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Marilyn Monroe Love Letter Sells For $78,125

Marilyn Monroe Love Letter Sells For $78,125

A love letter to Marilyn Monroe from her second husband Joe DiMaggio has sold for $78,125 (£63,588) at auction.

The baseball great wrote the note after the actress announced she was divorcing him.

It was among 300 items, dubbed Marilyn Monroe's Lost Archives, which were sold in Beverly Hills.

DiMaggio's intimate letter, which starts "Dear Baby", shows he first learned his wife was leaving him when he saw her make the announcement on television.

"Joe DiMaggio is in San Francisco and he's in a friend's house and he's watching TV, and Marilyn comes on ... and she's announcing that she's getting divorced from (him)," said Martin Nolan, executive director of Julien's Auctions.

"He is truly upset by the news and secondly, he's very upset to see Marilyn crying. He deeply cared about her. He wasn't an accomplished writer, but he wrote a wonderful, heartfelt letter."

A handwritten letter from Monroe to her third and final husband, playwright Arthur Miller, sold for $43,750 (£35,609).

The buyers of the items were not revealed.

Monroe, who died of a drug overdose at the age of 36 in 1962, willed the collection of letters to her mentor, the legendary acting coach Lee Strasberg.

Monroe's films include The Seven Year Itch, Some Like It Hot And Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.