Marilyn Monroe had an abortion weeks before she died
A new book reveals that the actress became pregnant around the time she was related to John and Robert Kennedy
Despite the fact that she died almost half a century ago, the figure of Marilyn Monroe continues to be fascinating for the general public and also for biographers, who see in her a character as exploited in the public as full of folds in the intimate. Hence, this week a new biography is published that investigates issues so far less trite about the star of The Temptation lives above. Thus, according to author Fred Lawrence Giles, Monroe underwent an abortion anonymously in July 1962. She would commit suicide on August 4.
Giles' new book, Norma Jean: The Life of Marilyn Monroe, delves into the star's private life and interviews dozens of people related to her. Giles is one of the greatest connoisseurs of Monroe and her life, and for the volume he collects testimonies from all around her, such as two of her husbands, James E. Dougherty, and the writer Arthur Miller; the actress's acting teacher, Lee Strasberg, or directors like Otto Preminger, John Huston and Billy Wilder.
In the just over 500 pages of the book, Monroe's abortion is one of Giles' main revelations. In a preview published exclusively by The Daily Beast, it is implied that the child he was expecting could be the result of a relationship with the then president of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, or with his brother, Robert Bobby Kennedy.
"Throughout the month of July, Marilyn made frequent phone calls to the Justice Building in Washington, and when Bobby was out of the office, her secretary, Angie Novello, spoke to her," the book reads. In that month, the last of her life (he would die on August 4), he also met on occasion with Joe DiMaggio, who believed that he could have something serious with her again, and with Frank Sinatra. In addition, she did a couple of photo sessions - like that famous one with Bert Stern - and gave a couple of last interviews in which she was relaxed and hinted at how little importance she attached to the fame associated with being an actor. "As a person, my work is important to me," she confessed in one of them. “My work is the only field in which I have had a place of my own. Acting is very important. To put it bluntly, I seem to have a superstructure but no foundation. But I'm working on the grassroots, ”she hinted about how often she was valued more for her physique than for her acting essence.
One of the publicists in the office who handled her communication, Arthur P. Jacobs, affirms that on July 20, Marilyn was admitted to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, one of the most famous in Los Angeles and located in the heart of Hollywood, with a pseudonym. “The press aide was shocked. If Marilyn was truly pregnant, her mental state must have been unimaginable, "the book recounts, which continues:" It had been three months since her last intimate encounter with President Kennedy, and only a few weeks since the last time with her brother. . It would have been easy to assume that the baby she aborted was a Kennedy, but she was seeing other men in spring and summer as well. "
Advertisers reported that she had gone to a lake that weekend. Then, already on Monday, July 30, Monroe called Bobby Kennedy. "There is no way of knowing if she ever told her that she had terminated a pregnancy," Giles explains in her text. "What we do know is that she seemed to sink into a deep depression. In early July, Dr. Greenson had begun to see her. daily and would continue to do so until his death. "
There were only a few days left for it. On August 3, says the author, "she went to her favorite restaurant, La Scala, with a couple of friends and, according to at least one source, Bobby Kennedy, who was in California with her family." . That night, the actress was agitated, nervous. “Bobby had been an important part of her love life for two and a half months, but he might as well have brought [his wife] Ethel and his family to California to help him get out of the mistake. Marilyn had drifted into an unrealistic view of the situation, believing that Bobby was available to her in some way. Now the Kennedy clan was pushing her to return to her place. If she was feeling that the possibility of a really serious relationship with Bobby was slipping away, that would help explain her bad mood of hers that Friday night. "
A document from the archives of the US Department of Justice records that Bobby Kennedy and his family spent that weekend in August on a ranch about 135 kilometers south of San Francisco and that on Monday he gave a conference in the city. It is, according to the author of the volume, a "rare" document, since its entrances and exits are not normally recorded, even less in personal situations. “It says nothing about the tragedy taking place in Los Angeles that weekend. But that document served to officially make it clear that Kennedy was far away when word got out about what happened. "
