Occupation: Baseball player
Place of Meeting: Restaurant
Year Relationship began: 1952
Type of Relationship: Marriage

By the time Marilyn and Joe DiMaggio met, she was an actress on the rise and he was a living legend.  For 15 years he was the biggest star in baseball and by the time he retired in 1951 he was regarded as one of the greatest ever to have played the game.

Before he retired from baseball, a photo of Marilyn posing with Chicago White Sox players Joe Dobson and Gus Zernial caught his eye.  He asked a mutual friend to set him up with a date.  Marilyn, however, had little interest in baseball and believed he was too flashy for her. But she finally agreed to meet for a date at the Villa Nova Restaurant in Hollywood.  For the next year and a half, Joe and Marilyn were the hottest couple in Hollywood.  Their very public courtship was a story book romance.  By January 14, 1954 the two were married in a modest ceremony in San Francisco.  

However, Joe found Marilyn's Hollywood lifestyle hard to deal with despite his own fame.  He was used to being the centre of attention, but found his standing as a legendary sportsman was eclipsed by Marilyn's allure as an iconic screen sex siren.  The marriage lasted just nine months.  

However rocky the relationship was, it was never loveless and Joe appeared unable to let the relationship go. In 1960-61 the couple re-kindled their relationship for a while.  In the final months of her life Joe sent her a pair of his pyjamas so that she would have something to wear in bed as a reminder of him.  

When Marilyn was found dead on August 5, 1962, it was Joe who was there for her, and it was Joe who organised the funeral arrangements and refused to let it become a frenzied Hollywood media circus. Joe broke down at the funeral and told Marilyn one final time “I love you, I love you, I love you.” And it was Joe who ordered that a black vase filled with fresh roses 'twice a week forever' to be placed at Marilyn's crypt.