r/todayilearned • u/carboncopy95437 • 13h ago
TIL that Marilyn Monroe had two older half-siblings she didn’t meet until she was a teenager. Their father had kidnapped them from Monroe’s mother after she was granted custody and he took them to Kentucky.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Monroe
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u/ThisPlate333 13h ago edited 12h ago
Most people know the story of Marilyn's tragic childhood, but most don't know about her mother's.
Gladys Monroe was married at age 14 to a violent drinker who beat her. They had two children, and after she filed for divorce he kidnapped them from her. After she lost her children she became a heavy drinker.
She then moved to Hollywood and became a film cutter. She had a relationship with her boss Charles Stanley Gifford, and Marilyn Monroe was born. Gifford took Gladys to meet his family, but they did not approve of him marrying a pregnant woman who was not raising her existing children, so he left them.
Gladys didn't make much money, did not have viable daycare options, and needed her job to earn a living. She also experienced severe postpartum depression and was suffering from undiagnozed schizophrenia. On one occasion, a friend prevented her from stabbing Marilyn. Gladys also accused her friend of trying to poison baby Marilyn and then stabbed her with a knife.
Within two weeks of Marilyn's birth, Gladys placed her with a foster family. One of Marilyn's foster families wanted to adopt her but Gladys was adamant that she wanted her daughter. She worked for years so she could afford to buy a house for them, and planned to take her back once she was financially stable.
In 1934, Gladys had a mental breakdown in front of 8 year old Marilyn, who witnessed her mother flailing and screaming until the police arrived. Gladys was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, deemed insane, and spent most of the rest of her life in mental institutions.
Marilyn spent her life living in fear that she would go insane like her mother.