Marilyn Monroe Paid No Mind To Royal Fashion Rules When She Met Queen Elizabeth

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The late Queen Elizabeth II had an undeniable mark on British fashion, but even as a young woman, she had strict style rules to follow. Conservative dress, modest necklines and hemlines — basically what you'd expect for any royal woman in a public-facing role. But Marilyn Monroe, one of the most iconic actors of the 20th century, had a decidedly different image. The actor was known for her curvaceous figure and sultry style, as well as a magnetic, confident charm dubbed the Marilyn Monroe effect. Therefore, naturally, when she was asked ahead of her 1956 meeting with Queen Elizabeth to adhere to royal style expectations, Monroe shirked the rules and wore what she felt best in.

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The "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" actor looked radiant at the Royal Command Performance in a form-fitting gold lamé gown, which was (controversially) quite low-cut. While you'd expect Queen Elizabeth to have frowned upon Monroe's Hollywood-ready choice of dress, she apparently loved it. "It wasn't her style, but she's not one to judge others, especially if they're not family members. She said Marilyn looked dazzling that evening," a royal insider shared, per Closer Weekly.

While Monroe was initially nervous to see Queen Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret, the meeting went well — with Monroe and the Queen even chatting for several minutes about being "neighbors" during the former's time living in Windsor. "The Queen is very warm-hearted," Monroe told reporters after the event. "She radiates sweetness." According the insider, Queen Elizabeth took a liking to Monroe as well. "Elizabeth expected Marilyn to be one of those boisterous, overly confident celebrities, and was pleasantly surprised to find the opposite," they said. 

While Queen Elizabeth II and Marilyn Monroe weren't exactly friends, their 1956 meeting resulted in a strange acquaintanceship between the two women. Monroe was a huge fan of the monarch and dreamed of meeting her during her time in England, but the Queen wasn't nearly as enthralled with the actor. However, according to an excerpt from Michelle Morgan's book "When Marilyn Met the Queen: Marilyn Monroe's Life in England," the Queen became obsessed with Monroe after they met, and ended up watching all of her movies. A royal expert even told Closer Weekly that Queen Elizabeth would occasionally watch them with Prince Philip, with her joking that he had a crush on Monroe (which the source went on to claim was, in fact, true). 

One of the Queen's friends (who went unnamed) apparently told People in 1961 that Elizabeth spoke to her about Monroe. "I thought Miss Monroe was a very sweet person. But I felt sorry for her, because she was so nervous that she had licked all her lipstick off," they said (via Town & Country). Morgan corroborates this claim in her book, noting that recordings from the evening showed Monroe anxiously licking her lips as she waited to address the Queen. 

A lesser-known fact about Monroe and Queen Elizabeth is their continued correspondence after the 1956 Royal Command Performance. "Not many people know this, but Elizabeth and Marilyn kept in touch and would write to each other," the insider revealed to Closer Weekly. While it seems unlikely that Queen Elizabeth, who was known for wearing monochromatic outfits as reigning sovereign, and Marilyn Monroe, one of the biggest Hollywood starlets of all time, would find kinship with one another, the two apparently had more in common than most would think.