The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes aims to lift the lid on the life and death of the Hollywood icon, whose legacy remains unmatched 60 years after she died.
Using her charisma and good looks to her advantage, no one who knew her and spoke on the show described her anything like the "airhead blonde" image attached to her. She was smart, savvy and aware of the world.
She was also a hopeless romantic, with her three marriages hiding hopes of one day having children which, sadly, never came to be.
But the problem with The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe is that, with a run time of only an hour and a half, the documentary barely scratches the surface of her life, with the tapes themselves hardly featuring her at all. Instead, it focuses on recorded interviews with those who knew her, and their thoughts on her overdose, which continues to spark conspiracy theories to this day.
For the most part, The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe aims to close the door on suspicions around her death, which was officially ruled a suicide or accident, with investigative journalist Anthony Summers saying his decades of research and interviews have brought nothing conclusive to support the idea of a conspiracy.
However, for a lot of people, Marilyn's connection with the Kennedy family – including an affair with President John F Kennedy – ultimately sealed her fate.
The show does touch upon why so many people believe her Kennedy attachment could have resulted in a murder cover-up, with some proposing she was adamantly against the use of nuclear weapons around the time the States were investing in them.
But could a 36-year-old Hollywood star – labelled a matter of national security and a communist in FBI files – really have that much of an influence over some of the most powerful people in the world? To the point that outside forces felt the need to step in and remove her from the equation?
Speaking ahead of the show's release, Summers spoke out about his findings and personal conclusion that she had died by suicide. He stated: "The Kennedys didn't kill her. They contributed to her mental health not being great and she had terrible sleep problems and drug addiction. And the FBI didn't come in and inject her. I think we evidenced that that didn't happen.
"But certain things happened to her which were very sad and shouldn't have happened and they were about protecting powerful people. That's not a conspiracy theory. It’s reasonable for us to suggest that."
So just how close was Marilyn to the Kennedys? According to the film at least, she had extra-marital affairs with both John F and Bobby Kennedy.
"The Kennedys were a very important part of Marilyn's life. I wasn't included in this information, but I was a witness to what was happening," claims Eunice Murray, Monroe's live-in housekeeper. "And it became so sticky that the protectors of Robert Kennedy had to step in to protect him."
Marilyn's supposed affair with JFK has actually never officially been confirmed publicly, though has been written about to such depth in the over 60 years that have passed it's been long-assumed this was factual.
The main fuel for the rumour mill comes from Marilyn's now-iconic sultry 'Happy Birthday Mr President' performance at a support rally on May 19, 1962. JFK was due to turn 45.
To date, there is only one photo of Marilyn and JFK together, and it was taken this same day following the event, at a meet and greet at Hollywood executive Arthur Krim's townhouse in Manhattan, New York.
So while revisionist history would have it appear that Marilyn's Kennedy affair was scandalous and public, it was actually far from it.
In fact, the extent of Marilyn's relationships with Bobby and JFK varies from biographer to biographer. In Netflix's The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe, it appears JFK had slept with her before "getting bored" and "passing her off" to Bobby. It also argues that actor Peter Lawson effectively acted "as a pimp" for the Kennedy brothers, who had been encouraged by their father to "sleep with as many women as possible".
They claim Marilyn's on/off collusion with JFK started as early as the early '50s, back when – as Monroe's friend Arthur James puts it – "No-one ever expected Jack to become the president or a nominee. He was just some smartass rich man"s son that became a senator."
But according to Donald Spoto, writer of Marilyn Monroe: The Biography, their only sexual encounter was limited to a night at Bing Crosby's house in March 1962 – just two months before her rally performance. This date was offered by Marilyn's masseur.
James Spada, author of Monroe and Peter Lawford: The Man Who Kept The Secrets, argues that Bobby and JFK's sexual relationships with Marilyn were "clear" and that he had been told by her close friend Bob Slatzer that her relationship with JFK started as early as 1955, shortly after her split from second husband Joe DiMaggio.
In an excerpt from his book on Peter Lawford, Spada writes that she would continue their on/off affair mainly in Manhattan.
"At the time of the 1960 Democratic convention, which was poised to nominate Kennedy for president, Marilyn was in Los Angeles without Miller, and Kennedy's large contingent of Hollywood supporters made her far less conspicuous in his company than she would otherwise have been," he wrote (via Vanity Fair).
But Jerry Blaine, a former Secret Service agent in the Kennedy detail, told People he "never saw any evidence of an affair" despite being present for at least two of JFK and Marilyn's run-ins – including the "Mr President" rally.
However, he added he "didn't know what went on behind closed doors".
However, it's since been pitched that it was her relationship with Bobby which proved to be the more serious, with Marilyn getting increasingly attached to him when they got together in early 1962.
While JFK has no doubt been cemented as the more famous brother, private investigator Fred Otash told Spada that Bobby had ended things with Marilyn on the day of her death in August 1962. Indeed, it's been at the least proven Bobby was in Los Angeles on the day in question.
Otash also claims that while the Kennedys weren't involved directly in her death, Lawson had intervened and had swept her house to get rid of evidence of her affair with both of the Kennedy brothers.
It's this involvement and a botched police investigation that ultimately lead people to believe her death was suspicious.
Tragically, like a lot of Hollywood at the time, Marilyn had learned to depend on medication in order to deal with the pressures of her life. This was made worse by the end of her abusive relationship with Joe DiMaggio, and the collapse of her third marriage to writer Arthur Miller, who had dismissed her intelligence and belittled her.
As a result, she had very little to no self-esteem, and desired a more stable foundation, a family and place to belong.
Her relationship with JFK left her feeling worse, but she found solace in the arms of Bobby.
When Bobby reportedly broke off the relationship that day, this triggered the chain of events that would ultimately lead to her death.
It has never been determined whether her death was accidental or not.
The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes is available now on Netflix.
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Freelance writer, Digital Spy
Tilly is Gold-Standard NCTJ accredited journalist with eight years of experience in entertainment journalism.
She has been heard giving her insight on the latest TV stories on BBC Radio across the country and on BBC News.
Previously working with The Sun Online, Yahoo, Metro.co.uk and Independent IE amongst others, she joined the Digital Spy team from 2021-2023 as Deputy TV Editor (Maternity cover).
With a speciality in TV drama and true crime, Tilly has been praised for her exclusive content with A-list stars ranging from Sir David Attenborough to the lawyers behind Making A Murderer.
She’s happy to report her mum now takes her seriously as a journalist as she got to interview George Clooney once.
