Monroe’s First Marriage, 1942
Marilyn Monroe, born Norma Jeane Mortensen, married three times in her lifetime. Her first marriage was to her then neighbor’s 21-year-old son, a man by the name of James Dougherty. It was often said that she married him to avoid having to go back to an orphanage as she was only 16 years old at the time.
Marilyn claimed that she was “dying of boredom” during their marriage and when she got signed to Blue Book Model agency, she sent him divorce papers. In 1954, she married baseballer Joe DiMaggio, which lasted one year. And in 1956, she wed playwright Arthur Miller. Monroe died a few years later in 1961 from what many believed to be an accidental overdose.