You’ve seen the posters. The white dress flying up over the subway grate. The red lipstick. The sleepy eyes. But honestly, most of what people post on social media about her is total nonsense. If you've ever seen those "surprising" quotes about her IQ being 168 or her being a secret nuclear physicist, you’ve been fed a bunch of internet myths.
Marilyn was complicated. She wasn't a genius on paper, but she was a tactical powerhouse who built a brand when women weren't even allowed to own their own careers.
💡 You might also like: Why Princess Grace of Monaco Still Matters: The Truth Behind the Fairy Tale
Let's get into the real fun facts about marilyn monroe—the stuff that actually happened, backed by her own library and the doctors who treated her.
The Stutter That Created a Signature Voice
Most people think Marilyn’s breathy, "come-hither" voice was just a calculated sex appeal move. It wasn't. It was a survival mechanism.
As a kid, Norma Jeane had a debilitating stutter. It would flare up when she was stressed or excited, which, given her chaotic childhood in and out of foster homes, was pretty much all the time. When she started acting, a speech therapist taught her to use that famous "throaty" style to bypass the stammer. By breathing out before she spoke, she could get the words out without tripping.
It worked. Too well, maybe.
Toward the end of her life, specifically while filming the ill-fated Something's Got to Give in 1962, the stutter came back with a vengeance. She was exhausted and sick, and the "voice" just wasn't enough to hide it anymore. It’s one of those things that reminds you she was always "performing," even when she was just trying to talk.
🔗 Read more: Does Cillian Murphy Have a Wife? What Most People Get Wrong
She Was Actually a Massive Bookworm
If you want to know who someone really is, look at their bookshelf. Marilyn’s library was intense. She didn't just have books for decoration; she owned over 400 volumes, and we aren't talking about light beach reads.
Her collection included:
- Ulysses by James Joyce
- The Fall by Albert Camus
- The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
- Works by Dostoevsky, Milton, and Whitman
She was famously photographed reading Ulysses at a playground, and critics at the time mocked her, assuming it was a staged PR stunt. It wasn't. She was a serious student of the Human condition. She even studied method acting under Lee Strasberg because she was desperate to be seen as more than a "blonde."
The Myth of the 168 IQ
Let’s kill this one right now. There is zero—literally zero—evidence that Marilyn Monroe ever took an IQ test.
The internet loves to claim she had a higher IQ than Albert Einstein. It’s a great story because it flips the "dumb blonde" trope on its head. But according to biographers and the researchers at Snopes who have combed through her personal archives, no such record exists.
She was smart? Absolutely. She was a shrewd businessperson who founded her own production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions, to get away from the exploitative contracts at Fox. That took guts and brains. But she didn't need a fake test score to prove it.
Her First Marriage Was a "Business" Arrangement
Before she was a star, she was a 16-year-old girl named Norma Jeane who was about to be sent back to an orphanage. Her foster family was moving out of state and couldn't take her with them.
The solution? Marriage.
She married her 21-year-old neighbor, James Dougherty, just to stay out of the system. She called him "Jimmie" (and sometimes, weirdly, "Daddy"). While he was away with the Merchant Marine during World War II, she started working in a munitions factory. That's where a photographer found her. When Jimmie came back and told her she had to choose between being a housewife and having a career, she chose the career.
Honestly, can you blame her?
The Plastic Surgery Secret
For decades, people debated whether Marilyn was a "natural" beauty. In 2013, we finally got the answer when medical records and X-rays from her plastic surgeon, Dr. Michael Gurdin, went up for auction.
The records confirmed:
- She had a cartilage chin implant in 1950 (which had actually started to dissolve by 1958).
- She had a minor tip rhinoplasty (nose job).
She did these things right as her career was taking off. It’s a reminder that even the woman considered the most beautiful in the world felt the pressure to "tweak" things to fit the Hollywood mold. She used the alias "Joan Newman" and "Marilyn Miller" to hide the procedures.
She Was Paid Pennies Compared to Her Peers
Even at the height of her fame, Marilyn was getting screwed by the studio system. While filming Something's Got to Give, she was under an old contract that paid her only $100,000 for the film.
To put that in perspective, Elizabeth Taylor was being paid $1 million for Cleopatra at the exact same time.
Marilyn was furious about it. She famously said, "I want to be an artist, not a celluloid aphrodisiac." Just two days before her death, she finally managed to negotiate a new two-picture deal with Fox worth $1 million. She never got to make those movies.
A Real Kitchen Expert
Marilyn loved to cook. She wasn't just a "salad and champagne" girl.
👉 See also: Is Lin-Manuel Miranda Married? Why This Power Couple Is Still Relationship Goals
In 2010, The New York Times actually tested a recipe for stuffing that was found on a scribbled piece of paper in her kitchen after she died. It was incredibly complex—it took two hours to make and involved sourdough bread, chicken livers, hearts, beef, and a specific blend of herbs.
She also had a famous recipe for bouillabaisse. She took pride in being a good hostess, which feels like a very "normal" human trait for someone who was treated like a goddess.
Actionable Insights for the Modern Fan
If you want to understand the real Marilyn, stop looking at Pinterest quotes. Do these three things instead:
- Read her actual words: Check out the book Fragments. It’s a collection of her real poems, letters, and notes. It’s raw, messy, and a lot more interesting than the "My Story" autobiography which was heavily ghostwritten by Ben Hecht.
- Watch 'The Misfits': This was her final completed film. It was written by her husband at the time, Arthur Miller, and it’s arguably her most vulnerable, non-glamorous performance.
- Acknowledge the complexity: You don't have to choose between "sexy icon" and "tortured artist." She was both. She was a woman who used her looks to gain power in a world that wanted to keep her powerless.
The "fun facts" aren't just trivia. They are the breadcrumbs of a person who was trying very hard to be seen for who she actually was, rather than the character she played.