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Time magazine reported that most journalists believe Kelley "too frequently fails to bring perspective or analysis to the fruits of her reporting and at times lards her work with dollops of questionable inferences and innuendos." In addition, Kelley has been described by Joe Klein as a "professional sensationalist" and her books have been described as "Kitty litter." Maureen Dowd, who broke embargo to tout on the front page of the New York Times Kelley's revelations about Nancy Reagan, said "Kelley is a mean and greedy writer, so drunk on sensationalism that she lacks compassion and understanding." Larry King, who nonetheless frequently had Kelley on his show as an expert on the British royals, was quoted as saying "She's very strange. She must have something wrong with her."
Kelley's work has faced legal challenges. Her book “the Royals” was banned in Britain because it contained sensational assertions that Kelley would have reportedly been unable to defend in court, and the British media also found Kelley’s claims too potentially libelous to report on. According to the reporting of George Carpozi, Jr., Kitty Kelley was sued over the content of her book Jackie Oh!, and settled the suit out of court. Carpozi also reported that under questioning from her publisher, Kelley confessed to having made up an intimate exchange of words between Jacqueline Onassis and columnist Pete Hamill in the manuscript of Jackie Oh!. Carpozi claims that Kelley faced legal consequences over her Elizabeth Taylor biography too, being compelled to delete disputed material and make substantial changes to what she had written when the book emerged in paperback.
Kelley has been called "the consummate gossip monger, a vehicle for all the rumor and innuendo surrounding her illustrious subjects" but maintains that her writing is about "moving an icon out of the moonlight and into the sunlight". Her work has been called "encylopedically vicious" but has also been cited as an antidote to celebrity mythmaking. "Her methods may often be unsound, her facts may sometimes be a bit fictional, but in the end she usually reveals something true about her subjects—which is more than you can say about a lot of celebrity biographers."
When citing sources for her work, Kelley has been known to raise more questions than she does answers. In her biography of Frank Sinatra, Kelley claimed to have an interviewed actor Peter Lawford on several occasions including November 5 and 6 of 1984, even though Lawford lay on his death bed on these dates after part of his stomach was removed. Kelley also claimed to have interviewed Lawford on January 5, 1985, even though the actor had died in December 1984. As of 1991, nearly one hundred people who Kelley claims to have interviewed have come forward on the public record to claim they never at any time spoke with her.
Early life
Born in Spokane, Washington, Kitty Kelley received a B.A. in English from the University of Washington. She worked at the New York World's Fair in 1964 and went on to become a receptionist/press secretary for Senator Eugene McCarthy.
Once in Washington D.C., Kelley became a freelance journalist writing for publications such as The Washington Star. Her first book was The Glamour Spas (Pocket Books, 1975), based on an article she had written about the "fat farm" industry. The book included gossip about the celebrities who attended these spas.
Alleged theft & house arrest
According to the reporting of George Carpozi Jr., in the Spring of 1962 about a dozen sorority sisters at the University of Arizona at the time Kelley was a student there suspected that Kelley was a kleptomaniac. University security chief David Paxton dusted valuable items on campus with “invisible powder”. Explaining the process, Nassau County Police detective Thomas Kubic of the Scientific Investigation Unit explained that in all likelihood, the powder was probably “Sneak Thief Powder”, which he described as “an almost foolproof tool in the fight against sticky fingered thieves” because once a thief touches it, a glow on the thief’s hand will appear when placed under ultra-violet light. . Former Sue Nelson (later Mrs Sue Jean Tucson), who was in Kelley’s 1959 Gamma Delta Pledge class was quoted as saying:
“Just as soon as one of the girls reported jewelry taken from her room, a call went out to all sorority sisters to assemble in the main hall…The campus police took the girls, one by one, into a room and sat them at a table. They were asked to place their hands on a desk, under an ultra-violet-ray lamp. Then the rooms fluorescent lights were dimmed. Anyone whose hands had come into contact with any article dusted with powder would glow in the dark under the lamp.”
Carpozi Jr. reports that that the young women passed through uneventfully, then along came Kelley who “broke the darkness of the room with telltale luminescence”, causing other students to refer to her as “The Golden Fleecer”, and resulting in Kelley immediately being placed under house arrest and being escorted by campus police. Carpozei Jr. reports that under scrutiny from campus security, Kelley placed items from her drawers and closet (wristwatches, rings, pendants, brooches, bracelets etc.) on her bed and twenty-eight coeds were brought to Kelley’s room and identified items that belonged to them.
Aftermath
Carpozi Jr. reports that after Kelley had “been caught red-handed as a campus crook” University security chief David Paxton and University of Arizona regents began laying the groundwork to have Kelley removed from the school. Kelley was told that she would be turned over to the Tucson police Department, arrested, fingerprinted, mugged and booked on charges of theft, and then incarcerated in the city lockup until a judge would impose bail and turn the case to the District Attorney. According to Carpozi Jr., Kelley left the University of Arizona after being told that if she left the campus right then and there and promised never to return, charges would not be made against her.
Alleged post-scandal breakdown
Carpozi Jr. reports that after Kelley left the University of Arizona in disgrace, her parents refused to let her live with them and sent her to live in Seattle with her maternal grandparents (the Martins). It was here, Carpozi Jr. reports, that Kelley suffered a breakdown and was confined to a wheelchair during some of that time.
Alleged credential falsification
Carpozi Jr. reports that when Kelley submitted details of her biography to publisher Lyle Stuart for the jacket cover of Jackie Oh! she listed one of her credentials as having been an editorial writer for the Washington Post, however the Washington Post claimed they had employed her as an editorial researcher and secretary. In a letter Carpozi sent to Kelley, her agent and lawyers on December 7, 1988, he asked "Can you explain why you described yourself as an editorial writer when, in fact, you were not?" As of 1990, Kelley had not responded.
Book
Jacqueline Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra biographie
Kelley's first celebrity biography was Jackie Oh! (1978), a life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, which was written on the request of Lyle Stuart, an independent publishing maverick who promoted Kelley's 'Washington insider' angle and launched the book into the New York Times Best Seller List. In the book, Kelley describes John F. Kennedy's womanizing and includes personal "revelations" about Jackie Kennedy's electric shock treatment. Kelley's publisher Lyle Stuart was later quoted expressing skepticism of the shock treatment Kelley reported:
At the time I believed her shock-treatment story. Looking back, I feel I was had and the whole thing was a fable. I doubt that it ever happened. And knowing how she makes things up, I believe she was sure she could get away with it because no one would sue.
This book was followed by Elizabeth Taylor: The Last Star (1981), which was also a New York Times Best Seller in paperback and hardcover.
In Kelley's next book, His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra (1986) she discussed Sinatra's tumultuous marriages, alleged affairs and his links to the Mob. Sinatra initiated a $2 million lawsuit to prevent it from being published. He accused Kelley of character defamation and misrepresenting herself as his authorized biographer. He later withdrew his lawsuit.
The book was number one on the New York Times Best Seller List, and hit best-seller lists in England, Canada, Australia and France.
People magazine story
In 1990, Kelley wrote a piece for People magazine based on interviews she had conducted with Judith Campbell Exner, a former girlfriend of Frank Sinatra's who claimed to have had an affair with John F. Kennedy. Exner told Kelley that she had arranged ten meetings between Kennedy and Mafia gangster Sam Giancana, and they discussed having the "mob" kill Fidel Castro. The story made national headlines, but it soon fell apart: it emerged that Exner had been paid $50,000 to talk with Kelley, was terminally ill, and did not mention these "revelations" in her own autobiography, which had been published years earlier. A former FBI agent also came forward and said that Giancana had been under a federal wiretap, so these multiple meetings with President Kennedy would have been impossible to cover up. "The whole story was a fairy tale", wrote journalist George Carpozi Jr., stating that there were "No White House visits by Giancana. No meetings with the president. No conversations either. Nor any communications carried by the U.S. Postal Service, Judith Cambell Exner, nor any other courier." Carpozi Jr. wrote that "Kelley was too well informed not to know, or at least suspect, that Exner was lying. And the fact was Kitty couldn't care less."
People magazine Assistant Managing Editor James Seymore Jr. was quoted as claiming that People considered delaying payment to Kelley but "we decided it was more trouble than it was worth. Our dealings with her had been so unpleasent that our feeling was 'Let's just get rid of her.'"
Nancy Reagan biography
In 1991 Kelley published Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography. She was paid $3.5 million to write the book. The book claimed that the first lady had engaged in multiple affairs with Frank Sinatra, that she frequently relied on astrology, that she had lied about her age, and that she had a very poor relationship with her children, even alleging that she hit her daughter, Patti. The reliability and sources were questioned. As Slate magazine writer Michael Crowley said, "During the Reagan years Nancy cultivated an image as a doting wife and skillful hostess, a reputation Kelley mercilessly diced with the zest of a Benihana chef."
The book endured far more scrutiny than any of Kelley's others. While the book's "thin sourcing and heavy innuendo" were criticized, Newsweek concluded, "Despite her wretched excesses, Kelley has the core of the story right. Even her staunchest defenders concede that Nancy Reagan is more Marie Antoinette than Mother Teresa." Media coverage included cover stories in Time magazine ("Is She Really That Bad?", referring to Nancy Reagan), Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly ("The Kitty and Nancy Show") and People magazine ("Inside Kitty's Dish"). Kelley was also spoofed on Saturday Night Live. Kelley appeared on many news shows and interviews promoting the book, some of which were very critical.
Former President Ronald Reagan issued a brief statement, in which he said: "While I am accustomed to reports that stray from the truth, the flagrant and absurd falsehoods cited in a recently published book clearly exceed the bounds of decency. They are patently untrue–everything from the allegation of marijuana use [by Nancy and me] to marital infidelity to my failure to be present at the birth of my daughter Patti. Many of my friends have urged me to issue a point-by-point denial of the book's many outrages. To do so would, I feel, provide legitimacy to a book that has no basis in fact and serves no decent purpose."
Poison Pen
Partly as a result of Kelley's notoriety due to the Nancy Reagan book, she herself became the subject of a critical book, Poison Pen: The Unauthorized Biography of Kitty Kelley (1991), written by journalist George Carpozi, Jr. Carpozi said that the book was "full of sex, sin, and scandal", reminiscent of Kelley's own work.
At the time of his death, the Washington Post reported that Lyle Stuart, who published Kitty Kelley's first book, "Jackie Oh!" in 1978, commissioned "Poison Pen: The Unauthorized Biography of Kitty Kelley." when Kelley left him for larger more lucrative publishers.
British Royal family and the Bush family
In September 1997, Kelley turned her attention to the British Royal Family in The Royals (Warner Books, New York, ISBN 0-446-51712-7). In the book, Kelley stated that the Windsors obscured their German ancestry and described scandals surrounding the members of the royal family.
The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty, was published on September 14, 2004, less than two months before the 2004 U.S. Presidential election. Kelley announced plans for the book shortly after George W. Bush's election in 2001 and worked on it for four years. In "The Family", Kelley claimed that George W. Bush snorted cocaine with his brothers at Camp David during his father's presidency. Kelley cites Sharon Bush, the divorced ex-wife of George W. Bush's brother Neil Bush, as her source for these statements, but Sharon Bush denied making the allegations.
Oprah Winfrey biography inaccuracie
On December 13, 2006, Crown announced that it would publish Kelley's unauthorized biography of Oprah Winfrey. The 544-page book, Oprah: A Biography, was released by Random House on April 13, 2010. The book has been alleged to contain numerous factual errors. The New York Times criticized Kelley for claiming in the book that she had 2,732 files on Winfrey, only to report the figure as 2,932 elsewhere in the book. Kelley also claimed that Perdue farms CEO Frank Perdue called Winfrey a gorilla on TV in Baltimore; however, Winfrey’s former co-host Richard Sher, who was there when Winfrey interviewed Perdue, claims that this anecdote is completely untrue and confronted Kelley over the inaccuracy. The book also claimed that Bill O’Reilly phoned Winfrey to complain that she was too left-wing; however, when Kelley appeared on O’Reilly’s show, O'Reilly told her that no such phone call ever occurred and asked Kelley if she was bothered by the inaccuracy in the book. Kelley also claims that Winfrey’s 80-year-old cousin Katherine Esters told Kelley the secret identity of Winfrey’s biological father (which Kelley declined to disclose); however, Esters denies knowing this information and claims Kelley fabricated much of their conversation and claims that she only granted Kelley the interview because she was under the false impression that Kelley was working with Henry Louis Gates. Kelley, however, dismissed Ester's claim and stated Esters did tell her this when she interviewed her.Kelley was also criticized for getting her facts wrong on basic historical details about the city of Baltimore at the time Winfrey worked there. She claimed that Winfrey was one of only two black women on Baltimore television at the time when, in fact, there were at least four. Kelley also mistakenly described the producer of a show competing against Winfrey’s as the community affairs director of Winfrey’s station. Kelley also claimed that Winfrey got the city of Chicago to build a parking lot for her plane, a claim the mayor of Chicago denied