Blonde, voluptuous, sultry.
Marilyn Monroe is undoubtedly the most iconic actress of her time. Some know her as the girl who pressed her dress down as stem bellowed up from under her dress. Some also know her as the person who sang “Happy birthday” to President John F. Kennedy.
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The dress that she wore that night endured. And when Kim Kardashian wore the elegantly beaded dress at the MET Gala, it reopened a mystery that surrounded Monroe for a very long time.
Together with the dress, Kardashian was also gifted with locks of Monroe’s hair.
While it can be the crowning jewel for one’s memorabilia, another set of Monroe’s locks is being used for a very different reason.
“I actually have several different locks of her hair, but the one that is the most valuable that was able to prove her lineage, came from her embalmer,” said John Reznikoff, president of University Archives in Connecticut, to Inside Edition.
The manhunt for the star’s father goes way back.
It is said that Monroe went to a New York party where she announced the only thing that she wanted most in the world – a vengeance against her father.
Monroe was born to a deeply troubled mother who spent most of her time in mental institutions. Her mother had once shown her a photo and told her that “This is your father.”
The man in question is Charles Stanley Gifford.
Her alleged father was a foreman at the Hollywood film company where Monroe’s mother worked. They said that Gifford had an affair with Monroe’s mother in 1925, just a year before the actress was born.
Monroe grew up claiming that Gifford was her biological father. She wasn’t able to prove it and Gifford denied all of the allegations until he died.
Science, however, offers a new perspective on the case.
A team from France used a lock of hair that Monroe’s embalmer got. It can be difficult to extract DNA from the locks since it underwent a lot of bleaching, but they believe that the sample was enough.
Gifford’s line was then traced. It was a boon that Gifford had children from his first marriage. The crumbs led the team to Francine Gifford Dier who was running an insurance business in Norfolk, Virginia.
She was born in the UK to a British mother. Her father, Charles Gifford Jr. was serving in the US Navy at that time.
Her DNA matched with what they extracted from Monroe’s hair.
60 years after the actress’ sudden demise, her claims were finally vindicated. The story was the center of a new documentary called “Marilyn, Her Final Secret.”
The documentary was directed by Francois Pomes and was based on the exclusive forensic DNA research by Ludovic Orlando. Orlando is an expert in molecular archaeology and is working in Southern France.
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The one-hour documentary features the processes involved and the reaction of Glifford’s family when they were faced with irrefutable evidence of their relation to Monroe. The documentary is coming this June.
Learn more about this discovery in the video below!
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