Joe was the father she never knew - the man wanting to take care of her, look after her in life (and death), in return for her love. DiMaggio even went as far as to offer $25, 000 for a film that shows Marilyn performing oral sex on an unidentified male. He would do anything for her, to make sure she was happy and hated the fact that she was being exploited.

The relationship between Joe and Marilyn was complex and complicated, but that is exactly why the American public was so intrigued by it. They provided Americans with a real life fairytale. America's ideal hero - the strong, rugged, quiet idol was married to America's feminine ideal - the beautiful, talented, and sexually appealing movie star. It was a perfect match destined to fail, but somehow, they managed to love one another. They married at San Francisco's City Hall, but couldn't marry in a church because they were both divorced; however, they had their wedding pictures taken on the steps of SS. Peter & Paul Church in the heart of North Beach. Marilyn carried 3 white orchids, and when they began to wither in the heat, she asked Joe if she died before him, would he place flowers on her grave every week as William Powell had done for Jean Harlow.

DiMaggio and Monroe made perhaps the most glamourous union this side of Jack and Jackie. While on their honeymoon in Japan, Marilyn was asked to entertain the U.S. troops in Korea. She left her new husband and flew to Korea to entertain more than 13,000 troops. When she returned she exclaimed, "Joe, Joe, it was wonderful, the troops loved me. You have never heard such cheering." His response was: "Yes, yes darling, I have." Almost immediately, the marriage showed signs of distress. Allegedly, Joe was fanatically jealous of the attention Marilyn got not just of men but of women as well. Friends and colleagues of Marilyn said that Joe was domineering, critical and violent to Marilyn throughout the entirety of the relationship.

He only delighted in her successes, he was such a star himself, that he hardly needed to steal any of her limelight. It was a cross-country romance, well-documented and followed by the American public, who were simply astounded by the celebrity relationship. But the public's relentless desire to know everything about the couple's personal life arguably caused the relationship to diminish. Shortly after her marriage to Joe, there were examples of disenchantment on Marilyn's part. Soon after they were married, he had asked Marilyn to abandon her career. Marilyn refused, as she simply could not shelve her own aspirations to appease a person she found very different from herself. Dimaggio wasn’t thrilled with the parade of people, social events and fanfare that surrounded Marilyn and grew more and more resentful of her success and fame.

The movie “The Seven Year Itch,” which contained the famous scene in which she stood on top of a sidewalk grate with her skirt blowing up sealed the end of the romance. Apparently, Joe was enraged by the spectacle, and rumour has it that he beat her that evening in their hotel room for being an embarrassment to him. DiMaggio, a shy and traditional man who though truly in love with Marilyn was not suited to be the husband of a legendary sex symbol, stormed off the set in a rage.

On October 5, 1954, just 274 days after they were married, Marilyn and Joe divorced. Marilyn claimed that she wanted a divorce on the grounds that Joe was mentally cruel to her. Although the divorce was ultimately granted, Joe refused to give up on a relationship with Marilyn, and they remained good friends.

Following the divorce, his obsessive jealously increased steadily. He could not imagine the idea of his former wife in the arms of anyone else. One night Joe's jealousy got the better of him, which ultimately led to a situation that ended in scandal and a lawsuit. In November 1954, Joe and Frank Sinatra, were allegedly involved in the raid of Florence Kotz's home. While Kotz was sleeping, two men broke down her door and barged into her apartment taking photographs of her as she lay in bed screaming. Minutes later the men scrambled back out of the door, purportedly in a state of confusion. Later it emerged that the men who broke into the apartment were Joe and Frank, who were looking to catch Marilyn with a lover in the apartment. However, the two had accidentally gone to the wrong place. At the time of the break-in, Marilyn was in another apartment in the same building having dinner with friends. The blundered escapade was nicknamed "The Wrong Door Raid" and Joe and Frank found themselves in court for illegal entry and destruction of private property. Marilyn realized for the first time the extents to which her ex-husband would go to get her back.

The weekend before she died was spent at Lake Tahoe with Joe and rumour has it that they planned to remarry. Although this is disputed as some say that Frank Sinatra had set up the weekend at the Cal-Neva Lodge at the behest of the Kennedy’s who wanted to make sure that Marilyn did not leak to the press the details of her relationship with the President. Some say DiMaggio went to Lake Tahoe unexpectedly and arrived late Saturday night, perhaps because Marilyn asked him to come. DiMaggio was furious with Sinatra and the Kennedy’s for luring Marilyn there, plying her with drugs and then taking compromising photos of her to be used as blackmail if she threatened to expose the Kennedy’s.

Her new relationship with Joe didn’t really offer Marilyn an entirely rosy future. He was still the same jealous guy she had met nine years ago. The Kennedy rumour mill was by this time in full force and if anything, Joe may have been trying to protect her and prevent the impending scandal. Regardless of whether Marilyn had slept with either of the Kennedy brothers she was already ‘guilty’ in the eyes of both the media and the public and DiMaggio wanted to make sure she lived through it, so to speak. Joe was the man Marilyn needed to take her away from Hollywood, away from the drugs and alcohol and to get her life back on track.

Marilyn would eventually suffer emotional breakdowns near the end of her life, partly brought on by the divorce from her third husband Arthur Miller. DiMaggio's calming personality, as well as his sense of stability and the fact that he was non-Hollywood, might have steered Monroe away from what drove her to suicide in 1962.

When Marilyn suddenly died in 1962, he immediately took care of all of the funeral arrangements, deciding that Marilyn would be buried with dignity, free of the hysterical commotion usually associated with rites for Hollywood idols. He wanted it to be dignified and not a Hollywood circus, so he banned the Kennedy’s and the Rat Pack from attending. The date of their supposed second marriage was set for August 8, 1962, but the kiss he gave her that day was far different from the one he had hoped for. That was the date Marilyn was buried. Joe leaned over her casket, sobbed that he loved her, and kissed her cold forehead. It is said that he spent the night before hovering over her casket, and cried openly at the service. DiMaggio, until his own death, had white roses delivered to her grave twice a week as he promised her he would, refused to talk publicly about what he thought happened and had one rule - never mention Monroe, Sinatra or the Kennedys. For the last 37 years of his life, he ached at the thought of how close they had come to remarrying, only to be thwarted by her death, which he thought Frank and the Kennedys caused.

As DiMaggio lay dying, his last thoughts were of Marliyn. 'I'll finally get to see Marilyn,' were his last words.