Switched At Birth: Celebrities Who Were Adopted
3. Marilyn Monroe
The original blonde bombshell might have been immortalized in countless photographs as smiling and possessing a devil-may-care attitude, but she was plagued by unrest, perhaps owing in part to her troubled childhood. She was born Norma Jeane Mortenson in Los Angeles in 1926 to Gladys Pearl Baker, but was baptized Norma Jeane Baker in light of her father’s undetermined identity. Marilyn was shuffled between the care of her mentally ill mother, foster homes and an orphanage. At age 11 she was fostered by her mother’s friend, Grace Mckee Goddard, only to be abandoned five years later when Grace and her husband moved away. To escape a return to the orphanage Marilyn married the boy next door, James Dougherty, just weeks after she turned 16.
