Did Marilyn Monroe abort JFK or RFK's love child? New book makes sensational claim about icon who fell into a deep depression days before her suicide because Bobby would not leave his wife Ethel

  • Monroe terminated pregnancy in Los Angeles hospital in July 1962, book claims 
  • She used alias to check in to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital on July 20 
  • Just few months earlier, she had sexual encounter with then-President Kennedy 
  • Monroe also reportedly met up with Bobby Kennedy weeks before abortion 
  • Film star was reportedly distraught when Bobby wouldn't leave Ethel for her 
  • On August 4, 1962, Monroe was found dead of a drug overdose in her LA home 

A new biography about Marilyn Monroe suggests that the iconic Hollywood sex symbol may have aborted a child from either then-President John F. Kennedy or his brother, Robert Kennedy, just weeks before she died of a drug overdose in her home.

Monroe is also said to have been depressed over the fact that Bobby Kennedy would not leave his wife, Ethel, for her in the days leading up to her death.

The claims were made in a new book by author Fred Lawrence Guiles titled Norma Jean: The Life of Marilyn Monroe, which is due out on Tuesday.

An excerpt of the book was published on Saturday by The Daily Beast.

Marilyn Monroe (pictured above in 1953) is said to have had an abortion in July 1962 - weeks before her death

Marilyn Monroe (pictured above in 1953) is said to have had an abortion in July 1962 - weeks before her death

John F. Kennedy
Robert Kennedy

A new book claims that the abortion took place just weeks after Monroe had separate encounters with then-President John F. Kennedy (left) and then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy (right)

A publicist who worked for Monroe’s press agent, Arthur P. Jacobs, said that on July 20, 1962, the actress was secretly admitted to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles to terminate a pregnancy.

According to Guiles’ book, Monroe was ‘three months’ removed from her last meeting with John Kennedy and ‘only a few weeks’ removed from her last date with Robert, who at the time was the US attorney general.

It is impossible to determine for certain whether Monroe was carrying a baby by one of the Kennedys since she was also seeing other men during that time as well, according to the book.

Days before her death on August 4, Monroe placed a phone call to Robert Kennedy, with whom she had reportedly grown infatuated.

‘If she had indeed terminated a pregnancy, we have no way of knowing whether or not she told him,’ the author writes.

The claims of an abortion were made in a new biography about Monroe titled Norma Jean: The Life of Marilyn Monroe, by Fred Lawrence Guiles

The claims of an abortion were made in a new biography about Monroe titled Norma Jean: The Life of Marilyn Monroe, by Fred Lawrence Guiles

‘What we do know is that she seems to have plunged into a profound depression.’

Monroe was so distraught emotionally that she was seeing Dr. Ralph Greenson, a psychiatrist, on a daily basis since that summer.

A few days later, Monroe went out to dinner to her favorite restaurant, La Scala, in Beverly Hills with her secretary and press agent, Pat Newcomb, and actor Peter Lawford, the Rat Pack star and brother-in-law of both JFK and RFK.

Bobby Kennedy, who had taken a trip out to California with his wife and children, was reportedly at the same dinner, according to the book.

That evening, Monroe ‘seemed edgy’ – apparently because she sensed that she was being given a cold shoulder by the attorney general.

‘Bobby had taken over her emotional life within a brief two and a half months, but he may well have brought Ethel and his family West to help ease him out of this mistake,’ Guiles writes.

‘Marilyn had drifted into an unrealistic view of the situation – believing that Bobby was somehow available to her.

‘Now the Kennedy clan was shoving her back into her place.

‘If she felt that the possibility of a really serious relationship with Bobby was being dismissed – that would certainly help explain her ill temper Friday evening.’

Guiles writes that Bobby Kennedy made sure to note in a Justice Department memo that he and his family spent the weekend in Gilroy, California, and then in San Francisco.

He apparently was eager to note that he was nowhere near Los Angeles, where Monroe wound up dead that Saturday, August 4, 1962.

The image above shows Marilyn Monroe standing between Robert Kennedy (left) and John F. Kennedy (right) in a New York apartment in May 1962 - just hours after the actress sang 'Happy Birthday' for the president during a fundraiser at Madison Square Garden. This is the only known photograph of either Kennedy with Monroe

The image above shows Marilyn Monroe standing between Robert Kennedy (left) and John F. Kennedy (right) in a New York apartment in May 1962 - just hours after the actress sang 'Happy Birthday' for the president during a fundraiser at Madison Square Garden. This is the only known photograph of either Kennedy with Monroe

The official cause of death was ‘probably suicide’ by way of an overdose of barbiturate pills. Monroe was just 36 years old at the time she died.

In the decades since her death, rumors of a conspiracy linked to the Kennedys have continued to swirl.

In 2017, newly declassified documents from the Kennedy era revealed that in 1964 the FBI spent weeks investigating a tip from an author who had information about Bobby Kennedy’s relationship with Monroe as well as evidence linking the Kennedy family to her death.

Speculation about Monroe’s affair with JFK ramped up after she sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to the president at a gala in Madison Square Garden in May 1962.

A famous photograph snapped at the home of movie executive Arthur Krim shows both Kennedy brothers and Monroe – the only known picture of either Kennedy with the actor.

The photo, which was snapped by White House photographer Cecil Stoughton, was kept a secret until it was released in 2010.

Monroe’s biographer, James Spada, told PEOPLE that he does not believe the Kennedys were involved in Monroe’s death.

Nonetheless, ‘it was pretty clear that Marilyn had had sexual relations with both Bobby and Jack,’ Spada said.

Monroe's biographer claims that JFK 'passed her off to his brother' when he tired of her. The then-president is seen right with his brother, the attorney general, in Washington, DC, in May 1963

Monroe's biographer claims that JFK 'passed her off to his brother' when he tired of her. The then-president is seen right with his brother, the attorney general, in Washington, DC, in May 1963

Spada said that Monroe was introduced to JFK in 1954 by Lawford.

When Kennedy tired of her, he ‘passed her off to his brother,’ according to PEOPLE.

It was rumored at the time that on the night of Monroe’s death, hidden microphones in her home recorded an angry argument between Bobby Kennedy, Lawford, and Monroe.

Conspiracy theories claim that Bobby Kennedy may have had Monroe killed in order to prevent her from going public with details about their affair.

Such revelations likely would have done grave damage to his presidential aspirations while also destroying the presidency of JFK, according to the theory.

Spada told PEOPLE that ‘there had to have been’ a Kennedy-linked cover-up.

The author doesn’t believe the Kennedys had anything to do with her death, but the family was determined to keep the brothers’ affairs with Monroe under wraps.

‘The Kennedys could not risk this coming out, because it could have brought down the President,’ Spada wrote.

‘But the cover-up that was designed to prevent anyone from finding out that Marilyn was involved intimately with the Kennedy family has been misinterpreted as a cover-up of their having murdered her.’

Monroe’s second husband, Yankees legend Joe DiMaggio, blamed the Kennedys for his ex-wife’s death.

‘The whole lot of Kennedys were lady-killers,’ DiMaggio told biographer Dr. Rock Positano, the author of Dinner with DiMaggio: Memories of an American Hero.

‘And they always got away with it. They’ll be getting away with it a hundred years from now,’ the former Yankee is quoted as saying.

Monroe's second husband, baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, blamed the Kennedys for his ex-wife's death, according to a biography about the former Yankee. Monroe and DiMaggio are seen above in San Francisco sometime in the 1950s

Monroe's second husband, baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, blamed the Kennedys for his ex-wife's death, according to a biography about the former Yankee. Monroe and DiMaggio are seen above in San Francisco sometime in the 1950s

‘I always knew who killed her, but I didn’t want to start a revolution in this country,’ DiMaggio is quoted as saying.

‘She told me someone would do her in, but I kept quiet.’

On another occasion, DiMaggio told Positano: ‘[The Kennedys] did in my poor Marilyn.

‘She didn’t know what hit her.’

Positano later told PEOPLE that he sought to clarify DiMaggio’s remarks, which could be interpreted as him saying that the Kennedys were behind her death.

‘The understanding was that her involvement with … the Kennedy clan put her in a position where maybe it wasn’t good for her mental health or her emotional health,’ Positano said.

‘He didn’t think they were good people for her to be around.’ 

The comments below have not been moderated.

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

We are no longer accepting comments on this article.