Before Death, Frank Sinatra Revealed Marilyn Monroe’s REAL Cause Of Death

She was the most famous woman in the world.

Marilyn Monroe lit up every screen she touched.

Her smile was golden, but her eyes told a different story.

Behind the fame, Marilyn was hurting.

She struggled with loneliness, heartbreak, and secrets too heavy to carry.

Then one night in 1962, she was found dead — and that shook the world.

The official cause of death was reported to be an overdose.

But not everyone believed it.

For years, there were whispers, rumors, and conspiracy theories.

But one man who knew her well, Frank Sinatra, held on to the truth.

Before his own death, he finally spoke up.

Join us as we look back at Marilyn’s life, the pain behind the glamour, and what Frank Sinatra revealed before it was too late.

Marilyn Monroe was born as Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1st, 1926, in Los Angeles.

Her start in life was not easy.

Her mother, Gladys, had a difficult past.

She came from a poor family and married young, at just 14.

That marriage to John Newton Baker was abusive.

Though she divorced him, he took their two children and moved away.

Norma Jeane didn’t even know she had a sister until she was 12; they met years later when she was a teenager.

After leaving Baker, Gladys married again, this time to Martin Edward Mortenson.

But this marriage also ended quickly.

Although they separated early, Mortenson’s name ended up on Norma Jeane’s birth certificate, misspelled as Mortensson.

Most experts believe her real father was someone else — Charles Stanley Gifford, a man Gladys worked with and had an affair with in 1925.

This theory was confirmed in 2022 when DNA testing linked Monroe to Gifford’s family.

Gladys was not ready to be a mother.

She didn’t have the money or the mental stability to raise a child, so she placed Norma Jeane with foster parents Albert and Ida Bullard in Hawthorne, a quiet suburb.

For a while, Monroe’s early childhood was calm and steady.

But that changed when Gladys had a mental breakdown in 1934.

She was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and sent to a hospital.

From then on, she was in and out of hospitals for the rest of her life.

Norma Jeane became a ward of the state and her care was handed over to Gladys’s friend Grace Goddard.

A childhood without a home, Norma Jeane’s life became unstable.

She lived in many different homes, including with the Atkinson family, who were family friends.

During that time, she may have been abused.

She was shy and, after these experiences, she began to stutter and became withdrawn.

In 1935, she stayed briefly with Grace and her husband Doc Goddard.

She was then placed in the Los Angeles Orphan’s Home Number 2, also known as Hollygrove.

It was a clean and safe place, but Norma Jeane still felt abandoned.

The staff believed she would be better off with a family, so Grace became her legal guardian in 1936.

However, she didn’t take Monroe home until a year later.

That homecoming didn’t last long.

Monroe claimed that Doc Goddard also molested her.

After that, she was moved from place to place, staying with relatives and friends of Grace.

Her life was full of changes and little comfort.

In 1938, things improved a bit.

She moved in with Grace’s aunt Anna Lower, who lived in Santa Fe.

With her, Monroe found some peace.

She started attending Emerson Junior High and went to Christian Science services every week.

She liked writing and contributed to the school newspaper, though she struggled in other subjects.

By 1941, Anna’s health got worse, and Monroe had to return to live with the Goddards.

She then enrolled in Van Nuys High School, but her time there was short.

In 1942, the Goddards had to move to West Virginia for work.

Since Monroe couldn’t legally leave California, she faced returning to the orphanage.

To avoid that, she made a life-changing decision — a young bride at 16.

Just after turning 16, Monroe married James Dougherty, the Goddard’s neighbor.

He was five years older and worked in a factory.

For Monroe, it was a way to escape the orphanage system.

But the marriage was not built on love.

Later she said, “I was dying of boredom.”

In 1943, Dougherty joined the Merchant Marines and was sent to Santa Catalina Island.

Monroe followed him, but the spark never came.

She didn’t feel connected to him and longed for something more.

Her chance came the next year.

In 1944, when Dougherty was sent overseas, Monroe moved in with his parents and took a job at the Radio Plane Company in Van Nuys.

It was a munitions factory, and she wanted to help with the war effort.

There, her life took a surprising turn.

One day, a military photographer named David Conover visited the factory.

He was taking pictures of women workers for a morale campaign.

Monroe caught his eye.

Though her photos were never published, he saw potential in her.

Encouraged by Conover, she left the factory job in early 1945 and began modeling.

From factory floor to magazine covers, Monroe began working with Conover and his photography circle.

Her husband and his mother didn’t approve, but she followed her dream.

In August 1945, she signed with the Blue Book Model Agency.

They saw that she had more of a pinup look than a fashion model’s figure, so she mostly appeared in ads and men’s magazines.

She also changed her appearance.

She straightened her curly brown hair and dyed it platinum blonde.

According to Emmeline Snively, who owned the agency, Monroe worked harder than anyone else.

By early 1946, she had already been on 33 magazine covers, including Pageant and Peek.

Sometimes she used a fake name, Gene Norman, while modeling.

Her growing success got the attention of acting agents.

In June 1946, she signed with one.

She didn’t have much luck at her first audition with Paramount Pictures, but 20th Century Fox gave her a chance.

One executive, Ben Lyon, liked her screen test.

While the top boss, Darryl F.

Zanuck, wasn’t impressed, he didn’t want a rival studio to sign her either.

So he gave her a standard six-month contract.

That was the start of a new chapter.

She needed a stage name.

Lyon chose Marilyn because she reminded him of Broadway star Marilyn Miller.

Monroe was her mother’s maiden name.

And just like that, Norma Jeane became Marilyn Monroe, taking her first steps in Hollywood.

Marilyn’s rise to stardom was meteoric, but her personal struggles never faded.

By the early 1960s, behind the glamorous facade, she was battling addiction, depression, and isolation.

Her mental health deteriorated, and her relationships, including those rumored with President John F.

Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy, added layers of complexity to her life.

On August 5th, 1962, Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her Brentwood home.

The official cause was ruled a probable suicide due to a barbiturate overdose.

But the world was left with questions.

The glamorous icon’s death sparked endless speculation and conspiracy theories.

Among the few who knew Marilyn intimately was Frank Sinatra.

Contrary to popular belief, Sinatra and Monroe were not lovers, but close friends.

Sinatra saw her vulnerability and the pain she tried to hide from the world.

He knew about her secret affairs, her fears, and her struggles.

Before his own death, Sinatra revealed that he never believed Marilyn died from an overdose.

He suspected foul play.

According to Sinatra’s close friend and former manager Tony Apadano, Sinatra was haunted by the belief that Marilyn had been murdered.

Rumors circulated that her planned press conference to announce reconciliation with her ex-husband Joe DiMaggio, and possibly to reveal secrets about the Kennedys, made her a target.

Sinatra’s lawyer, Mickey Rudin, and even some mob figures whispered similar suspicions.

Theories ranged from a nefarious overdose administered by unknown parties to a cover-up involving powerful figures.

Though none of these claims were ever proven, Sinatra never stopped believing that Marilyn’s death was not an accident.

This deep concern stayed with Sinatra throughout his life.

He often spoke about Marilyn and the pain her loss caused him.

To him, she was more than a star — she was a fragile soul silenced too soon.