Continuing with my incredibly lengthy but informative breakdown of The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe the movie (or mini-series). This week we take a look at Marilyn's marriage to Arthur and the end of it, as well as Marilyn's pill usage and failed pregnancies. Before continuing, please check out the previous parts of my review so that you’re all caught up! Trigger warnings: mental illness, miscarriage.
Links are here:
THE MOVIE(1): Marilyn strolls into the living room, where an open journal sitting on Arthur’s desk catches her eye. She approaches it, observing what he has written. She reads, “This marriage is a mistake – I’m trapped.”
REAL LIFE(1):The open diary is a story that gets endlessly
tossed around and recycled and edited among Marilyn fans. It is one of the
first things fans bring up in an attempt to bash Arthur. What was written in
that diary? We don’t know. We don’t have it. We can’t say. Whatever was in it,
Marilyn was hurt by it. Arthur was obviously expressing his doubts and worries
about their relationship. But this discovery was early on in their marriage.
They managed to stay married another 4 years. So it was certainly nothing that
caused any huge problem within the marriage and it was something they both got
over. Marilyn wasn’t delusional over this. Sure, some level of trust was
damaged, but overall, the diary incident was not fatal to their marriage, and
today it certainly gets blown out of proportion.
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| From The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe |
THE MOVIE(2):Marilyn awakens to severe abdominal pain late
in the night. She limps outside to where Arthur is. She is covered in blood,
and Arthur immediately runs to her aid. Marilyn realizes she has had a
miscarriage.
REAL LIFE(2): In the summer of 1957, Marilyn and Arthur were
vacationing in Amagansett, Long Island, when Marilyn began suffering from
severe stomach pain. She was immediately rushed to the nearest hospital in New
York, where her pregnancy was terminated. For ten days afterwards, Marilyn rested
in the hospital in attempt to regain her strength both physically and mentally.
She, of course, was absolutely devastated. In her adult life, Marilyn had
wanted nothing more than to become a mother, and have children of her own. Her
endometriosis condition made it difficult for her to carry a baby to term.
Marilyn, unfortunately, had two confirmed miscarriages. She was farthest along
in 1958, about 3 months, when her pregnancy ended in a miscarriage that
December while shooting the film Some
Like It Hot.
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| A pregnant Marilyn in 1958 |
THE MOVIE(3): Marilyn is delusional after the loss of her
child. She has fired the maid after accusing her of kidnapping her unborn
daughter. She is completely out of her mind, saying things like, “Shhh, you’ll wake the baby,” even
though there is no baby. Marilyn even has a vision of her mother, Gladys,
coming to her and saying, “You have no
one to blame but yourself.” A confused and distraught Marilyn makes her way
into the living room, where Arthur finally accuses Marilyn of killing their
child, and that it’s Marilyn’s fault that she miscarried.
REAL LIFE(3): Here’s where things really start to get pretty
drastic and inaccurate in the movie. As we’ve determined, Marilyn wanted nothing more than a
child she could care for and love, since she herself was robbed of that kind of affection in
her own childhood. She was understandably distraught and devastated over her
two failed pregnancies. However, by no account was she hallucinating or
breaking into psychotic episodes over it, such as searching for her missing
child. At this point in the movie and for someone who didn’t know better, the
viewer would think Marilyn was slowly inheriting her mother’s illness, which
she, in real life, did not. Gladys was the one who suffered schizophrenia, not
Marilyn. Arthur, too, is hurt by this loss, but there is no account of him
mentally abusing her with insinuations that she killed his child.
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| From The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe |
THE MOVIE(4): Marilyn is out at lunch with a new character
we are introduced to: Pat Kennedy Lawford, played by Tamara Hickey. They have a
discussion about Pat’s brother, president John Kennedy, where Marilyn mentions
the first time she met him, and soon Marilyn notices that her ex-husband Joe
DiMaggio has entered the restaurant. He walks over and compliments Marilyn,
striking up a conversation. Joe then goes home with her.
REAL LIFE(4): First, Pat Lawford. Marilyn was introduced to
Pat through actor Peter Lawford, her husband. She was introduced to Peter through mutual
friend Frank Sinatra, who Marilyn had dated briefly in 1961. Marilyn and Pat
became quick friends, which was uncommon for Marilyn. Marilyn didn’t have many
close female friends. Her male friends (yes, male friends, that she had no romantic relationship with) greatly
outweighed her female friends. Pat really cared for Marilyn. Marilyn was
beginning to sort of surround herself with a new social circle following her
divorce from Arthur Miller. Christopher Lawford, Peter and Pat’s son, wrote in
2005: “My mother told me Marilyn was
like ‘her little sister.’ It surprised her that Marilyn was so open with her.
Marilyn Monroe trusted my mother’s love for her.” In August of 1962, Pat
flew out to Los Angeles with the intention of attending Marilyn’s funeral.
However, she was refused entrance by Joe DiMaggio, who did the same to most of
Marilyn’s Hollywood friends and acquaintances. Pat was incredibly hurt by this.
As far as Joe DiMaggio re-entering Marilyn’s life, he did this soon after
Marilyn and Arthur’s divorce. He demanded Marianne Kris have Marilyn released
from Payne Whitney, he took care of her and frequently visited her when she was
hospitalized, and he took her on a relaxing vacation to Florida. Joe lived the
rest of his life in regret for how he treated Marilyn, and he really stepped up
and became a real friend to her in the last year of her life. However. Marilyn was
adamant that they were just friends. Although we can never know what happened
behind closed doors, it is commonly accepted that they were just that: friends.
Marilyn greatly appreciated his coming back into her life. They even spent her
last Christmas together. And forget what you hear about their planning to remarry the year she died, because there is nothing to prove that.
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| From The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe |
THE MOVIE(5): Marilyn is hanging out in her room with Pat
Lawford. After excusing herself to use the restroom, Pat comes back and
expresses her concern at the amount of pills Marilyn has in her medicine
cabinet. Marilyn says, “They keep me
going in the morning, they put me out at night.”
REAL LIFE(5): Let me start off with the disclaimer that I am
no medical expert whatsoever. Marilyn didn’t take nor need pills to make it
through the day. She needed them to make it through the night. She wasn’t regularly
taking stimulants; she was regularly taking sedatives before bed to help her
sleep. If you look at her numerous prescriptions, they’re all prescriptions for
medications such as valmid, Librium, chloral hydrate, tuinal, seconal, Nembutal,
and several other types of sedatives. If that sounds like an unnecessary amount,
it’s because it is. Her doctors were providing this medication for her rather
than trying to wean her off of it. The only time she was prescribed a stimulant
was on July 1, 1962, in the form of 12 dexedrine tablets.
That concludes part 8 of this ongoing review. Thank you so much for keeping up with it and if you have any questions or comments, leave them here or message me on my Instagram which can be found at the top of this blog. Thank you!
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