Today, we are wishing everyone a very happy Valentine’s Day and hope that you are spending it with your loved ones.

Whether it was through friends, family, co-workers or her three marriages, Marilyn was blessed with a lot of love in her life.  Through interviews and letters written throughout Marilyn’s lifetime, we can get a sense of how she truly felt about those closest to her:

On Arthur Miller (her third husband):
“I am so concerned about protecting Arthur.  I love him and he is the only person, human being I have ever known that I could love not only as a man – to which I am attracted to practically out of my senses about – but he is the only person that I trust as much as myself, because when I do trust myself (about certain things) I do fully.”  Diary entry by Marilyn Monroe written in 1956 and published in the 2012 book “Fragments.”

“We’re so congenial.  This is the first time I’ve been really in love.  Arthur is a serious man, but he has a wonderful sense of humour.  We laugh and joke a lot.  I’m mad about him.”  To Arthurs friend, Jim Proctor just before they were due to be married.

On her wedding day to Joe DiMaggio:
“I couldn’t be happier.  I’m looking forward to being a housewife too….. I want six babies.”

“Dear Joe, If I can only succeed in making you happy — I will have succeeded in the biggest and most difficult thing there is — that is to make one person completely happy. Your happiness means my happiness.”  A letter Marilyn had written to Joe DiMaggio which was found in her Los Angeles home after her death.

“I call him Joe and Giuseppe and some pet names I want to keep secret, but when I refer to him, I say…… ‘my husband.'”  Marilyn Monroe in 1954.

“Joe doesn’t think any man can love me except him.  He’s my best friend in the whole world.”  Marilyn Monroe In Her Own Words.

On her first husband Jim Dougherty:
“I love him so very much.  Honestly, I don’t think there’s another man out there like him.”  Written in a letter to Grace Goddard in 1944.

On her beloved Aunt Ana Lower:
“She was the greatest influence on my whole life.  She was the only person I have ever loved with such a deep love that one can only have for someone so good, so kind and so full of love for me.”

On Johnny Hyde (Her Agent and lover):
“Johnny Hyde gave me more than his kindness and love.  He was the first man I had ever known who understood me.” Taken from “My Story” by Marilyn Monroe and Ben Hecht.

“I loved him dearly, but I wasn’t in love with him.  He was wonderful to me and a dear friend.  It was Johnny who inspired me to read good books and listen to good music.”  Taken from the book “Her Own Story” published 1961.

Marilyn on love in general:
“Everybody I ever loved, I still love a little.”  Marilyn to columnist Hedda Hopper 1961.

“I fell in love with two of the nicest men I had met up to that time and was lucky enough to marry them.”  About ex husbands Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller for Redbook Magazine 1962

“I want to love and be loved more than anything else in the world.”  Taken from the book “Her Own Story.”

“I could never pretend something I didn’t feel.  I could never make love if I didn’t love.  And if I loved, I could no more hide the fact than change the colour of my eyes.”  From the book “My Story” by Marilyn Monroe and Ben Hecht.

“The real lover is the man who can thrill you by touching your head or smiling into your eyes – or by just staring into space.”  From the book “My Story” by Marilyn Monroe and Ben Hecht.

And of course, Marilyn was always very appreciative of her fans, crediting them for her success and rise to stardom.  She was always ever ready with a smile for the camera and happy to sign autographs.

Marilyn on her fans adulation of her:
“I love them for it.  Somehow they know that I mean what I do, both when I’m acting on screen and when I meet them in person.”

As for how the people in Marilyn Monroe’s life felt about her, a simple internet search will provide you with countless kind and loving testimonials towards this incredible woman.  But I would like to leave the last thought with Director and writer Billy Wilder who Marilyn worked with on “The Seven Year Itch” and “Some Like It Hot”:

“They’ve tried to manufacture other Marilyn Monroes and they will undoubtedly keep trying. But it won’t work. She was an original.”

She truly was.