He may have been the only person in her life that didn't hurt her or try to profit off of her; he just wanted to take care of her and genuinely care for her.

“She went though something that she wasn’t equipped to go through.” That’s a mouthful right there; very well said.

James Dougherty seemed like a genuine, caring man = DATED Marilyn, respected her, respected himself, respected his community & mankind (police officer). I'm so glad I watched this interview.

The nicest of all her husbands .👍

He called her "Norma Jean" and not "Marilyn". That speaks volume.

What a nice guy! Sally tried to get him to say something negative and he didn’t waiver. Even after she left him he still loved her. Wow. 👏

Love how he emphasised she was a GOOD person. There's no doubt that this woman was rarest of the rare, she had an inner light that just glowed . We were very lucky to have this Goddess in our mist.

"She had to be single,to get a contract in Hollywood" Jesus

What a good man, never new he was a police officer who helped her any way he could.

If Norma Jean had stayed with this honourable person, the world would never have heard of her... and we would never have seen the beauty that she became..fate is a such a mysterious thing..🤔

I never knew of this man but he is very good to her memory. Glad to hear this prespective.

He has a lot of class. Doesn't have anything negative to say about anyone. My son is the same way, I'm proud to say. People have a lot to learn from people with this trait.

I like that him refers to her has Normal Jean. That's what she was. I think that's who she ever was. And who people loved. But she and the studio created Marylin.

he was quite articulate ... not sure why, but I wasn't expecting that

She looks so radiantly happy in that photo. Obviously, he loved her and wanted to care for her. So sad. I know Marilyn would have been a wonderful mother.

You can tell he still loved her. While the letter was read you could see the pain in his heart and eyes.

A baby would have changed EVERYTHING.

She went to the world searching for love when she had it right here with this man. How sad. Hollywood destroyed her.

Had she not divorced James she would've become the mother and found the Family she always wanted and craved.. R.I.P Norma Jean Baker.

What pissed me off how they laugh off this man‘s pain when he told the story about how she said that she wanted to have a piece of him in form of a baby.

Isn't it fascinating that women had to be single but engaged in countless relationships with the married men of Hollywood! What a sickening circle of pain! What a double standard!

It's nice to here nice stuff said by an ex not the horrible trash thats exs say

I think Norma Jean and Marilyn Monroe are different person. And this gentleman knows only Noma Jean. R.I.P.Marilyn and 3 husbands.

If Marlyn didn’t divorce her first husband she probably would be alive.

Yes a nice guy! Met him at a church social in 2001.

How many times you see that, ex-husband genuinely defending an ex-wife! Hat's off to you, fellow U.S. Navy sailor!

I kind of wish they would've stayed together (yes, I know it's none of my business lol). :/ Joe DiMaggio beat her while Arthur Miller was cruel and insensitive towards her. James genuinely seems like a nice guy- he was also the most attractive out of all her husbands.

The comment they made at the end... "she wanted it desperately" "yeah, you have too".. you have to want fame and fortune so desperately that you will give your life for it, that's the way Hollywood has been set up since the beginning. Its scary

So interesting how back then the only questions about her being a wife were about cooking and cleaning and being a housekeeper. She really proved she was more than that in her iconic career. What a legend💖

Love this interview. He has always kept his dignity and Marilyn's. Joanne 😘💕❤

He seems like a decent man. What an interesting segment. So sad.

He respects her v much.

That one woman needs to be quiet she kept interrupting him!

01:56 So this guy had to decide between the Queen of Santa Barbara Festival and Marilyn Monroe ... it sounds like he was very popular with the ladies ...

This is a great interview, Thank you

I still love marilyn monroe today. I was 9 when I saw her death on the front page of the newspaper. I screamed and cried for 3 days. RIP Marilyn.

Absolutely stunning so damn beautiful!! never in our life will we ever see such a beautiful lady as Norma Jean...

I wonder if Marilyn had been able to conceive a child with her first husband if her life would have been different.

Foster parents didnt love her. Abandoned her.

The movie business used and abused her, as it does. Thank you Jim for giving her those years.

Marilyn is the most beautiful! I Love her. Her first husband is so sweet ❤️

The only reason she married him was so she wouldn't have to go back to the orphanage .Not saying it to deride MM .That's just the way things were for women in those days .Very few options if you were in a difficult situation .Marrying was a way out .Her life at that time was from home to orphanage to home and back to orphanage .She never knew what a stable home life was like and he was her first experience with that . She spent the rest of her life longing for what she lacked as a child

DiMaggio beat her , Miller cheat her , Dougherty love her ;

great interview thank u!

I love Marilyn but she made a stupid mistake of leaving James. He loved Norma the way she was and treated her kindly until she decided a Hollywood contract was worth ending the marriage, then later on married two abusive men. Sad story

I think that if she had remained with Jim that she never would have been the success she was. But happier

Perhaps the only genuinely kind man she was with.

Awww 3:20. I always knew Norma Jean so badly wanted a child but never knew she wanted one with James. Also, the way she said “I want a piece of you” when he was going to the service makes you realize she did indeed love James deeply. If she had a child with James, I don’t think we would’ve had Marilyn Monroe. Ultimately this would’ve been much better for her as well. Too bad, she didn’t have a child with James and she was perennially affected by depression which makes a person easily get bored and not feel content. That’s why she left her first husband to become the star we know and love today.

MOM pawned her off on him. She was so beautiful.

At least she knew real love and happiness for a couple of years. Very touching.

So great to hear James Dougherty speak about his wife Norma Jean. And great to know their marriage was a happy one. GOD bless the both of you 💜💙🙏🏾💚💛

Love you grams! Love this interview!

Listening to this, especially the end, explaining how easily Hollywood stars can fall into drug abuse. So sad

She looks more beautiful in this picture than when she became a star...

It was nice hearing from her first husband and all yall

Finally this part of here life! I heard about some of this long ago. Thanks

Wow. He is awesome. That is exactly what happened. She did not commit suicide. It really was accidental. She only wanted to bring joy and happiness to the world. She would have despised this legacy.

Grace wanted rid of her once she was 16 as she wouldn't get paid to Foster her come 16, so she arranged the marriage. A cruel betrayal. They spent very little time together, as he joined the Navy shortly after marrying. She got modelling work soon after with Emmeline Snively's agency & the rest is history.

Why do you"have to be single to get a contract"? That's because they own you and want to take you and things. That's great.

This man seems to be a kind human person. She was to naïve or confident in others people she met to survive in a showbusiness system.

I loved her so much I wore vintage clothes from age 15.....no one got it

She was one ambitious girl who needed more support in her life rather than rely on strangers who only used her.

love this interview Jane was someone that treated her so well like a big sister.

Ok, people, you all need to stop! She was 16 when she got married. I know that times were different back then, but who the hell knows what they want at that age. She was still a child.

What a gentleman...❤️ xxx.

Wow, He was Handsome.

The pearls Susan strasberg is wearing here were given to her by Marilyn!! Mikomoto pearls. There is an incredible story behind Marilyn and the strasbergs. They inherited all of Marilyn's belongings and Susan's stepmother thought they wouldn't be worth anything. Alot of people believe the strasbergs used Marilyn and even their daughter Susan who was a big star on Broadway at the time. There is a great Vanity Fair article from 2003 which chronicles all that happened in the 50's when Marilyn attended classes at the actors studio.

Great interview

Marilyn and James- they both had come from different planets my friends. They simply and obviously didn't click, they were utterly different, had different interests, talents, possibilities and GOALS in life. Blessed with utterly different personalities , strictly decent, down-to-earth guy and charming, vulnerable girl with huge drive towards making a splash in a big world... They had to split... The rest is history...

Comforting to assume and believe, she had her early share of happiness with this gentleman.

Amazing interview

THANK YOU FOR SUCH INCREDIBLE KIND PEOPLE WHO ASSURED THAT SHE HAVE NO BAD BONE ABOUT HER AND WAS TOTAL GIVER❗❗💟💟💟💟❤❤

Susan Strasbourg's statements didn't make much sense.

How different things would have been if she stayed with Jimmy and just lived a small, quiet life.

He looks like a nice guy and if she just stay with him she was probably the happiest woman that she deserves to be and doesn't have to be afraid of abusive Husband like Joe DiMaggio or Arthur Miller

Marilyn's kind hearted, empathic soul was taken total advantage of in her life after she left her first husband and could never be protected ever again.

He is such a decent guy!

Had she had that baby with James we wouldn't have had Marilyn, but Norma would've been happy.

Being a spouse of someone in the military is lonely and boring. I know first hand.

She's a very kind and lovely person but at the meantime her lust for fame ended her... Jesus...

Norma Jean "MM" IS the MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN in the WORLD!!!!

He seems so sincere and honest. Marilyn would had a very different life if she had never gone to Hollywood. What a waste of a beautiful life.

We loved Marilyn!!

So not just physical beauty but also good housekeeper and kind gentle soul! What any man would trade for?

There is an interesting aspect to the life of dear Marilyn, one that speaks to the psychology of women, being raised poor, and the absence of a parents love. Her first marriage by all accounts seemed to offer a life of contentment, and she fit well there, but this need, this desire to be more, achieve more is understandable. When someone says your beauty is exceptional, one rightfully, and humbly says, that’s great but what am I to do with it?!, For Marilyn this revelation began to be seen as a financial reward, beauty = money, security. But soon, the little foster child within her needed something more, and so she began to push the limits of this captivating thing called beauty, and sex appeal. Movies were a step up, to modeling, and a much more substantial way to affirm her identity, she would use what she could to open the doors to Hollywood, but would soon seek to attain something more tangible, from the beauty that brought her there. In the interim, Marilyn married, for love I suppose, but also to give her a sense of who she was, it was nice for loads of men to want her, desire to be with her, but the process, the experience of marriage itself, was hard. Mainly because men have egos, and even though we desire beautiful women, want beauty in our woman, too much adoration from other men, makes us long for someone who didn’t come with so much attention of other men, add to that Marilyn loved the attention. Through it she could affirm who she was, and erase the stigma of a little girl no one really wanted. Movies, much like marriages, were something Marilyn needed more from. She didn’t like the dumb blonde sex pot label, she didn’t like the coveted prize, kept on the shelf, that men sought from her when she married them. Eventually this desire and the failings that came with it, from Hollywood, from Marriage depressed her, why couldn’t things fall in place perfectly!?, she wandered. Sex is always a good outlet for stress, and Marilyn used it. The sex with powerful men helped affirm some things for her, because,they wanted her. So she obliged. Unfortunately in this quest to find herself, affirm that she belonged, and the added scrutiny of the press, the Woman, who’d just wanted a foundation to establish who she was, lost herself, and lost control. In the end, the bargain between the real consequences of just one more sleeping pill, and the harmlessness of pretending not to know you’d had to many, was won by the latter. Our dear Marilyn was gone. In the end her story is a story about parenting. All the admiration and fame the world can muster, will never replace the love of a parent. So parents hug your children, love them. It means everything!

Great man

Good interview. He sounds like a good person.

I wish things would've worked out between them he didn't use her ,he loved her

I read and watched a documentary that her first husband went to WAR and was a soldier. During the 2nd world war women went to work in major numbers, she also went to work at a factory. When her husband came back she had known that what made her happy was to be independent and to work. She no longer wanted to be settled down to being a house wife, as it was the custom. She then started to model and changed her appearance, so she also divorced because she felt she had to leave her old life to start a new one. I read also that this first husband was very jealous of her independence.

It would have been a happy ending if they had had three or four children and stayed married x

This is fascinating !

she blessed alot of women

Good observation of Susan Strasberg! Marilyn -so gifted- needed to express and not bury herself in a marriage even a good one. Death is the price you often have to pay for it. RIP Marilyn!

I think she was a confident woman. She wasn't lonely, everyone wanted her. She preferred things in a certain way. I think she was happy like everyone she had issues that was magnified.

This is great

Frankly I'm happy with her just being the bombshell calender pin-up that Earl Monroe immortalized from 1947-49. I have B&W photos of her modeling for him at that time. It's quite the story.

You know you’re a legend when a man goes on a Talkshow talking about you, js

Norma Jean was so young, poor thing. Her life was handled by others. Hollywood was her escape, but alas, how wrong she was.

Can you upload the whole program. This is interesting!

For so many years, I puzzled over MM's death. At that time, the information given to the public on TV, in print and in interviews didn't add up. After watching the KZfaq video called The Missing Evidence: The Death Of Marilyn Monroe For the first time I believe I understand what occurs and why the information was kept from the public. Sad, but in a way, the truth is healing or at least allows us to move on.