Marilyn Monroe is one of the most famous Hollywood stars of all time, regarded as the most desirable woman in the world for many years.
Now her life is due to feature in the 2022 Netflix film Blonde, starring Ana De Armas – and the steamy film has been given the highest age rating possible: NC-17 for sexual content.
Iconic images of her became globally famous, the picture of her standing over a New York air vent one of the best known from that time.
But as well as her huge fame, Monroe was also known to have had a wild and fascinating sex life full of mystery and taboo for the time she was living in.
Marilyn had once been married to her high school beau, but when he joined the Merchant Navy and she started modelling, the pair divorced after just four years in 1946 – paving the way for the wild sex life that would follow.
Charlie Chaplain Jr
(Image: Corbis via Getty Images)
The son of legendary comic Charlie Chaplain, Charlie Chaplain Jr was thought to have had a fling with Monroe in 1947, but things soon came crashing down when he found Marilyn in bed with his own brother.
Fair to say the two didn’t make it last.
Milton Berle
In 1948, Monroe met comedian Milton Berle on the set of Ladies of the Chorus.
He was dating actress Adele Jergens at the time but no matter, with the comic claiming to have had a fling with Marilyn at the time.
Rumours in the world of showbiz whispered that Berle was rather well equipped, with the pair starring together in Let’s Make Love in 1960.
Writing in his autobiography, Merle said: “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.”
Actress Joan Crawford
(Image: Mirrorpix)
Monroe had a lesbian fling with actress Joan Crawford, admitting she had had sex with her despite the affair not lasting long.
Author Matthew Smith had exclusive access to tapes recorded as part of Monroe’s psychological therapy treatment: “She described an intimate moment in some detail and how she and Joan had sex.
She said: “I told her straight out I didn’t much enjoy doing it with a woman. After I turned her down she became spiteful.”
It seems her exploration into being with girls was put to bed eventually, however, when in her 1954 autobiography she wrote: “A man who had kissed me once had said it was very possible that I was a lesbian because apparently, I had no response to males — meaning him.
“I didn’t contradict him because I didn’t know what I was … Now, having fallen in love, I knew what I was. It wasn’t a lesbian.”
Monroe is however thought to have had other flings with women, including Barbara Stanwyck and Marlene Dietrich.
Director Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan admitted to cheating on his wife Molly Thatcher with Monroe. A legendary Hollywood director, he said to Thatcher in a letter: “I’m not sorry about it.”
He added: “I’m not ashamed at all, not a damn bit, of having been attracted to her. She is nothing like what she appears to be now, or even appears to have turned into now. She was a little stray cat when I knew her.”
Baseball player Joe DiMaggio
(Image: Bettmann Archive)
Joe DiMaggio married Monroe in January 1954, Marilyn said “he treated me like something special”.
Problems surfaced through when DiMaggio was allegedly bothered by his wife’s huge and rising celebrity. They divorced that October.
DiMaggio is alleged to have said to his buddy Rock Positano, who wrote the comments in a 2017 book: “When we got together in the bedroom it was like the gods were fighting; there were thunder-clouds and lightning. Doc, Marilyn told me that no man ever satisfied her like I did.”
In the same book, speaking about Marilyn’s relationship with new partner Arthur Miller, DiMaggio is reported to have said: “[She] told Frank Sinatra that she always thought of me when she made love with Miller
“And kept a picture of me hidden in one of her closets. That drove Miller crazy and right to the divorce court.”
Frank Sinatra
(Image: Alamy Stock Photo)
Marilyn Monroe dated the legendary crooner for a short while but the romance began to fade in 1961.
The singer proposed to Juliet Prowse sealing the relationship off, although the two are believed to have remained friends until she died.
Arthur Miller
Rumoured to have been dating Marlon Brando, Monroe ended up with playwright Arthur Miller, secretly dating him and getting married in 1956.
Speaking that year she 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.”
However, her drug addiction is thought to have caused problems, with the pair getting divorced after five years.
Just 19 months later she would die of a drug overdose.
US president John F Kennedy and his brother Robert
(Image: BNPS.co.uk)
At his 45th birthday party in 1962, Monroe sang Happy Birthday to the President in a sultry way, sparking rumours of a connection between the two.
Later rumours would emerge that she had had an affair with his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
James Spada, Monroe’s biographer, told People Magazine in 2012 that “it was pretty clear that Marilyn had had sexual relations with both Bobby and Jack”.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
