Marilyn Monroe's Love Life

Marilyn Monroe’s

Love Life

By Grace Taylor

Marilyn Monroe’s Love Life:

Divorces And Dates With Joe Dimaggio,
Arthur Miller, Kennedys, And More

Norma Jeane Mortenson’s life was fraught with instability that she often sought to
correct through her relationships with men, especially after she became Marilyn Monroe.
She had a rough go of it from the start: Her biological father’s identity is unknown,
and her mother was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and institutionalized at a
California mental health facility when Norma was only eight years old. The little girl
spent the next several years bouncing between various foster homes and residences of
family friends, where she tragically suffered more than one instance of sexual abuse.

1954: A wistful Marilyn Monroe
(Norma Jean Mortenson or
Norma Jean Baker, 1926–1962).
(Baron/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

James Dougherty 1942: Marilyn’s First Marriage

In her teens, she finally found some Marilyn Monroe wed her high school sweetheart, James
semblance of security with a long-term fos- Dougherty, in 1942. Monroe, then known as Norma Jean
ter family, but when the family was forced Baker, met Dougherty while living with a family friend in
to move from California and couldn’t le- Los Angeles, California. The couple married just after her
gally take Norma with them, she decided sixteenth birthday, after dating for a few months.
to marry her 21-year-old neighbor, James
Dougherty, rather than go back into the sys-
tem. The 16-year-old dropped out of high
school and devoted herself to being a wife,
but after her Marine husband disembarked
on a two-year overseas tour, Norma agreed
to work as a model against his wishes.

It wasn’t long before Norma Jeane
(then going by Jean Norman) caught the
eyes of studio executives like 20th Century
Fox’s Darryl F. Zanuck, who signed her to a
six-month contract in 1946. Within a month
of her signing, she divorced her husband,
with whom she had become estranged, and
entered the wild world of Hollywood under
her studio-chosen name, Marilyn Monroe.

Monroe and DiMaggio when
they were married in January

1954. (NOW Magazine/
Wikimedia Commons)

Joe DiMaggio As a 40-year-old athlete, DiMaggio
was looking forward to semi-retirement
By the early ‘50s, Monroe was a bona and starting a family, but while Monroe
fide star and sex symbol, which naturally was eager to become a mother, she wasn’t
made her one of the most eligible bache- willing to give up her career entirely. Her
lorettes in Tinsel Town, but no one quite professional commitments became a source
caught her attention like New York Yankees of tension in their marriage almost as soon
center fielder Joe DiMaggio. Although she as it began when she was called out during
was hesitant to go out with him, they bond- their honeymoon in Japan to perform for
ed over their mutually humble origins and troops stationed in Korea. Although it was
developed a nearly instant connection. Ac- what had initially attracted him, DiMaggio
cording to DiMaggio, their immense physi- began to resent Monroe’s sex symbol sta-
cal attraction was “like the gods were fight- tus. He reportedly exploded with rage when
ing; there were thunderclouds and lightning he saw her pose for the now-iconic “sub-
above us.” After the two divorcees couldn’t way grate scene” in The Seven Year Itch,
find a church to marry them, they had a
courthouse wedding on January 4, 1954.

allegedly to the point of physical violence, Arthur Miller
despite it being fairly tame compared to
her nude photo shoots from years before. After her divorce from Joe DiMag-
gio, Monroe dated several men, including
It wasn’t the only time DiMaggio had Marlon Brando, before falling head over
allegedly abused Monroe, and their mar- heels again for genius playwright Arthur
riage ended after only nine short months of Miller, known best for All My Sons and
not-so-blissful matrimony, but despite this Death Of A Salesman. Miller was a con-
terrible mistreatment, she forgave him to troversial figure in the mid ‘50s: His Tony
an extent some years later. They actually Award–winning play The Crucible, on its
turned out to be better friends than spous- surface about the Salem witch trials, was
es, and DiMaggio remained a close con- a not-so-subtle critique of anti-Communist
fidante until the bitter end. In fact, it was McCarthyism. Simply for dating him, the
he who collected her body and arranged F.B.I. opened a file on Monroe and moni-
her funeral after her tragic overdose in tored her actions.
1962. He even sent flowers to her grave
three times a week for the next 20 years.

Miller and Marilyn Monroe
tie the knot in Westchester
County, New York, 1956.
(Macfadden Publications/
Wikimedia Commons)