No, Marilyn Monroe's father was not involved in her life; he abandoned her mother before her birth, and though Monroe later found him as a famous adult, he refused to acknowledge her, leaving her deeply saddened by the lack of paternal connection. Her childhood was spent in foster homes and orphanages due to her mother's instability, and her search for her father became a lifelong quest for connection.
Monroe, who went by Norma Jeane Mortenson, before finding fame, was born to Gladys Pearl Baker and Gifford, her mother's one-time co-worker. Monroe didn't have a relationship with her father growing up, which she frequently spoke about.
Gifford then wrote “a little prayer too”, followed by his full name and address at a dairy farm in California that he had established after remarrying. Gifford, who fathered two other children, died of a heart attack at the age of 66 in 1965 – three years after Monroe died of an apparent overdose.
In 1961, Marilyn invited Berniece to stay with her in New York as she recovered from gallbladder surgery. During this trip, Marilyn recalled meeting her father, as Berniece wrote in her 1996 memoir, My Sister Marilyn (co-written with daughter Mona Rae Miracle.) “Marilyn had finally met her father.
According to biographers Fred Guiles and Lois Banner, Monroe's father was likely Charles Stanley Gifford, Gladys's superior at RKO Studios, with whom she had an affair in 1925. This was supported by a comparison conducted in 2022 between Monroe's DNA and that of one of Gifford's descendants.
Marilyn Monroe likely suffered from complex mental health issues, with modern analysis pointing towards Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), alongside historical diagnoses of Bipolar Disorder (Manic-Depressive Illness), anxiety, depression, and addiction, stemming from severe childhood trauma and abandonment. Her struggles included emotional instability, identity issues, impulsivity, intense mood swings, emptiness, and substance abuse, all consistent with BPD and ASD traits, though she was treated with medications for mood disorders during her life.
Marilyn Monroe was more than a glamorous icon—she was deeply intelligent and loved literature and philosophy. She reportedly had an IQ of 168, even higher than einstein's estimated 160.
A woman who enjoyed her sleep, Monroe took between five and 10 hours of shut-eye a night in a wide single bed. On Sunday? “[It's] my one day of total leisure. I sometimes take two hours to wake up, luxuriating in every last moment of drowsiness,” she said in an interview with Pageant magazine.
That instrument left some small bequests for a number of individuals including Monroe's half-sister, her secretary, her mother, and several friends. But ultimately 75% of Monroe's remaining assets were to be distributed outright to Lee Strasberg, the famed acting coach.
Marilyn Monroe is said to have once made a bold and charming remark to Albert Einstein: "You and I should have a child together — imagine a baby with your brains and my looks." To which the father of relativity and the atomic bomb reportedly replied: "Yes, but what if it's born with my looks and your brains?" We still ...
The reason for Monroe not having kids is simple: she had endometriosis, which caused the lining of her uterus to grow outside of it.
Her father was unknown and her mother, Gladys Monroe, had two divorces and other children fostered. Gladys, diagnosed as manic-depressive and later as paranoid schizophrenic, was hospitalized several times ending to be institutionalized when Norma Jeane was eight years old.
Her half brother Robert died in 1933 at 15 years old. Marilyn never met him. When Marilyn's mother and 1st husband divorced, the father, Jasper Baker, took both her half brother Robert and half sister Bernice when her mother broke up with him.
It's no secret that Marilyn Monroe had many loves throughout her life, most notably with her second and third husbands Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller. But between (and sometimes even during) her marriages, there were many scandalous affairs.
There is some reported truth to this depiction, however; the book Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life states that Monroe called her first husband, James Dougherty, “Daddy,” and that DiMaggio signed his letters to Monroe as “Pa.” In Miller's obituary, The Guardian similarly reports Monroe called her second husband “Papa.”
As the mother of two children—Jackie and Berniece—who had already been taken from her by an ex-husband, Gladys was eager to keep her youngest in her life in some form, according to Biography. She would make frequent visits to Monroe's foster home, and even keep her for occasional sleepovers.
“I'm removing it. It is a negative character, as [Monroe] suffered from personality disorders and was bipolar,” Fox told the news source. “I do not want to attract this kind of negative energy in my life.”
Marilyn Monroe was US$372,000 (about HK$1,860,000 at the time) in debt when she died in 1962, according to newspaper reports.
Jane Russell was billed above Marilyn Monroe for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), and was also paid a lot more - reportedly $200K, while Marilyn was paid $11,250.
Turns out Monroe might have made dying her pubic hair part of her regular beauty routine, too.
Marilyn Monroe's Clothing Tells the Truth
Below are several examples of Marilyn's clothing worn at varying times in her life, displayed on a size 6-8 dress form, with measurements of 33.5″ (bust), 24.5″ (waist), and 34.5″ (hip).
Murray telephoned Greenson, on whose advice she looked in through a window, and saw Monroe lying facedown on her bed, nude and covered by a sheet and clutching a telephone receiver. Greenson arrived shortly thereafter. He entered the room by breaking a window and found Monroe dead.
The Illness Trajectory in Marilyn Monroe's Psychological Autopsy: From Autism Spectrum Disorder to Borderline Personality Disorder and Bipolar Disorder with Catatonia.
Lady Gaga's IQ is widely rumored to be around 166, placing her in the "exceptionally gifted" or genius category, though this is an estimation often cited in celebrity lists, not a officially verified number from a public test. This high estimate is supported by her early academic achievements, like attending a summer program for the top 1% of students, and her demonstrated creative and musical genius as a composer and performer, notes Us Weekly and Brainmanager.io.
If we measure smarts by IQ alone, Marilyn edges out with a score reportedly five points higher than the famed physicist. Yes, that's right—Marilyn Monroe, often pigeonholed as the quintessential blonde bombshell, had an IQ of 165, surpassing Einstein's by a small but significant margin.