Popular American icon Marilyn Monroe was arguably one of the biggest names in Hollywood during the height of her fame in the 1950s and early 1960s. Named by the American Film Institute in 1999 as the sixth most popular female star important of the 20th century, Monroe's influence has certainly surpassed it.
Although she was beloved by moviegoers around the world for her numerous onscreen performances, her troubled but dynamic personal life was also of great interest to audiences. Married three times, notably to baseball legend Joe DiMaggio and later to playwright Arthur Miller, Monroe also experienced three divorces, as well as numerous well-known affairs with various high-profile people (notably the President of the United States States, John F. Kennedy and his brother, Robert Kennedy).
Yet despite Monroe's beauty, charm, and s-x symbol status, the movie legend never had children. But what was the reason for this? Well, it turns out that the famous actor did, in fact, have a strong and almost permanent desire to start a family. However, a certain condition had prevented her from doing so.
Marilyn Monroe suffered three miscarriages during her third marriage
Although Marilyn Monroe never actually had children, she tried to start a family several times. Unfortunately, all those attempts ended in miscarriages.
According to Biography, Monroe's commitment to getting pregnant and having a child began in earnest with her marriage to playwright Arthur Miller in 1956, just a year after her divorce from baseball center fielder Joe DiMaggio. Miller had just turned 40 and already had two children by her first wife, Mary Slattery, while Monroe had just turned 30 and had no children by her first husband, James Dougherty. (Monroe married Dougherty when she was just 16, and divorced him four years later.)
But problems arose almost immediately, as Monroe ended up having two miscarriages, followed by a fatal ectopic pregnancy. These miscarriages only exacerbated her already fragile state of mind. As director Billy Wilder said, per E! News, "I didn't have a problem with Monroe. Monroe had problems with Monroe. She had problems with herself." Monroe and Miller ended up divorcing in January 1961. And, 19 months later, in August 1962, she would end up taking her own life with an overdose of barbiturates.
Marilyn Monroe's infertility problems stemmed from her endometriosis
Although the end of Marilyn Monroe's marriage to Arthur Miller in the early 1960s may have been caused, in part, by her depression and other mental health problems, and likely exacerbated by her three miscarriages, her previous marriage to Joe DiMaggio was likewise publicized. and so doomed
According to the NCBI, Monroe had endometriosis, a condition that causes infertility in about half of the people it affects. In fact, Monroe's endometriosis was so severe that the organization reports that it "destroyed her marriages, her desire to have children, her career, and ultimately her life." Despite this, according to Biography, Monroe and DiMaggio still intended to have children upon their marriage in 1954.
"Joe and I had been talking about getting married for a few months," Monroe told author Ben Hecht for his biography, "My Story." "We knew it would not be an easy marriage. On the other hand, we couldn't go on forever as lovers on the other side of the country. It could start to hurt our careers." Of course, the marriage would end childless and only lasted for around nine months. The two ended up divorcing after they began to develop serious personality differences, with Monroe even accusing DiMaggio of "mental cruelty."
