Although Marilyn Monroe is a timeless icon — adored by millions even 52 years after her death — only a handful of close friends know the real Marilyn.

Closer Weekly spoke with some of the Hollywood starlet’s closest friends, who reveal that she would have given up all her fame for a family.

“She would’ve been happy without all the Hollywood stuff,” Sherrill Snyder, daughter of Marilyn’s personal makeup artist and dear friend Allan “Whitey” Snyder, exclusively shares with Closer.

marilyn monroe

Courtesy of Limited Runs

“I don’t think Marilyn was out to gain notoriety. If anything, she was out to gain family and love. That was the whole thing. She liked being a star, but she wanted to have a family.”

Sherrill also tells the mag the over-the-top sexpot had another side the public never saw. “When she went out, she was ‘Marilyn,’” Sherrill shares with Closer, “but if she were inside, she was just really easygoing. I think she really wanted to be a family-type person.”

Many believe Marilyn’s laser focus on her skyrocketing career got in the way of her personal plans for a family, and Joshua Greene, son of the actress’ photographer and trusted business partner, Milton Greene, agrees.

marilyn monroe

Courtesy of Limited Runs

“She always wanted to have a child of her own,” Joshua reveals to Closer. “It would have made a difference in her life.” The fact that she never did, he says, “was one of the disappointments of her life.”

For more inside Marilyn Monroe’s secret life, including her true feelings about the love triangle with JFK and Bobby Kennedy, as well as never before seen photos of the star, pick up the new issue of Closer Weekly, on stands now!

Marilyn photo credit: Limited Runs