Marilyn Monroe’s troubled love life – married at 16 and fantasy to ‘bed dad’

Throughout her history and in modern day, iconic Hollywood actress and model Marilyn Monroe is adored by millions.

Marilyn had a long line of romances throughout her life as she looked for her Prince Charming – but not all of it was a fairy-tale.

A number of her romances and marriages ended fairly quickly and she had a tragic start to her childhood as she was sexually abused at eight years old by elderly man “Mr Kimmel” – driven by twisted fantasies about her own father, who she had never known.

Marilyn first tied the knot when she was just a young teen and stumbled around from romance to marriages – often with older men.

Throughout the years, people have brought power to Marilyn through a wave of dedication, following her tragic death in August 1962.

Streaming giant Netflix even released a shocking documentary in her honour, The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes.

First marriage at 16

At the young age of 16, Marilyn married factory worker James Dougherty, 21.

After moving in with the Goddard family, she was concerned that she would potentially have to return to an orphanage, and as a solution, she married the neighbour’s son James – the couple officially tied the knot on June 19, 1942, shortly after her birthday.

After discovering that the couple was mismatched, Marilyn stated that she was “dying of boredom” during the marriage, as reported by Spoto Donald.

After four years of marriage, the couple divorced in 1942 and Marilyn moved to Hollywood to pursue her career in acting, which James was severely against – she changed her name on the way.

While trying to pursue a career as an aspiring actress, Marilyn was abused by men who took advantage of her.

This included tragic stories of being assaulted at parties, agreeing to “services” for her 20th Century Fox contract, and even having a contract stripped from Columbia pictures after refusing to sleep with president Harry Cohn in his office, The Sun reports.

Love affair

In 1944, Marilyn met comedian Milton Berle on the set of Ladies of the Chorus, who was dating major film star, Adele Jergens.

Milton later admitted to his infidelity, claiming that he had a brief affair with the young actress.

He wrote in his autobiography: “Marilyn was on the climb in Hollywood, but there was nothing cheap about her.

“She wasn’t one of the starlets around town that you put one meal into and threw into the sack.

“Maybe she didn’t know exactly who she was, but she knew she was worth something. She had respect for herself. Marilyn was a lady.”

Abusive and jealous husband

In the 1950s, Marilyn was best recognised as one of 20th Century Fox’s biggest stars.

While she was at her peak and in January 1954, she married Joe DiMaggio in a ceremony at San Francisco City Hall.

While Marilyn claimed that she and former husband Joe had a mutual “understanding”, as heard in Netflix’s documentary, her ex-husband was was jealous and possessive, resulting in violent rows, which made Marilyn become reliant on sedatives.

Marilyn’s infamous subway-grate scene with her iconic white dress infuriated her husband.

Gladys Witten, Marilyn’s hairdresser on the film, said he later attacked her in their hotel suite.

“He beat her up over it,” she claimed.

“She screamed and yelled for us but we couldn’t hear her through those thick walls.”

In October 1954 and after nine months of marriage, she filed for divorce.

String of romances

Throughout the divorce, Marilyn continued her relationship with Joe and also pursued romances with actor Marlon Brando and playwright Arthur Miller.

She was first introduced to Arthur in the early 1950s by Elia Kazan – who dated Marilyn and was 26 years her senior.

Elia had an affair with the star while he was married to playwright Molly Thacher, confessing in a private letter: “I’m not sorry about it.”

Despite the affair, Elia introduced Marilyn to her future husband, who he said was “very taken with her”.

Third marriage

Marilyn and Arthur’s relationship became official in 1955 – five years after their initial meeting – before they married in 1956.

At the time, Marilyn said: “We’re so congenial. This is the first time I’ve been really in love. Arthur is a serious man, but he has a wonderful sense of humour. We laugh and joke a lot. I’m mad about him.”

While it seems as if their relationship had started as a fairytale romance, the couple divorced in 1961.

The divorce followed a string of cruel actions carried out by Arthur when the relationship began to crumble following Marilyn’s increased dependency on drugs.

She told her acting coach: “It was something about how disappointed he was in me. How he’d thought I was some kind of angel, but now he guessed he was wrong.

“He’d married a woman as flawed as his previous wife had been.”

Following her death

Since Marilyn’s passing, further romances with the American actress have come to light.

In 2009, Tony Curtis’ memoirs revealed that he had a fling with Marilyn in the early 1950s – despite friends claiming in the documentary that she never cheated on her husband.

Following her split from Arthur, the model had a brief fling with Frank Sinatra when she stayed at his house but it fizzled out in 1961.

In 2011, comedian Jerry Lewis admitted to GQ that he and Marilyn had a fling, describing the affair as “long”.

One of the most famous claims is of Marilyn’s romance with President JFK and his brother who reportedly “used” her.

In the documentary, it’s claimed that in May 1962, President Kennedy quickly got “bored” and rejected her.

Marilyn soon turned to his brother, best known as Bobby Kennedy.

The new documentary suggests that on the day of her death, she rowed with lover Bobby Kennedy, accusing him and brother President Kennedy of treating her “like a piece of meat”.

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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk