The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe

Norma Jeane Mortensen was born on June 1, 1926. This beautiful baby would, of course, grow up to one day become the great film star Marilyn Monroe. (Retro Photo)

A sad but beautiful photo of Marilyn the woman. This picture says it all about her: Vulnerable. Tragic. Gorgeous. (Getty Images)

The way Gladys Baker is holding Norma Jeane—almost as if she were a baby doll— suggests that maybe she wasn’t prepared to be a mother. Less than two weeks after giving birth, Gladys turned the infant over to foster parents, Ida and Wayne Bolender, to raise. (Getty Images)

A very rare photo of Ida and Wayne Bolender with their foster children. Ida is holding the infant Norma Jeane in her arms. (Courtesy of Maryanne Reed Collection)

A never-before-published photograph of the man Gladys Baker said was Norma Jeane’s father, Charles Stanley Gifford Sr. His son, Charles Stanley Jr.— interviewed for this book— maintains that he and Marilyn Monroe are not related. (Retro Photo)

Gladys would sometimes visit her daughter at the Bolenders’ and take her for the occasional outing, such as this one to the beach when the girl was about three. Still, because of her mental illness, it was difficult for her to ever forge a relationship with her child. (Getty Images)

Norma Jeane at about four years of age. (Photofest)

Norma Jeane at age six. (Getty Images)

Norma Jeane married her first husband, Jim Dougherty, in June 1942—but only so that she would not have to go into another orphanage. (Retro Photo)

Norma Jeane was a highly successful model long before she ever became Marilyn Monroe. Here she is in 1944, “wearing” some of her many covers. (Courtesy of Maryanne Reed Collection)

The postcard Norma Jeane wrote to her half sister, Berniece, after meeting her for the first time in October 1944. (Getty Images)

A very rare family photo taken at the Pacific Seas restaurant in September 1946, right after Norma Jeane was divorced from her first husband, James Dougherty. From left to right: Berniece Baker (Marilyn’s half sister) and her daughter, Mona Rae; Grace Goddard (Norma Jeane’s beloved guardian) and her sister, Enid Knebelkamp; Norma Jeane, Norma Jeane’s “Aunt” Ana and her mother, Gladys Baker. (Getty Images)

The lavish production number “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” from the 1953 movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. (Photofest)

Marilyn married Joe DiMaggio in January of 1954, even though there were many indications that the marriage would not work out—not the least of which was his unhappiness over her career. Although Marilyn was forced to leave him when DiMaggio became physically abusive, their love for one another never died. (Retro Photo)

A love letter Marilyn wrote to Joe—addressed to “Dad.” “I want to just be where you are,” she wrote, “and be just what you want me to be.” Unfortunately, what he wanted was for her to just be his wife, not one of the world’s great movie stars. (Getty Images)

The filming of this famous scene from The Seven Year Itch was the catalyst to the end of Marilyn’s relationship with Joe. It so enraged him that he became violent with her that very same evening. Then, as far as she was concerned, the marriage was over. (Retro Photo)

Three iconic poses of a legend. (Photofest)

Marilyn received this very impersonal Christmas card from her mother, Gladys, in December of 1956. She never knew just what kind of communication to expect from her mother, who was at the Rock Haven Sanitarium at the time. (Shaan Kokin/Julien’s Auctions)

By the summer of 1960, Marilyn’s third marriage, to Arthur Miller— seen here on the set of The Misfits—was all but over. (Photofest)

In February 1961, Marilyn was committed to the mental ward at the Payne Whitney Clinic in New York. Thanks to Joe DiMaggio’s intervention, she was later moved to the Neurological Institute of Columbia University-Presbyterian Hospital, where she would remain for almost three weeks. Of course, there was the expected pandemonium when she was finally released from that facility— looking quite beautiful, as always. (Retro Photo)

Meanwhile, Marilyn’s mother, Gladys Baker Eley, tried to commit suicide while locked behind these gates at the Rock Haven Sanitarium in California. (Retro Photo)

According to photographer Bernie Abramson, these three photographs have never been published in any Marilyn Monroe biography. Marilyn’s close friend Pat Kennedy Lawford (left in the top photo); Pat’s husband, Peter Lawford; Marilyn’s occasional lover Frank Sinatra; and Marilyn are seen experimenting with Sinatra’s new Polaroid camera at the Lawford home in Santa Monica, California, circa 1961. (MPTV)