(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

BY LAUREN ZIMA

ANCHOR MEGAN MURPHY

In a new book, a woman who is now a 69-year-old grandmother and retired church administrator claims to have had an affair with President John F. Kennedy -- when she was only 19 years old. 

Mimi Alford’s book is called “Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath.”

Alford says she lost her virginity to President Kennedy when she was a White House Intern. The Herald Sun reports she met Kennedy in 1962, when the President was 45 years old.

“Alford was invited by Dave Powers, the president's ‘first friend’, to a White House party. She claims her affair with Kennedy began when the president invited her for a personal tour and then took her to ‘Mrs. Kennedy's room’. … ‘I was in shock,’ she writes of her post coital thoughts. ‘He, on the other hand, was matter-of-fact …’”

Alford says JFK never kissed her. But for more than a year -- after her internship ended and she’d gone to college -- he called her to meet him in hotels and even flew her to the White House. The Daily Mail has some of the more salacious stories.

“ … he 'forced' her to sniff amyl nitrate, commonly known as poppers, during a Hollywood party at Bing Crosby's desert ranch. … She also tells of how JFK asked her to 'take care' of his friends … ' … This was a challenge to give Dave Powers oral sex. I don’t think the president thought I’d do it, but I’m ashamed to say that I did... The president silently watched,' she said.”

Alford also says Kennedy asked her on a later date to ‘take care’ of his brother, Ted, but she refused. Sex aside, JFK also confided in her.

“ … Kennedy … even asked her to console him following the death of his baby son, Patrick … At the height of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis … Kennedy [told her]: ‘I’d rather my children were red than dead.’”

The story ends with JFK’s assassination. The two met for a last rendezvous in Manhattan in November 1963, just a week before he was assassinated in Dallas. Alford was set to marry her college sweetheart. The New York Post has an excerpt.

“‘He took me in his arms … and said, ‘I wish you were coming with me to Texas. … I’ll call you when I get back.’ I was overcome with sudden sadness. ‘Remember, Mr. President, I’m getting married.’ ‘I know that,’ he said, and shrugged. ‘But I’ll call you anyway.’ ”

Alford’s identity was first revealed in 2003 when another book blew the 40-year secret. She says she never met the First Lady during the entire affair.