Washington: One of President Kennedy's first lovers to confess is Marion Fahnestock, who became his lover after tantalising him when she was just 18. She is being swamped with book offers.

First catching JFK's eye when she went to the White House in 1961 to interview his wife Jacqueline for her school newspaper, the ravishing teenager, a daughter of wealthy parents, was quickly installed as a Washington intern - the same job given to President Bill Clinton's lover Monica Lewinsky.

And in no time Marion swapped her studies for a steamy affair with the world's most powerful man. She carried on sharing his bed even after getting engaged to her future husband Anthony. Not only did she and Kennedy romp in the White House, he also took her on state visits abroad.

Now, the raven-haired beauty-who lives in New York's posh Upper East side has said, "It is true. From June 1962 to November 1963 I was in a sexual relationship with President Kennedy. For the last 41 years it's a subject I have not discussed."

Friends and relatives of quiet church worker Marion, now 60, are still reeling after she blew the secret she had hidden for four decades. She never let on about the affair to her banker husband Anthony, who she divorced before he died of cancer in 1993. And she only confessed to daughters Lisa, 34, and Jenny 31, on the eve of going public.

ANI