Who Were Marilyn Monroe’s Most Famous Lovers? Truth vs. Rumor

Jim Dougherty

Monroe was 16 years outdated and nonetheless referred to as Norma Jeane Baker when she married Jim Dougherty, a classmate at Van Nuys High School, in 1942.

Their relationship started to disintegrate when Dougherty joined the Merchant Marines and he or she started modeling. They had been divorced by 1946.

“If I hadn’t gone into the Merchant Marines throughout World War II, she would nonetheless be Mrs. Dougherty at the moment,” he advised PEOPLE in 1976.

Charlie Chaplin Jr.

Rumor has it that Monroe had an affair with the legendary Charlie Chaplin’s son, Charlie Jr., in 1947. The relationship allegedly ended when Charlie caught Marilyn in his brother Sydney’s mattress.

Charlie referenced the affair in his autobiography, and Anthony Summers mentions the connection in his e book Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe.

The alleged romance was additionally explored in Blonde (2022), starring Ana de Armas in an Oscar-nominated position as Monroe, primarily based on Joyce Carol Oates’ 2000 novel of the identical title. Although unconfirmed, the movie depicted Monroe in a three-way relationship with Charlie and Edward “Eddy” G. Robinson Jr.

Milton Berle

Milton Berle and Monroe first met on the set of Ladies of the Chorus in 1948. Although the comic was formally relationship movie star Adele Jergens on the time, Berle claimed to have had a quick affair with the younger actress.

Berle, the primary celebrity of the TV period (and, in accordance with Truman Capote and showbiz lore, famously well-endowed), additionally starred with Monroe as himself within the aptly titled movie Let’s Make Love in 1960.

“Marilyn was on the climb in Hollywood, however there was nothing low-cost about her,” he wrote in his 1975 autobiography. “She wasn’t one of many starlets round city that you simply put one meal into and threw into the sack. Maybe she did not know precisely who she was, however she knew she was value one thing. She had respect for herself. Marilyn was a woman.”

Natasha Lytess

Monroe met Natasha Lytess, her beloved drama coach, when she signed a brief contract with Columbia Pictures in 1948. The duo would develop into practically inseparable on and off set over the following seven years, sparking rumors of a relationship.

The actress’ dependence on Lytess grew so intense that she started refusing to movie scenes with out her coach close by. The hypothesis continued when Monroe moved into Lytess’ dwelling to organize for her position in Don’t Bother to Knock (1952).

While the character of their relationship remained a thriller, Lytess was overtly hostile to Monroe’s male suitors, particularly Joe DiMaggio.

“She was an amazing trainer, however she received actually jealous concerning the males I noticed. She thought she was my husband!” Monroe as soon as stated of her trainer, with whom she finally parted methods in 1956.

As for rumors of different lesbian affairs with Barbara Stanwyck and Marlene Dietrich, Monroe seemingly put the difficulty to relaxation in her autobiography, My Story, which was launched in 1974. “A person who had kissed me as soon as had stated it was very doable I used to be a lesbian as a result of I apparently had no response to males — that means him,” she wrote. “I did not contradict him as a result of I did not know what I used to be. … Now, having fallen in love, I knew what I used to be. It wasn’t a lesbian.”

Elia Kazan

Elia Kazan, considered one of Hollywood’s all-time nice administrators, admitted to having a quick affair with a younger Monroe whereas he was married to playwright Molly Thacher.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Kazan confessed in unearthed personal letters to Thacher that he slept with the actress, writing, “I’m not sorry about it.”

He added: “I’m not ashamed in any respect, not a rattling bit, of getting been drawn to her. She is nothing like what she seems to be now, and even seems to have was now. She was somewhat stray cat after I knew her.”

Kazan was an in depth good friend of Monroe’s future husband, Arthur Miller, and in addition referred to DiMaggio in his letters to Thacher, saying the ballplayer beat up Monroe “a number of occasions.”

The Kennedy brothers

Monroe’s most notorious rumored affairs had been with former President John F. Kennedy and later his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. Some have even instructed that her relationship with the 2 males performed a task in her premature loss of life.

Rumors of an affair had been spurred partly by her sultry “Happy Birthday” efficiency for the commander-in-chief at his forty fifth birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden on May 19, 1962, simply months earlier than her loss of life.

Monroe biographer James Spada advised PEOPLE in 2012 that whereas he would not consider there’s any proof that the Kennedys had been accountable for Monroe’s loss of life, “it was fairly clear that Marilyn had had sexual relations with each Bobby and Jack.”

In his 2023 biography, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret, J. Randy Taraborrelli revealed a shocking connection between Monroe and the previous president’s spouse, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. As it turned out, each girls shared the identical therapist, Dr. Marianne Kris, whom Jackie started seeing for her PTSD following her husband’s assassination.

“When Jackie confronted her,” Taraborrelli wrote, “[Dr.] Kris stated she felt no accountability to tell her about any former sufferers in the identical manner she’d by no means reveal that she’d ever handled Jackie. Marianne requested, ‘How is that this related?’ to which Jackie responded, ‘How is that not related?’ ”

Joe DiMaggio

She was “like double-play mixture,” the baseball nice DiMaggio advised a good friend after he and Monroe had been launched on a blind date in 1952.

Six months into retirement, he noticed the then-26-year-old actress, within the phrases of the late prolific biographer Donald Spoto, as “an exquisite blonde showgirl who may double as a faithful mom and homemaker.”

Monroe, who additionally longed for a house and youngsters, was shocked by the well-known ballplayer. “I anticipated a flashy New York sports activities kind, and as a substitute I met this reserved man who did not make a move at me instantly,” she stated of DiMaggio in Spoto’s 1993 biography of her. “He handled me like one thing particular.”

They married on Jan. 14, 1954, in a quiet ceremony at City Hall in his native San Francisco. But issues arose as DiMaggio, accustomed to being the largest star within the room, grew to become bothered by his spouse’s skyrocketing fame.

The couple divorced that October, 9 months after their marriage ceremony. Monroe later stated her now-infamous billowing skirt scene in The Seven-Year Itch (1955) was the ultimate level of rivalry: “He stated … exposing my legs and thighs, even my crotch — that was the final straw.”

Yet they remained shut associates, and for 20 years after Monroe’s loss of life, DiMaggio despatched roses to her grave 3 times every week.

Marlon Brando

Perhaps the 2 most well-known actors of their technology, Monroe and Marlon Brando had been rumored to have briefly dated in 1955, after her divorce from DiMaggio and earlier than her relationship with Miller.

Brando escorted Monroe to the premiere of The Rose Tattoo (pictured), and the 2 remained pleasant till the tip of her life.

Arthur Miller

Monroe would later say it was love at first sight when she met the creator and playwright in 1950 on the set of As Young As You Feel (1951).

The duo didn’t reconnect till 1955 after she had divorced DiMaggio and moved from Hollywood, Calif., to New York City. They started secretly relationship and had been married in 1956.

“We’re so congenial, that is the primary time I’ve been actually in love. Arthur is a critical man, however he has an exquisite humorousness. We snicker and joke loads. I’m mad about him,” she’s quoted as saying of Miller in 1956 in Jane Russell’s 1989 e book, Marilyn Monroe and the Camera.

At first, Monroe flourished away from Hollywood in her extra regular life. She started cooking, cleansing and caring for Miller’s kids, who all liked spending time together with her. But when Monroe returned to work on The Misfits (1961), written by Miller, their relationship started to crumble.

Monroe’s drug dependancy induced issues on set and at dwelling, and shortly earlier than the movie’s premiere, she and Miller divorced after 5 years of marriage. Just 19 months later, Monroe fatally overdosed.

Frank Sinatra

The Blonde Bombshell and Ol’ Blue Eyes briefly dated after her divorce from Miller.

After her cut up from the playwright, Monroe stayed at Frank Sinatra’s home for a time after shifting again to Los Angeles. The romance cooled off by 1961 when the crooner proposed to Juliet Prowse, however the two remained associates till her loss of life.

Jerry Lewis

Late comic Jerry Lewis claimed to have had a secret love affair with Monroe throughout a candid 2011 GQ interview.

First, Lewis insisted that Monroe’s affair with former President Kennedy by no means occurred, saying, “I’m telling you what I do know. Never! And the one purpose I do know is as a result of I did. Okay?”

When the interviewer reacted with disbelief, Lewis assured the story was true, saying that Monroe used intercourse like he used humor: “She wanted that contact to make certain it was actual.”

So what was the affair like?

“It was … lengthy,” he stated. “I used to be crippled for a month.” After one other pause, he quipped, “And I assumed Marlene Dietrich was nice!”