American icon, Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962), was in foster care, an orphanage and kinship care as a child. Norma Jean Mortenson was born in Los Angeles, California to Gladys Monroe Baker, who worked in the film industry as a film cutter.
Born Norma Jean Baker to an unmarried woman, Monroe was fostered from babyhood until about the age of seven, because her mother was working and not well enough to care for her as well.
From the very start, Marilyn's life with her mom was a struggle. Her mother was declared legally insane and was admitted into an insane asylum. Marilyn then spent the next two years in an orphanage before living with a family friend for four years. But Marilyn's early life had even more serious problems.
Although Marilyn was married three times (first to James Dougherty, followed by baseball star Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller), she did not have any children before her death in 1962. However, she really wanted to have a family and did have multiple documented pregnancies.
Marilyn Monroe was born on June 1, 1926, to a struggling film cutter, Gladys Pearl Baker. Unfortunately, Gladys didn't have enough money to take care of Marilyn, so she put her through the foster care system. Per Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center, Marilyn's foster parents were A.W. and Ida Bolender.
The pair did go on to live together again briefly, but Gladys was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in January 1934 and was eventually committed to the Metropolitan State Hospital a few months later, with Monroe then moving between foster parents and orphanages for the rest of her childhood.
While it seems that Marilyn Monroe remained somewhat in touch with her mother, their relationship was nonetheless strained up until Monroe's tragic death in August 1962.
A breakdown of Marilyn Monroe's will:
She left $10,000 to her long-time assistant and half-sister, Berniece Miracle. She also set up a $5,000 education trust for Miracle's child. For her mother, Gladys Baker, who struggled with mental illness most of Monroe's life, the actress left $100,000 for her care.
According to Vogel, Monroe was pregnant three times during her marriage to Miller: She miscarried in 1956, lost an ectopic pregnancy in 1957, then miscarried again in 1958. "Her fertility issues have long been attributed to endometriosis," a gynecological condition that causes severe menstrual pain, Vogel says.
Who inherited Marilyn Monroe's estate? Per Monroe's will, Monroe gave $10,000 each to her longtime assistant and to her half-sister. She put $5,000 in a trust fund for the education of her assistant's child, and she left a $100,000 trust fund for her mother.
What is Marilyn Monroe's net worth? Celebrity Net Worth estimates Monroe's estate was worth around $800,000 at the time of her death which is around $7.8 million in 2022 adjusting for inflation. During her career, she earned little under $3 million ($24 million by today's economy) from film salary.
Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926, at the Los Angeles General Hospital in Los Angeles, California. Her mother, Gladys Pearl Baker (née Monroe; 1902–1984), was born in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico to a poor Midwestern family who migrated to California at the turn of the century.
Marilyn Monroe is a pop culture phenomenon, but she actually bounced around the California foster care system and orphanages until age 11 due to her birth mother's inability to care for her. Monroe's mother struggled with mental illness, and her father was unknown.
Some like her because she was sexy and beautiful; others because she was a funny comedienne. There are people who adore her sensitivity and others who love the way she never stopped trying to make her life more fulfilling.
Marilyn Monroe (Actress)
He said the Spirit of God had sent him to preach to her. After hearing what the Preacher had to say, she said: 'I don't need your Jesus'.
Monroe's natural eye color was most likely to be blue, as recorded in her sister's autobiography (48) – “but our eyes were different … Norma Jeane's were blue like our mother's” – and on her autopsy report (49), in addition to Capote's description of her “blue-grey eyes” while wearing glasses (46).
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.
75 percent of Monroe's intellectual property and estate were left to her acting coach, Lee Strasberg, and the remaining 25 percent was given to her New York psychiatrist Dr. Marianne Kris.
Estimated to go for about $2 million, it ultimately sold for $4.8 million to Ripley's Believe It or Not!, which later advertised it as “the world's most expensive dress!” and kept it in a vault in its museum in Orlando, Fla.
Miss Monroe's body was discovered after her housekeeper and companion, Mrs. Eunice Murray, awoke about 3 a.m. and saw a light still burning in the actress' room. Mrs. Murray found the bedroom door locked.
Instead she accumulated a small number of items gifted to her from husbands, admirers and even the Emperor of Japan, which she happily gave away. (Marilyn bequeathed all her jewellery to acting coach, Lee Strasberg).
Marilyn Monroe remains one of Hollywood's most famous faces, but she was almost penniless and couldn't afford a 'proper funeral' when she died nearly 60 years ago.