The Kennedy family is arguably the closest thing the Americans have to a Royal Family. Ever since John F Kennedy emerged on the political scene in the early 60s, Americans developed an insatiable thirst for all things Kennedy. 

The assassination of JFK (pictured) in 1963, stories of romantic liaisons with Marilyn Monroe, the suspicious death of Mary Jo Kopechne on Chappaquiddick Island in 1969 are just a few of the stories that have made the Kennedy name newsworthy for more than four decades.

The latest Kennedy story is being hawked with the same kind of zeal as Dan Brown’s version of Jesus’s bloodline in The Da Vinci Code. At the centre of an international media frenzy is a quite Canadian man, named Jack Worthington, the alleged love-child of the former U.S. president.

Worthington, born on November 22, 1961 - two years to the day before the assassination of JFK - has a startling resemblance to JFK. He surfaced recently when newspaper reports mentioned his name as a potential love child of JFK.

Vanity Fair, a magazine which features some of the biggest names in American journalism, had reportedly killed a politically controversial story about an unnamed man living in Vancouver who was said to be an unknown son of JFK. Investigative teams, have toiled for more than a year on what is an “extraordinarily sensitive,” and “deeply researched” story for Vanity Fair.

Worthington (pictured) wants to protect his family and insists he is not going public for the money. He said: “I told Vanity Fair that I would sign an agreement with the Kennedys immediately, in which I agree not to pursue any financial remuneration from the JFK estate whatsoever.’

“This isn’t a story about the fairly silly, trivial discovery of JFK’s illegitimate son,” he said, adding that the information he will reveal could have a “potentially profound impact”.

Worthington, who said he moved recently to British Columbia, grew up and was educated in the United States and remains a U.S. citizen. He said security is a concern and security staff have been hired to look after him and his family.  “I’ve had the paparazzi, people sneaking around the house taking photos at night.”

The magazine is said to have delayed publication until DNA verification is complete.  Apparently, the Kennedy clan is not really interested in proving or disproving the story and they have declined requests for DNA samples. But given the way the media is pursuing this story, it seems only a matter of time until some ingenuous reporter manages somehow to grab a sample.

If the story is true, Worthington will certainly not go down in the books as the first newsworthy illegitimate child - a quick scan of history books turns up all sorts of interesting bastards.

Eva Peron (1919-1952) was the daughter of an adulterous relationship between two villagers in an impoverished part of Argentina. She made a name for herself as an actress before marrying Juan Peron in 1944, but, being illegitimate (and a peasant), she was never really accepted in the social circles in which he routinely traveled. 

TE Lawrence, aka Lawrence of Arabia (1888-1935), was the illegitimate son of a knight and his children’s nanny. Lawrence became the model for generations of British diplomats blindly idolizing all things Arabian. Lawrence later became embittered with Britain’s imperial policy and spent the last few years of his life sulking and tinkering with motorcycles (he died in a motorcycle accident).

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), the personification of the Renaissance, was actually the son of a notary, Ser Piero, and a peasant girl of somewhat “easy virtue”. In fact, the two simply took a tumble in the hay together before going their separate ways and providing Leonardo, from their marriages to other people, with 17 half brothers and sisters. These assorted half siblings were none too fond of their renowned relation, whose birth was something of an embarrassment, and on his father’s death in 1503 they conspired to deprive him of his share of the estate.

The early life of K’ung-Fu-tzu (551-479 BCE), better known in the West as Confucius, is largely a mystery. Confucius served as an adviser on political matters and court etiquette to several Chinese leaders during the mid- to late 500s BCE. The circumstances of Confucius’s own birth, however, are hardly up to any Emily Post standards. According to the first complete biography of Confucius, his dad, a warlord named Shu Liang He, and his mom, a member of the Yan clan, “came roughly together,” indicating either a rape, concubinage, or some other sort of extramarital shenanigans. His low birth, however, didn’t stop him from attracting plenty of highborn followers, many of whom protected him when his outspoken manner offended his various employers.