Why Marilyn Monroe was afraid to become like her mother, and other fears of the most charming blonde of the 20th century

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

She was loved and disliked, envied and whispered behind her back, admired and imitated, and she continued to shine on TV screens, radiantly smiling at the world. But behind the scenes, the life of the legendary and charming Marilyn Monroe was far from rosy, as it seemed at first glance. From childhood to the end of her days, a sexy blonde lived in eternal fear, afraid of losing herself and becoming like her mother …

Her life and death are still the subject of much controversy and speculation. Norma Jeane Mortenson was born at Los Angeles County Hospital on June 1, 1926. Her mother, Gladys Pearl Baker, worked as a filmmaker, and the identity of the girl's father has never been established. Since Gladys was morally and financially incapable of caring for her young daughter, she placed her in the care of a foster family, who eventually decided to adopt the girl. But in the end, Gladys managed to establish and stabilize her lifestyle. She ended up taking her daughter home when she was seven years old.

However, shortly after Norma returned home, Gladys suffered a mental breakdown, was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was admitted to a state mental hospital. Gladys spent the rest of her life under the scrutiny of doctors and little contact with her daughter.

Of course, there were also good periods in the relationship between mother and daughter. So, Norma lived with Gladys for a while. Before that, her mother already had two children - Jackie and Bernice, whom her ex-husband took away after the divorce. Despite this, Gladys decided that another child would definitely not interfere with her, and therefore decided to leave the girl. She often visited her when the child was in the shelter, and also periodically took the girl to spend the night at her home, in an apartment in Hollywood.

One of the books about Marilyn also mentions a curious fact. When the girl was in the family of a woman named Ida, which was actually taken care of by her, Gladys at some point appeared on their doorstep. Excited and agitated, she ordered the girl to pack her things, and then, locking Ida in the backyard, abducted the baby before her adoptive mother regained consciousness.

The further fate of the future movie star and sex symbol was not the best. She moved from one family to another, until her mother's best friend took Norma to her for a while, and then placed the girl in an orphanage.

While at the orphanage, Jean experienced a severe shock and a nervous breakdown. As a result, her mother's friend took her back to her place. But quarrels and scandals began in the family due to the fact that Grace's husband molested Norma.

After another incident of harassment, Norma moved to live with her aunt Grace Anya. But unfortunately, due to her advanced age and health reasons, the woman could not properly take care of the girl. And she had no choice but to once again return to Grace and her husband.

At the same time, the girl learns that she has a half-sister named Bernice. Then they start to correspond, Norma writes letters to her in the state of Kentucky, and receives many responses. It is believed that the strong bond between the two sisters continued for very long years.

Due to the imminent move, the family, not having the necessary documents, could not take Norma with them, and she had no choice but to return to the shelter or marry a neighbor's boy. She chose the second option, but here, too, fate played a partly cruel joke with her. Their marriage lasted no more than five years, but during this time, Norma, obsessed with her own thoughts and ideas, went into the modeling business, where she was waiting for a very good success.

Posing for different publications, she easily tried on one image or another. And it is not at all surprising that her pretty face has appeared on the covers of glossy magazines more than once.

After Marilyn's first marriage broke up, her mother announced that she wanted to take her in an armful and move with her to live with her aunt Dora in Oregon. The young and talented model refused, and only a little later found out that in fact no aunt existed: her mother fled to her secret love - a man named John Ellie, who, according to rumors, already had a wife and children at that time. living in Idaho.

In addition to modeling, she studied acting, dreaming that one day she would become a successful actress. But so far she got episodic roles. And only after the divorce, when the girl radically changed her style and image, dyeing her hair white, a contract with Twentieth Century Fox fell on her head for a period of one year. And Ben Lyon, the casting director, suggested that she take the name Marilyn, and she added the last name of her grandmother Monroe. So the future star and sex symbol Marilyn Monroe was born - a woman who was able to turn the head of any man with just one glance.

Her career was rapidly going uphill, and she decided to stick to the version that her parents were dead. Moreover, a difficult childhood, an orphanage and adoptive parents who changed like gloves - all this only played into her hands to maintain the legend.

But as you know, everything secret sooner or later becomes apparent. Her meeting with her own mother happened by accident and not in the best way. Being in limbo, Gladys, as always, began to behave inappropriately and once again broke loose, fell into a mental seizure. Sitting in the back seat of the car, Marilyn watched from the window. She saw her mother being tied to a gurney and loaded into a car, sent to a psychiatric clinic.

Off-screen, Monroe's life was not as vibrant as it seemed at first glance. For a long time this woman lived in her fears and personal experiences.

And in February 1961, after confessing to the doctor that she was contemplating suicide, Marilyn realized that she was following her mother's path when she was sent to the Payne Whitney Clinic in New York. Her stay there was short-lived, but it was enough for rumors to leak to the press.

According to autobiographical books about the life of a star, it is believed that the last time the mother and daughter saw each other was around 1962. Then Norma received word from the doctor that her mother was refusing to take the prescribed drug, torazine. She was forced to give up everything and come to the clinic, where they sorted out the relationship for a long time and violently on the street. Norma urged the mother to start taking medicine, and she, in turn, said that she only needed prayers and faith in God. In parting, when the actress was about to leave, she put a small flask of alcohol into the pocket of her mother's robe, to which she received a happy, senile smile.

Already on August 5, Monroe's life was cut short, because drugs were much stronger than herself. Curiously, Gladys, her mother, outlived her daughter by as much as twenty-two years, spending the rest of her days in closed psychiatric hospitals, which did not even let her out of her own ward.

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