Monroe author tells of love affair with actress

Press, 14 August 1989, Page 32

Monroe author tells of love affair with actress

By

ANABRIGHT HAY

An actor, Mr

Ted Jordan, who has written a book on his love affair and friendship with Marilyn Monroe, says he sometimes regrets meeting the screen goddess. Speaking by telephone from Los Angeles, Mr Jordan said he did not regret writing the book. Although it “got a lot out of my system,” writing it did not make him feel better about the relationship, he said. “She was never really happy and I feel I wasted a lot of my time with her,” he said.

The book was difficult to write because it was so personal, but it was a true story that had never been told, said Mr Jordan.

“Norma Jean, a Hollywood Love Story” chronicles the early teen-age friendship of Mr Jordan and the actress, their love affair, her lesbian relationship with his wife, her pill addiction, marriages, affairs, screen career and death. Mr Jordan recently cut short his planned New Zealand book publicity tour because of illness. The reason people were still obsessed with Monroe was largely because of the Hollywood publicity that she was in many ways a victim of, he said. “I was worried I might betray her but I was so tired of inaccurate stories I wanted to write the true story and draw on my experiences with her.” Accounts of Monroe being murdered by the Mafia or the Kennedys were

untrue, he said. Two conversations with Monroe on the night of her death indicated she was in a drunken stupor and had been drinking and taking pills, Mr Jordan said. “In this town, when you start losing your popularity and you are no longer wanted by the studios, you are not worth a damn,” he said. “I think she tried to reach the police at the last minute but was too late.”

Monroe was a “typical Gemini” and had several sides, he said. Her unstable early life had led to insecurity. Mr Jordan said that Monroe was not a great actress, she was ruthlessly ambitious, befriending and sleeping with people who could help her career. “She wouldn’t go out with me until she knew I was related to Ted Lewis, the actor, and she had an affair with him.” When Mr Jordan met Monroe, the couple were teen-agers and aspiring actors. Monroe , had already been married and separated. “She had a magic and physically she was very cute and adorable, but she could be a bitch. “She wanted to be a movie star and to be loved, but she did not know how to accept love; she was so screwed up she couldn’t cope.” Mr Jordan said he had seen a lot of Monroe imitators but there would never be anyone like her. “I still think about her and it hurts a little, I know I think and talk about her too much.”