Kennedy, the senator who went on to become president before he was assassinated in 1963, has long been rumored to have engaged in numerous affairs throughout his marriage to his wife, Jackie, and the photo purportedly showed evidence the tales were true.
A Playboy spokeswoman told the entertainment news Web site TMZ what it published under the banner "The JFK Photo That Could Have Changed History" early Monday originally ran as part of a 1967 spread called "Playboy's Charter Yacht Party: How to Have a Ball on the Briny with an Able-Bodied Complement of Ship's Belles."
The magazine's representative said the photo was taken on one of the islands that comprise the Grenadines.
"It's not JFK," TMZ managing editor Harvey Levin told the Fox affiliate KTTV-Los Angeles.
The Web site posted an updated version of its story with the Playboy confirmation under the heading "Kennedy Picture -- A Fake" Monday afternoon.
TMZ earlier quoted forensic experts as saying the black and white image seemed to be a never-before-seen photo of Kennedy from the mid-50s. The Web site also said there was no evidence Photoshopping was used to alter it.
Two Kennedy biographers told the Web site they believed the man to be Kennedy, as well, after studying the image.
The Smoking Gun printed the original Playboy spread, which was in color, later Monday.
Copyright 2009 by United Press International.
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