This is the real mystery of Marilyn Monroe’s life: the identity of her biological father. A documentary, broadcast on Wednesday, goes in search of this “last truth”. The identity of her parent had until now been a mystery, even to her. A mystery solved thanks to the French director and producer, François Pomès. He had revealed his scoop to Paris Match two weeks ago, and spoke about this revelation at the microphone of Culture Mediaon Europe 1. The documentary follows the relentless work of the producer for four years to have Marilyn Monroe’s DNA analyzed and finally unlock the secret.
To find the identity of Marilyn Monroe’s biological father, François Pomès tracked down the star’s hair. “We started to collect hair from various collectors around the world, to do DNA tests. You should know that the DNA in the hair is in the root”, he specifies at the microphone of Europe 1 “Now, all the hair we were getting was rootless hair. Finding DNA in rootless hair is very, very complicated. At first, most of the hair that was harvested didn’t respond to the tests.”
“Our investigation proves that Marilyn Monroe had flair”
Between false leads and good tips, François Pomès ends up achieving his ends. “We found DNA once, but it was Asian DNA. We understood that this hair was fake”, reveals the director. “We kept looking, until we met John Reznikov, who directed us to two sources: Marilyn Monroe’s hairdresser and her embalmer. We tested his two different sources, to see what was at the bottom. interior.”
It was then necessary to find laboratories specializing in ancient DNA and to compare that of the sample finally found with the DNA of a family whose grandfather was suspected of having been one of the lovers of the mother of Marilyn. Otherwise, to the possible cousins of the American star. Which took François Pomès on a captivating investigation, with a happy ending.
“It is touching for the family of Charles Stanley Gifford to discover that Marilyn Monroe is in their family tree. It is touching for Professor Ludovic Orlando who solved this case and provided an answer”, recalls François Pomès. “And it’s touching for me too, because I’m fascinated by Marilyn Monroe and I’m very happy to provide an answer, even posthumously. And an answer that proves that Marilyn Monroe had a flair, because she had sensed that Charles Stanley Gifford was his father.”
The documentary by François Pomès Marilyn, the last truth is broadcast Wednesday evening at 8:40 p.m. on the channel All the story.