Marilyn Monroe: Heartbreaking Secrets Hiding Behind Her Beautiful Smile

#1

She Never Knew Her Father

Though she commonly went by Norma Jean Baker as a child, Baker was the name of her mother's previous husband and the two half-siblings she did not know about until she was 12 years old.

Her mother Gladys remarried a man named Martin Edward Mortensen, but they were separated when she became pregnant with Marilyn.

#2

Marilyn's mother tried to kill her

Throughout her life, Marilyn stated that her first memory was of her mother trying to kill her. She remembers laying in her crib with her mother standing over her, attempting to smother her with a pillow. It is unclear what caused Mrs. Baker to stop, or whether Marilyn's memory is real. However, Marilyn was later removed from her mother's care and placed in the foster system.

Marilyn always feared that she would inherit her mother's mental illness and be placed into a psychiatric institution as well. At one time Marilyn did voluntarily check herself into a facility, but it was a traumatic experience and ended up re-enforcing her anxieties.

#3

She Was A Ward Of The State

Already shy and withdrawn, she suffered abuse from several of the male figures in her life at a very young age, something that only caused her to become more introverted and anxious.

#4

She Got Married At 17

While staying with Doc and Grace Goddard, friends of Gladys, Doc's company transferred him across the country, but it was against California state law for Marilyn to be moved as a minor.

Their solution: marrying her to their 21-year-old neighbor and friend, James Dougherty. Though they weren't especially unhappy in their marriage, he was against her aims at show business and she left him after signing her first modeling contract.

#5

She Was Devastated By The Death Of Her First Mentor

Just when her career was starting to finally pick up in 1950, her agent and mentor Johnny Hyde, vice president of the William Morris Agency, died suddenly of a heart attack just days after securing a seven-year contract for her.

#6

She Suffered Extreme Stage Fright

Marilyn's reputation as a difficult actress stemmed from a lifelong battle with stage fright, combined with her low self-esteem and perfectionism. She was also afflicted by severe anxiety and insomnia, which led to her substance abuse issues.

#7

Marilyn's iconic scene spurred her divorce

When Marilyn was filming her iconic scene with the white dress over the New York City sewer grate, no one would have thought it would lead to her divorce. Her second husband and baseball legend Joe DiMaggio was watching the filming of The Seven Year Itch and quickly became angry at how the many times the director wanted to film that scene. He didn't enjoy seeing his wife and her underwear flashed to the world for multiple takes and began to have conflicts with her career and lifestyle.

#8

Marilyn had trouble remembering lines

Many actors and colleagues have commented that Marilyn was devoted to her trade and took her job quite seriously, not even giggling and telling jokes between scenes with the other actors. Considering how well read and clever she was as well, it seems surprising that Marilyn had a hard time remembering her lines. Yet, it sometimes took 60 takes before a scene was completed as directed due to Marilyn forgetting words or jumbling sentences together.

#9

She Was Ridiculed For Standing Up For Herself

Determined to break out of her sexpot typecasting, Marilyn endured several lengthy battles with her production company over the films she worked on. She went so far as to create her own company, Marilyn Monroe Productions, which was immediately lampooned by the press.

#10

She Longed To Have Children Of Her Own

Sadly, Marilyn had a lifelong battle with endometriosis, which caused at least four miscarriages throughout her life, including an ectopic pregnancy.

#11

Romantic Loss Overshadowed Her Work

After her marriage to Arthur Miller disintegrated, she was still forced to not only work with him on the film The Misfits, but to watch as he began a new relationship in front of her. She also felt that he purposely wrote her role to be less compelling than those of the male actors surrounding her.

#12

Marilyn was a factory worker

Before she was a Hollywood actress and household name, Marilyn was a simple girl with no family and no fortune. Moving between orphanages and foster homes, she dropped out of high school at age 15 to marry her sweetheart, Jimmy Dougherty, in hopes of a better life. Jimmy was soon stationed overseas and Marilyn did her part as well to support the war effort by working in a munitions factory. It was not the comfortable married life that the young bride had imagined.

This was her stroke of luck though, because while working at the factory she was discovered by a photographer who featured her in his "moral booster photos" and took her straight to Hollywood. By the time Jimmy returned from the War, his wife was already a starlet called Marilyn.

#13

Marilyn had cosmetic surgery, twice

Studios executives wanted everyone to believe that Marilyn was a natural, all-American beauty; and she was up until about 1950. Around this time, Marilyn underwent two cosmetic procedures that reshaped her nose and chin. This was done to achieve a certain marketable look that executives had devised for Marilyn: the dumb blonde bombshell. Combined with the correction to her overbite, professional styling, and personal beauty routine, Marilyn was able to achieve "the look" by the time she filmed Niagara in 1953.

Cosmetic surgery wasn't the norm that it is today in Hollywood and Marilyn often checked into clinics under fake names to keep her visits secret. Throughout her life she was plagued by anxieties and battled low self-esteem, often locking herself in her dressing room for hours or skipping work entirely, yet she never went under the knife again.

#14

Marilyn sewed marbles into her bras

One of Marilyn's enduring legacies is her voluptuous figure, and she went to great lengths to support her heaving bosom in particular. Afraid to loose "her look", Marilyn wore a bra to bed every night to prevent her breasts from sagging overnight. Desiring an even perkier look, she then began to sew marbles into her bras. Sometimes, if there were no marbles on hand, she would sew together a couple of buttons to achieve the same effect.

#15

Marilyn had a peach-fuzz beard

Marilyn's daily beauty routine involved an assortment of creams and powders designed to enhance her appearance on the camera and as her colleagues have testified, it worked. Her trick was to apply thick layers of Vaseline and hormone cream to her face multiple times a day. The hormone cream caused a soft facial hair, like peach-fuzz, to grow on her face which Marilyn claimed caught the glow of the lights perfectly. Unlike other actresses, photographers did not need to use special lens or light filters when working with Marilyn because of the way her face radiated light.

Despite being begged to shave her peach-fuzz beard, Marilyn refused and boasted that she had the "heaviest beardof any actress in Hollywood"

#16

Marilyn owned over 400 books

An avid reader, Marilyn was far from the dumb blonde that she was portrayed to be. Her personal library contained over 400 volumes ranging from fiction novels to biographies to personal diaries. Spending nights awake with insomnia, Marilyn found books to be a comforting escape and her diaries of verses an outlet for her tangled emotions. Books on her shelf included all three volumes of The Life and Works of Sigmund Freud and Ulysses by James Joyce.

#17

Illness Kept Her From Completing Her Last Film

Studio heads knew Marilyn was diagnosed with a case of sinusitis and in need of bed rest and medical attention, but spread rumors accusing her of "faking it" when they began to fear they would go over budget for the unfinished Something's Got to Give.

They fired her and sued her for $750,000 in damages, but at co-star Dean Martin's insistence, they eventually attempted to resume filming before her untimely death.

#18

Marilyn once showed up to work naked

On the set of her last film, Something's Gotta Give, Marilyn was supposed to swim in a pool wearing a flesh-coloured bathing suit but opted to do without. Having slowed down film production with her lateness, which cost the studio thousands, Marilyn decided to gain the movie free publicity by appearing in the nude. To ensure that word would reach the public, Marilyn invited journalists and photographers to the set while the film was scheduled to shoot.

Marilyn was trying to prove herself not only as a fit and healthy woman but as a high-calibre woman someone who could catch an audience and keep them. At this time Elizabeth Taylor was working for the same studio filming Cleopatra and receiving ten times Marilyn's salary; Marilyn knew that she could rival Liz.