Did Marilyn Monroe have any children? The rumors debunked

During the final years of her life, Monroe had a series of pregnancies – she’d made no secret of her desire to have a child. However, Monroe didn’t carry the pregnancies to term, meaning she had no children by the time she died in August 1962. 

Nevertheless, some conspiracy theories allege that Monroe secretly gave birth. In February 2016, an article appeared on the internet claiming Gladys Baker Morris had filed a paternity action suit claiming she was the biological daughter of Marilyn Monroe and JFK. 

The false article used a photo of Susan Griffiths, a Marilyn Monroe lookalike who has appeared as the famous actress in several productions. 

Richard C. Miller/Getty Images

Marilyn lost her first pregnancy in 1956 due to a miscarriage. A year later, she lost another child due to an ectopic pregnancy. Marilyn was pregnant again in 1958 while shooting the film Some Like It Hot. Monroe’s third pregnancy was also unsuccessful. 

The famous actress kept her fourth pregnancy secret – reports of the pregnancy surfaced decades later thanks to photos taken by Monroe’s friend Frieda Hull in 1960. 

Dubbed the ‘pregnant slides,’ the photos show Marilyn with a tiny but unmistakable baby bump. Hull took the pictures in July 1960, during the height of Marilyn’s romance with French actor Yves Montand. Montand and Marilyn played lovers in Let’s Make Love, with their steamy on-screen relationship spilling into real life. 

Tony Michaels, Hull’s close friend and neighbor, told the Daily Mail: “She told me the story behind them, that Marilyn got pregnant by Yves Montand. It wasn’t a guess or a presumption, it was something she knew for sure. She was very close to Marilyn. As far as she was concerned, Marilyn was pregnant in the summer of 1960 and the slides prove it.”

Marilyn also lost her fourth pregnancy. Endometriosis, a disorder causing abnormal growth of the uterine tissue, caused Marilyn severe pain during menstrual periods and compromised her ability to carry a child to term. 

Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe, a 2013 book by Anthony Summers, claimed Marilyn’s endometriosis and inability to have children contributed to her drug dependency. Summers wrote:

“One of the most famous sufferers from endometriosis was Marilyn Monroe. The condition was so severe that it destroyed her marriages, her wish for children, her career and ultimately her life.”

“In days before effective conservative surgery or effective medical therapies, it led to progressively increasing use of strong analgesics, tranquilizers and hypnotics – and drug dependency.”

Monroe passed away in August 1962 due to a probable suicide, the Los Angeles County Coroners Office concluded. Marilyn had taken drug dosages several times over the lethal limit, ruling out the possibility of an accidental overdose. Monroe’s doctors said she was frequently depressed and had overdosed several times in the past.