Previously unheard tapes are offering a glimpse at Marilyn Monroe’s thoughts on her short-lived marriage to Joe DiMaggio as part of a new documentary about the late actor’s life.
In an exclusive clip from “The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes,” the Hollywood icon talked about dating DiMaggio before they tied the knot in 1954.
“I saw him for around a year and a half, two years, and we married,” Monroe said in the clip, which showed her and the baseball legend smiling and climbing into their car after saying “I do” at San Francisco City Hall.
Monroe also hinted at issues in their relationship that led them to divorce just nine months after they wed.
“He understood some things about me, and I understood some things about him,” she said. “We based our marriage on it. And I say some things.”
Even after their divorce, DiMaggio reportedly felt affection for Monroe, and for years after her death in 1962, he had red roses delivered regularly to her grave.
After divorcing DiMaggio, Monroe married playwright Arthur Miller in 1956; they announced plans to divorce in 1960, two years before she died at age 36.
“The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes,” streaming April 27 on Netflix, features previously unheard recordings of people who knew Monroe personally, including director John Huston and her “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” co-star Jane Russell, as well as lesser-known figures from her inner circle, such as the family of her psychiatrist.
The documentary’s director, Emma Cooper, says that hearing intimate tapes of people who knew Monroe gave her a more nuanced understanding of the legendary star.
“I thought that she was this one-dimensional character. I just absolutely adore her in a way that I didn’t before. She’s just an extraordinary icon. She’s a much more relatable woman than anybody has really given her credit for,” Cooper said in a Netflix interview. “She’s not just the person that stands on the air vent and looks pretty ditzy. There is a lot of pain and there’s a lot of strength in her. I’m completely obsessed with her.”
