Marilyn Monroe's Two Divorces: The Athlete, the Intellectual, and America's Most Famous Woman

What Happened

Marilyn Monroe married three times, but her two most famous marriages — to baseball legend Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller — represent two fundamentally different types of marital failure. DiMaggio offered physical passion and old-fashioned protectiveness; Miller offered intellectual companionship and cultural legitimacy. Neither could give Monroe what she truly needed, and both marriages ended in divorce that revealed more about America's relationship with fame than about the individuals involved.

Monroe married DiMaggio on January 14, 1954, at San Francisco City Hall. He was the greatest living baseball player; she was the biggest movie star on the planet. The marriage lasted just nine months. DiMaggio was possessive and traditional — he wanted a wife who would cook Italian dinners and stay home. Monroe was a global sex symbol whose career demanded she be the opposite. The breaking point came on September 15, 1954, when Monroe filmed the iconic subway grate scene for 'The Seven Year Itch' in front of thousands of spectators and press photographers. DiMaggio watched from the crowd as her white dress billowed above her waist. He was humiliated and furious. They fought violently that night, and Monroe filed for divorce the next month, citing 'mental cruelty.'

Monroe then married Arthur Miller — 'The Brain' to DiMaggio's 'The Body' — on June 29, 1956. It was supposed to be different: an intellectual partnership of equals. But Miller discovered that Monroe's emotional needs were bottomless, and Monroe discovered that Miller's intellectual world was not always welcoming. The devastating blow came when Monroe found an entry in Miller's journal in which he wrote that she embarrassed him and that he had been disappointed in her. She never forgave him. They divorced on January 20, 1961.

The most extraordinary chapter came after Monroe's death on August 4, 1962. DiMaggio, who had spent the years after their divorce quietly reconnecting with her, took charge of her funeral arrangements. He barred most of Hollywood from attending, furious at the entertainment industry he blamed for her destruction. Then he placed a standing order with a florist: half a dozen red roses, delivered to her crypt at Westwood Village Memorial Park three times a week. The order continued for 20 years. DiMaggio never remarried and reportedly said on his deathbed in 1999: 'I'll finally get to see Marilyn.'

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