Jackie Kennedy Offered to Edit This Megastar’s Memoir in the ‘80s and She Declined

Jackie Kennedy is remembered for many things, but her career as a book editor isn’t usually the first thing that comes to our minds. In fact, you might be surprised to learn she helped some of our favorite musicians branch out into the literary world, including Carly Simon and Michael Jackson. Another iconic singer, Barbra Streisand, also just revealed that she almost worked with the former First Lady on a memoir, but the timing just never worked out.

The Funny Girl star has been teasing the release of her life story for years now and admitted to Jimmy Fallon that it’s been in the works for decades. “Actually, in 1984, Jackie Kennedy came to me and said, ‘I’d love to be the editor of your book at Doubleday,’” Streisand explained, referring to the publishing company Kennedy worked for at the time. “We had tea. She was just so lovely, but I wasn’t ready to do that then.”

To be fair, Streisand has gathered up plenty more fascinating anecdotes in the years since that tea — enough to fill quite a tome. “I’ve written 824 pages and I still have an epilogue to do,” she told Fallon. “And you know, [it’s] interesting, my favorite number, because I was born on the 24th, is 24.” She couldn’t remember the exact word count, but the digits apparently also add up to 24, “So it must be the right time to release it.”

After years of coming on Fallon’s show and claiming to be “almost done” with a memoir, Streisand promised it would finally hit shelves next year. Take a look at the clip below to hear the pair joke about the long awaited release:

Jackie once said, “If you produce one book, you have done something wonderful in your life.” Clearly, Streisand wanted to take the time to make sure hers was as wonderful as it could possibly be! Although we’re sad the time has passed for the two to work on it together, we’re still looking forward to flipping through the (many) pages of the singer’s life story.