Joe DiMaggio Sent Marilyn Roses Three Times a Week for 20 Years
Their marriage lasted nine months. His devotion lasted the rest of his life.
When baseball legend Joe DiMaggio married Marilyn Monroe at San Francisco City Hall in January 1954, it was the celebrity wedding of the decade. Reporters crowded the hallway, and the couple flew to Japan for their honeymoon.
A short, stormy marriage
DiMaggio was private and traditional. Monroe was the most photographed woman in America. The famous skirt-blowing scene from The Seven Year Itch, shot on a New York street before a cheering crowd, reportedly upset him deeply. They divorced in October 1954, just nine months after the wedding.
Still there for her
The two stayed close. In the early 1960s, during a difficult period in her life, DiMaggio was one of the people she turned to, and friends said they had grown close again in the months before her death.
The roses
When Monroe died in August 1962, DiMaggio arranged her funeral and kept it small and private. Afterward, he arranged for red roses to be delivered to her crypt in Los Angeles several times a week, a standing order he kept for about 20 years.
He never remarried and rarely spoke about her publicly. Friends said he never stopped loving her.
This story is based on the stars' own interviews and memoirs and on widely reported history. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it.
