The Story Behind Jackie Kennedy’s Lipstick-Stained Glass in Cambodia

In 1967, Jacqueline Kennedy traveled to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, just four years after the assassination of her husband, President John F. Kennedy.

Staying at Hotel Le Royal, the capital’s most prestigious hotel since its 1929 opening, Kennedy became part of its history. The hotel’s bartender even created a special cocktail in her honor, the Femme Fatale, made with cognac, Champagne, and crème de fraise.

Decades later, during renovations in the 1990s, workers reportedly uncovered the exact coupe glass she drank from, identifiable by a lipstick mark on its rim. Today, the glass is displayed at the hotel’s Elephant Bar, alongside photos of Kennedy’s Cambodian trip, turning it into a relic of cultural and political memory.

Kennedy’s visit carried quiet diplomatic weight: she toured Angkor Wat with British diplomat David Ormsby-Gore and rode in motorcades despite lingering trauma from Dallas.

To Cambodians, her presence represented international attention at a time of regional upheaval.

For the hotel, which survived wars, regime changes, and years as the “Solidarity Hotel,” Jackie’s glass remains its most famous artifact.