Maurice Tempelsman, the Belgian-American diamond merchant who spent his final years as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s long-time partner, died in Manhattan on August 23, 2025, at age 95. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution reported that he died from complications of a fall, citing his son Leon.
Who was Maurice Tempelsman?
Tempelsman was a prominent diamond merchant whose business interests included Africa. He also took on civic, cultural and advisory roles, and spent decades fundraising for the Democratic Party. His affiliations included the Corporate Council on Africa and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
He had a long association with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI): he was a member of its corporation from 1990 to 2000, a trustee from 1999 to 2000, an honorary trustee from 2000 to 2009, and a life trustee from 2009 until his death in 2025. WHOI’s obituary recounts his institutional service and public life.
How did Tempelsman know Jackie Kennedy?
Their paths first crossed in the late 1950s, when Kennedy was interested in meeting representatives of South Africa’s diamond industry, according to WHOI. That early acquaintance was distinct from the close relationship that developed later.
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After Aristotle Onassis died in 1975, Tempelsman and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis became close. They appeared publicly together in the early 1980s, according to The Washington Post’s obituary. The White House Historical Association describes Tempelsman as Onassis’s long-time partner during her final years.
The relationship was not a marriage. The Washington Post reported that Tempelsman had married Lilly Burkos in 1949 and that they had three children; it described him as still married but separated during his relationship with Onassis.
What was their relationship in her final years?
Tempelsman was at Onassis’s bedside when she died on May 19, 1994, aged 64, and stood with her children at her funeral and burial at Arlington National Cemetery, according to WHOI. The White House Historical Association’s biography likewise describes her final years with her long-time partner.
“I hate to deflate the romance,” Tempelsman told Insight magazine in 1991, “But the reality is a lot more pedestrian.” WHOI quoted the remark in its obituary. It offers a glimpse of how he resisted turning their private life into a grand public narrative.
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When did Maurice Tempelsman die?
Tempelsman died in Manhattan on August 23, 2025, at age 95. WHOI attributed the cause—complications from a fall—to his son Leon.
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