FBI Surveillance Targeted JFK Relationship With Inga Arvad

Federal investigators scrutinized John F. Kennedy's relationship with Danish journalist Inga Arvad during World War II, examining her professional background and monitoring the couple's private meetings. The episode, detailed in Laurence Leamer's biography released October 20, 2026, describes how concerns about Arvad's past reporting in Nazi Germany prompted an investigation that followed Kennedy from Washington to Charleston, South Carolina.

According to Town & Country's October 20 report, Kennedy met Arvad in Washington in 1941, when he was a 24-year-old U.S. Navy ensign. Arvad, who was four years older, worked for the Washington Times-Herald and had previously interviewed Adolf Hitler and other Nazi leaders.

Arvad acknowledged having access to Hitler's private box but denied being a spy or supporting the Nazi regime. Suspicion raised by a fellow reporter prompted authorities to investigate her background and her relationship with Kennedy.

The Office of Naval Intelligence subsequently transferred Kennedy to Charleston as concerns surrounding the relationship intensified, according to Town & Country. FBI agents monitored Arvad's telephone calls and mail, searched her apartment, examined her finances and conducted physical surveillance.

Investigators also tracked the couple after Kennedy's transfer. In early February 1942, Arvad stayed in room 132 at the Fort Sumter Hotel, where authorities had arranged surveillance to document her meetings with Kennedy.

Town & Country reported that agents observed intimate encounters but found little evidence beyond the couple's sexual relationship. Despite the monitoring, Arvad continued visiting Kennedy, exposing the young naval officer to potential professional consequences.

Arvad's marital circumstances added another complication. Her estranged husband, Paul Fejos, became a source of concern after she traveled to New York to seek a divorce, and Kennedy worried that Fejos might sue him.

The investigation continued as authorities considered further action. According to Town & Country, investigators classified Arvad as an enemy alien and considered seeking a federal warrant, while the agent leading the inquiry believed the case had significant potential.

Leamer revisits the episode in Ladies' Man: The Careless Heart of John F. Kennedy, a biography drawing on historical records and personal knowledge of the Kennedy family. A Boston Herald interview published October 19, 2026, discussed the author's effort to document aspects of Kennedy's private life that earlier accounts had not explored in comparable depth.

The biography also examines Kennedy's relationships during his later public life, including his marriage to Jacqueline Kennedy and their periods apart during his presidency. Leamer discusses the first lady's frequent absences from the White House as part of his account of their relationship.

Another subject is Diana De Vegh, who began a four-year relationship with Kennedy in 1958, when she was 20. Leamer also describes her later work as a therapist and notes that she continued working at age 87 despite being blind.

Ladies' Man: The Careless Heart of John F. Kennedy went on sale October 20, 2026. The book examines Kennedy's personal relationships from his youth through his presidency, including the scrutiny surrounding his wartime relationship with Arvad.