Patricia Helen "Pat" Kennedy Lawford was an American socialite and the sixth of nine children of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald, sister to President John F. Kennedy, Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy. Considered the most sophisticated, yet also the most introverted, of her parents' five daughters, Pat since childhood had a fascination with travel and Hollywood.
She in time would become a world traveler, so much so that as a young girl she was given assignments by the independent and foreign press to write of her travels. Her ongoing fascination with Hollywood was fueled by her father's stories and adventures there as a movie mogul heading RKO Pictures. After graduating from Rosemont College, she moved to Hollywood in hopes of becoming a movie producer and director like her father.
Her father apparently believed that she could do as much, once saying, "Pat is the one with head for business. She could really run this town if she put her mind to it."[citation needed] However, because she was a woman in the very conservative 1950s, she was restricted to working as production assistant on patriotic and religious productions such as singer Kate Smith's radio program and Father Peyton's "Family Rosary Crusade".
She met British actor Peter Lawford through her sister Eunice in the 1940s. They met again in 1949, and again in 1953. They courted briefly and officially announced their engagement in February 1954. They married on April 24, 1954 at the Roman Catholic Church of St. Thomas More in New York City weeks before her 30th birthday. They settled in Santa Monica, California, and often socialized with the actress Judy Garland and her family.
Despite the glamorous persona Peter presented, their marriage suffered strains as early as their brief engagement. Peter had difficulty adjusting to Pat's steadfast Catholicism and her family's larger-than-life image. Pat could not tolerate Peter's heavy drinking, extramarital affairs, and slow addiction to drugs. Shortly after JFK's assassination, Pat filed for a legal separation, and the couple were officially divorced in 1966. In accordance with her religious beliefs, she never remarried.