Marilyn Monroe had a secret lesbian affair with her domineering German acting teacher, newly unearthed documents reveal.
They show that the actress lived as ‘man and wife’ with Columbia Pictures drama coach Natasha Lytess for two of the seven years they worked together from 1948 to 1955.
Miss Monroe, who was married three times, is said to have admitted to lesbian flings with fellow stars Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich and Barbara Stanwyck, as well affairs with Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra and John and Bobby Kennedy.
Now a pair of Miss Monroe’s jeans is up for sale, with a letter of authenticity from Miss Lytess.
The flannel-lined high-waisted pair was given to Miss Lytess by her ‘dearest friend’ and is on offer for between £400 and £500 on website auctionmystuff.com.
Although the letter from Miss Lytess does not discuss their relationship, she disclosed details in an interview given in 1962 – the year the actress died – which has been discovered.
Miss Monroe once told her close friend, actor Ted Jordan, that she and Miss Lytess were sleeping together.
‘Why not?’ she said. ‘Sex is something you do with people you like. What could be wrong with a natural act?’
When they first met in 1946 when Miss Monroe was 20, says Miss Lytess, ‘she was not beautiful’.
Speaking in a 1962 interview, she said: ‘She couldn’t speak, she didn’t know how to open her mouth, and she feared everything.’
She also claimed the actress was ‘always naked’ in the home they shared.
‘Naked, she was always naked in the house. 6 or 7 or 8 hours…she was naked all day long! And I’m not exaggerating!’
But, she added, the actress was also crippled with insecurities.
‘She was afraid of giving up all that had made her as Marilyn the sexiest girl: dresses, make-up, moves. Because she thought she had nothing to give except sex appeal. In fact it’s interesting because she really hated sex!
‘Yes Marilyn. She hates sex. She was afraid of that. When someone told her, “You look sexy,’ she did not like that.’
Natasha, who died from cancer in 1964, said she was with Marilyn for ten years and they were so close the actress would often insist that they held hands, even when they were filming a scene.
‘On the set I was always very close to her,’ she said in the interview.
‘I had to be so close to her that she was always asking: “Can she be a little bit closer to me?” The director answered, “Yes but we see her in the
‘Very often, during close-ups I had to hold her hand. I had to support her every time.
‘Thanks to the specificities of the close-up — which films only the head or the shoulders — I could hold her hand without being filmed by the camera. I had to do it to give her some courage.’
The acting coach also claimed to have saved the famous actress from death after discovering her in bed with a bottle of sleeping pills.
‘I saw Marilyn in her bed, her hair was uncombed, she was not really covered up and her face was awfully pale. Her cheeks were swelled and she had a vacant look. I said, “What have you done Marilyn?”
‘She answered, “Nothing.” And I violently slapped her because I was terrified you know. I opened her mouth and it was full of an awful green thing.
‘I do not know what it was but I took it from her mouth with my hand. She had swallowed sixteen sleeping pills.
