20. The identity of Marilyn’s father was never fully determined. Both she and her mother believed him to be C. Stanley Gifford, but Edward Mortensen, who was married to her mother when she was born, was the father listed on her birth certificate.
It makes a lot of sense that Marilyn wouldn’t have known who her father was, in that her story is already so full of the trappings of a myth. That Edward Mortensen was listed as the father either way, is also a sign of the times most likely.
Marilyn Monroe’s life was full of many mysteries, including this one that began the very day she was born.
