for your credit, but misusing them is. So limit your plastic to two national cards (store cards often carry higher interest rates) that you manage carefully.

3. Don't miss payment due dates. Not only will you be hit with a late fee-as high as $39 on some cards-but your interest rate could also jump. Sign up for online banking or pay over the phone if you're up against the deadline. (You may pay a processing fee, but it will probably be less than the late fee and the possible interest-rate hike.)

4. Don't take cash advances. These advances generally come with sky-high interest rates and service fees, making them a far too expensive way to get cash. Avoid at all costs.

Funny and Odd pictures from the world

9 Reasons People Cheat

Why do I find it so easy not to cheat?

Maybe I'm not very attractive, so my options are limited. Maybe I'm too jaded to go for the cheating opportunities. Maybe I still have some mental wounds lingering from when my dad temporarily moved out because he had met another woman. Maybe I'm too afraid that I've reached my sin quotient and one more big sin will keep me out of heaven.

Cheating is not a caught in the moment thing if you are really into your significant other, you miss them when you are not with them, you don't look for a way to hurt or deceive them.

I am just now patching up a friendship with someone I was seeing while they had a boyfriend (that may make me a cheater). At different points she told me that she had broken up with her boyfriend, that they were back together, and that he was boring and I was fun. It was total confusion.

I told her she wasn't being fair to herself, me, or him.

Finally, she said, "you just don't understand, there are things you don't know." Thing is she's been cheating on him for a couple of years with different guys, and he keeps taking her back.

So, are cheaters born cheaters, or do certain situations cause people to cheat? Probably a little bit of both. Here are some situations that make people cheat:

1. Bored
I'd say this is the most common reason that people cheat.It's tough to keep that edge throughout a relationship. Things start off grand and then level off and then you both realize that it's still real life. When you meet someone else, that inaugural excitement of a new relationship kicks back in.

2. Dependence
At first glance, cheating seems like independent behavior. It could be interpreted as doing what you want, when you want. But I would argue that cheating is a dependent behavior. A cheater is dependent because they are not strong enough to break up with their significant other in order to get with the new person.

3. Confusion
Sometimes life or a particular situation can get to you. When the perfect storm of confusion is going on in your head, you make mistakes.

4. Because They Let You
If any girl ever cheated on me, I'd break up with her immediately. Forgiving a cheater is putting up with it, and starts a vicious cycle. That person who cheated may lose respect for you and might continue to cheat-because they know they can get away with it, because you'll continue to take them back.

5. Nurturing
If someone is mistreating you, then your first instinct is to get away from him or her. But sometimes it's not that simple-maybe you are raising kids together. If you feel trapped in a bad relationship, it's only natural that you will run to the open arms of a person who treats you well.

6. Revenge
This is quite simple- an eye for an eye. Cheat on them if they cheat on you. If they continuously hurt you or abuse you in some way, you do it to get them back.

7. Confirmation of Attractiveness
Sometimes when you're in a long relationship, or if your significant other is taking you for granted, you begin to wonder if you're still attractive. Perhaps, because you were out on the dating circuit, you felt more attractive when you were single. If you have an affair, you've proven that a new person can be attracted to you.

8. The Thrill
Some people just enjoy the thrill of cheating: running around secretly, risking getting caught, andcreating thrilling moments with a forbidden romance.

9. They Don't Consider It Cheating, Even Though You Might
Relationships have that grey area, usually right before you become exclusive. He thinks date #4 is when you're "together," and you think date #2 is when you're "together." If you haven't talked about exclusivity, someone may think they are well within their rights to see other people, even though the other person in the relationship may not.

I don't understand why people don't break up as soon as they have an urge to cheat. Is it natural to have temptation, or is temptation a sign that the relationship is losing its fire? What reasons would you add to this list, and do you disagree with any? If you've ever cheated, why did you do it? Could you forgive a cheater? If you are single, but seeing a person who is in a committed relationship, does that make you a cheater?

Fascinating Facts About Successful Single Men

Dating a loaded guy has long been a fantasy for some single women. In fact, your own mother may have even quipped that it's just as easy to fall for a wealthy man as it is a poor one.

Plus, statistically, affluent men are on the rise. According to the 2007 Wealth Report, there are more richies in the world than ever:

9.5 million people are earning at least $1 million annually, 9.5 million people are earning at least $1 million annually, and 94,970 are pulling in at least $30 million each year. Here's the lowdown on dudes with mad bank.

In the past, you would expect ambitious moneymakers to be MBA holders firmly entrenched in the financial world. "These days, though many young guys work for big-risk, big-reward hedge funds, more and more are successfully combining their creativity with their technological savvy," says Haitao Li, PhD, professor of finance at the University of Michigan. Here are some high-profile wealthy Web entrepreneurs.

• Mark Zuckerberg, 23, founder of Facebook...$1.5 billion
• Andrew Gower, 29, founder of Runescape...$216 million
• Chad Hurley, 30, cofounder of You Tube...$300 million
• Andrew Michael, 29, founder of FastHosts...$87 million

"When rich guys travel, they stay at posh hotels because they expect the best of everything," says Janis Spindel, matchmaker for wealthy professionals. And at dinner, they don't settle for anything less than grade-A beef, so four-star steak houses are prime ground for high-powered business types. Before sitting down to rack up the bill (on the company expense account, of course), they'll probably hit the bar first.

Most people want to be loved for who they are, not what they do. And that includes wealthy men. "Gold diggers do not give off a cute vibe," says one successful 27-year-old investment banker. "They feign interest in your profession, only hang around when you're headed to the most exclusive restaurant or club, and then often invite nine of their closest friends to tag along."

Yeah, it may sound shallow, but according to Donna Spangler, author of "How to Get a Rich Man", cashed-up guys think they deserve to be with trophy women, or women they deem prizeworthy. Says Spangler: "They want you to be extremely beautiful, be able to plan social schedules, and have good manners."

Blond is reputed to be the most alluring hair color, but according to a survey by Lycos, 62 percent of the world's top 100 billionaires' wives and girlfriends are brunettes. What's still unclear: whether these rich men seek out darker-haired women or if there are just more of them out there (fair hair is rarer).

Polo Ralph Lauren is the brand most likely to be purchased by wealthy male shoppers when buying goodies for themselves. The rest of the list includes Calvin Klein, Armani, Coach, and Burberry.

Vatican forgives John Lennon for Jesus remark

The Vatican's newspaper has finally forgiven John Lennon for declaring that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ, calling the remark a "boast" by a young man grappling with sudden fame.

The comment by Lennon to a London newspaper in 1966 infuriated Christians, particularly in the United States, some of whom burned Beatles' albums in huge pyres.

But time apparently heals all wounds.

"The remark by John Lennon, which triggered deep indignation mainly in the United States, after many years sounds only like a 'boast' by a young working-class Englishman faced with unexpected success, after growing up in the legend of Elvis and rock and roll," Vatican daily Osservatore Romano said.

The article, marking the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' The White Album, went on to praise the pop band.

"The fact remains that 38 years after breaking up, the songs of the Lennon-McCartney brand have shown an extraordinary resistance to the passage of time, becoming a source of inspiration for more than one generation of pop musicians," it said.

Lennon was murdered in New York in 1980.