On Marilyn Monroe’s 100th Birthday, Revisit Her Most Iconic Diamond Moments
Happy Birthday, Ms. Monroe. A century later, the woman who made diamonds a girl’s best friend remains an inspiration.
Marilyn Monroe stars in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 1953, directed by Howard Hawks. (Source: Alamy)
Marilyn Monroe taught generations that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, delivering the iconic line with a wink and a purr in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Yet away from the spotlight, the Hollywood legend favored a far more restrained jewelry wardrobe, gravitating toward pearls, gold hoops, and delicate diamond pieces. Shrouded in her blonde bombshell persona—red lips, platinum waves, and dripping diamonds—Monroe became the mid-century poster child for jewelry glamour onscreen.
Born Norma Jeane Mortenson (before using her mother’s maiden name, Baker) in Los Angeles on June 1, 1926, Marilyn Monroe would have celebrated her 100th birthday today. As lookalikes gather in Palm Springs and admirers around the world honor her legacy, major exhibitions in Los Angeles and London are offering a closer look at the woman behind the myth. The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is presenting Marilyn Monroe: Hollywood Ico, featuring personal belongings and jewelry from the star’s life, while the National Portrait Gallery’s upcoming Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait will showcase dresses, memorabilia, and photographs that chronicle her enduring influence on fashion and jewelry.
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Hannah Militano covers diamond jewelry trends, the fashion industry, pop culture, and celebrity news. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology. As a journalist, her work has been featured in publications such as Editorialist, Carine Roitfeld’s CR Fashion Book, L’Officiel USA, Grazia USA, Coveteur, and more.
Though she frequently wore costume jewelry and paste diamonds on the big screen, Monroe came from humble beginnings and favored pearls, gold hoops, and delicate diamond baubles in her personal life. Still, her connection to diamonds would become the stuff of legend, from her performance of “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” to her appearances in the storied 24.04-carat Moon of Baroda diamond—the largest stone she is known to have worn publicly.
On what would have been her 100th birthday, look back at Marilyn Monroe’s most memorable diamond jewelry moments.
Marilyn Monroe Made “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” Iconic in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
In the 1953 musical comedy Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Marilyn Monroe stars as the charming, ambitious showgirl Lorelei Lee, who believes that romance may come and go, but diamonds are forever. Though Monroe did not wear real diamonds in the beloved film, she immortalized them in popular culture with her unforgettable performance of “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” one of the most iconic musical numbers in Hollywood history.
Dressed in a shocking pink satin gown and opera gloves, Monroe’s Lorelei descends a grand staircase surrounded by admirers while proclaiming the virtues of diamonds over less dependable suitors. Throughout the film, the character is frequently adorned with glittering costume jewelry and oversized faux diamonds befitting her lavish tastes. As she charms Sir Francis “Piggy” Beekman, the wealthy owner of a diamond mine, Lorelei becomes increasingly enamored with jewels, famously trying on a fellow passenger’s diamond tiara as a necklace and marveling at its brilliance. More than seven decades later, the scene remains one of cinema’s most enduring celebrations of diamonds.
Marilyn Monroe and the Cursed Moon of Baroda Diamond
During the press tour for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Monroe wore the Moon of Baroda, a 24.04-carat fancy yellow diamond with an antique pear shape and exceptional clarity. Unearthed in India’s legendary Golconda mines sometime between the 15th and 17th centuries, the storied gem passed through the hands of Indian rulers and European aristocracy before arriving in the collection of Meyer Rosenbaum, president of Detroit’s Meyer Jewelry Company, in 1953.
Recognizing the perfect synergy between Hollywood’s newest star and one of history’s most famous diamonds, Rosenbaum proposed that Monroe wear the stone suspended from a simple leather cord, for a series of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes publicity photographs. The pairing proved so successful that he continued to lend her the diamond throughout the film’s promotional tour.
Upon first laying eyes on the jewel, Monroe reportedly exclaimed, “It’s gorgeous,” and later signed a photograph, “To Meyer, Thanks for the chance to wear The Moon of Baroda!” Yet after Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was released, Monroe’s life became increasingly turbulent, leading some to wonder whether she had fallen under the spell of the diamond’s infamous curse.
Like the Hope Diamond, the Moon of Baroda carries a dark and enduring legend. For centuries, it has been said that the gem brings misfortune to those who possess it after it crosses a sea or ocean—a superstition that has followed the stone from Indian royalty to European aristocrats and eventually Hollywood itself. Whether coincidence or curse, the famous diamond’s storied past has only added to its mystique.
After nearly four decades, the Moon of Baroda’s story stops—for now—at auctions in 1990 and 2018. Although the sellers and buyers have remained anonymous, they are both said to be in good health and prosperous. Here’s hoping that The Moon of Baroda doesn’t cross another body of water, so that stays true for the foreseeable future.
Joe DiMaggio Proposed to Marilyn Monroe With a Diamond Eternity Band
In contrast to her quintessentially over-the-top bombshell glamour, Marilyn Monroe’s engagement ring from her second husband, baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, took a more understated route. The platinum eternity band featured 36 baguette-cut diamonds, and in 1999, the ring was sold at a Christie’s auction for a whopping $772,500.
But there have been suspicions that Monroe was actually wearing a different ring during her courthouse wedding in 1954. According to the founder of , Scott Fortner, the original diamond engagement ring is believed to have been a DiMaggio family heirloom that was “” for the hasty nuptials, yet not much is known about its origin story, and where it is today remains a mystery.
However, some historians believe Monroe may have been wearing a different ring at her 1954 courthouse wedding. According to Scott Fortner, founder of The Marilyn Monroe Collection, the diamond eternity band is thought to have been a DiMaggio family heirloom that served as a placeholder for the hurried ceremony. Beyond that, little is known about the ring’s origins, and its current whereabouts remain a mystery.
Arthur Miller Gifted Marilyn Monroe a Diamond Art Deco Watch
Monroe’s third husband, the famous playwright and author Arthur Miller, is rumored to have gifted her a 1930’s diamond and platinum Art Deco-inspired cocktail watch, made by Blancpain.
Set with 71 round-cut diamonds and two marquise-cut diamonds, the watch was included in a 2019 exhibition entitled Timeless Elegance, featuring personal belongings and a curated selection of photographs of the beloved American actress. According to Watchonista, the President and CEO of Blancpain, Marc A. Hayek, said, “We are particularly proud to present for the very first time this cocktail watch owned by Marilyn Monroe. Especially since Marilyn Monroe had very few pieces of jewelry, despite the memorable ‘Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend,’ which she loved to sing.”
How Marilyn Monroe’s Jewelry Inspires Stars Today
Monroe’s influence on diamond style has echoed across generations of pop culture icons. In 1991, Madonna paid tribute to the screen legend at the Academy Awards, performing “Sooner or Later” in full Marilyn mode. Wearing an archival beaded white Bob Mackie gown and an estimated $20 million worth of Harry Winston diamonds—including chandelier earrings, thick stacks of diamond bracelets over white opera gloves, and a spectacular diamond necklace—the ultimate “Material Girl” delivered one of the most memorable Monroe homages in fashion history. “Talk to me, Harry Winston. Tell me all about it!”
More than three decades later, Sabrina Carpenter revisited the same glamorous reference point at the 2024 MTV VMAs. For her first-ever VMAs appearance, the Short n’ Sweet star wore the very same archival Bob Mackie gown Madonna had worn to the Oscars, sourced by TAB Vintage and styled by Jared Ellner. She completed the look with an impressive suite of De Beers diamonds, including the jeweler’s 2.75-carat Snow Dance earrings, an Old Bond Street pavé 3.35-carat emerald-cut diamond ring set in platinum, and a showstopping 23.95-carat Swan Lake diamond Y-necklace cascading down her décolletage.
Kim Kardashian, perhaps the most glamorous of the night in Marilyn Monroe’s pale champagne-hued Jean Louis dress from 1962 (yes, the one Monroe wore when serenading President Kennedy with “Happy Birthday”), complemented her throwback knockout with understated–but no less exquisite for it–dangling diamond Cartier earrings.
A century after her birth, Monroe’s legacy endures not only through films and photographs but through the enduring relationship she forged between natural diamonds and glamour. More than 60 years after her untimely death at age 36, the woman who made diamonds a girl’s best friend continues to inspire the way we wear, collect, and dream about jewelry.
