Marilyn Monroe’s Childhood As Norma Jean
Ed Feingersh/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesMarilyn Monroe was abandoned by her mother only to live in 12 different foster homes and be abused by her husband.
The epitome of a vintage Hollywood star, Marilyn Monroe rose from rags to riches and made her own way there. But while her alluring smile and playful presence onscreen have become iconic, Monroe’s difficult childhood and mentally ill mother nearly left her too traumatized to accomplish anything at all.
Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926, in Los Angeles, California. Her mother, Gladys Baker, placed her in foster care when she was two months old and ran off to India. She would return to forge a semblance of trust with Monroe, who never knew her father and instead was raised religiously by Ida and Wayne Bolender.
Monroe was three years old when Baker unexpectedly visited and tried to kidnap her. Ida Bolender was highly alarmed at the attempt but grew trusting enough to reunite Baker with Monroe when she was seven. The dream crumbled shortly after adoption, however, when Baker suffered a psychotic break in front of her daughter.
“My mother was on her feet. She was screaming and laughing,” recalled Monroe. “They took her away to the Norwalk Mental Hospital. I knew the name of the hospital in a vague way. It was where my mother’s father and grandmother had been taken when they started screaming and laughing.”
Silver Screen Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesGladys Baker (left) with baby Norma Jeane Mortenson (front) and friends on the beach.
With Baker relegated to a series of hospitals for the rest of her life, Monroe spent her childhood in foster homes — finding the Los Angeles Orphans Home Society most lonely. She lived with 12 families in total, suffering everything from neglect and abuse to an incident of sexual molestation that left her with a stutter.
Monroe was 16 when the Goddard family got tired of raising her and married her off to their 21-year-old neighbor James Dougherty in 1942. When the merchant marine was deployed overseas in 1944 to fight in World War 2, Monroe was discovered by a photographer — and signed her first movie contract in 1946.
Tragically, Monroe’s troubles never truly ended. In 1951, the first issue of Playboy published nude photos she had agreed to model for before her Hollywood stardom against her will. That same year, she married baseball star Joe DiMaggio — only for him to beat her.
And although she had overcome her childhood trauma enough to find fame and a stable career, she never truly broke free and was found dead of a barbiturate overdose at age 36, in 1962.
Ultimately, the true cause of Marilyn Monroe’s death remains debated decades later.
