On the Internet you can often find a quote about the complexities of your own character, attributed to Marilyn Monroe. We have verified the correctness of this attribution.

In a longer version, the statement sounds like this: “I am selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, get out of control, and can be difficult to handle at times. But if you can’t communicate with me when I’m in a bad mood, then you don’t deserve me in a good mood.”

In the Russian-language segment of the Internet, the quote is found on entertainment sites (Adme), V network meetings quotes, individual printed publications on general topics, as well as on social networks (Facebook, Telegram, TikTok, Instagram).

The short but eventful life of the famous Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe has been described in many ways. books, documentary and fiction films. However, there is very little literature that can be considered an authoritative source on the issue of Monroe's statements. First of all, this is an autobiography written in collaboration with screenwriter Ben Hecht.My story"(published in 1974), as well as the book"Fragments"(2010), which included excerpts from Monroe's diaries, previously unpublished letters, poems and photographs. However, “Verified” did not find traces of the sought-after quotation in either edition. They are not found in any other publications of the 20th century available in "Google Books" Moreover, today in the English-speaking world a quote attributing Monroe is no less popularthan in Russian.

If the statement is in Russian actively spread around December 2011 (in August of the same year it was published in "LiveJournal"without attribution to Monroe), then in English his story is somewhat longer. The earliest "Verified" reference to a full quote found contains a reference to Marilyn Monroe and was also published in "LiveJournal"December 25, 2006. The author of the post, who used the quote as a signature, wrote that she stole it from a certain Jenny Maple.

However, the key phrase of the quote was known before without any attribution. The saying “If you can’t handle me at my worst, you don’t deserve me at my best” appears many times in publications 2003–2005 in LiveJournal. Earliest found "Verified" fast was posted on March 5, 2003, and used the phrase in the title, but there is no doubt that it was already quite common at that time. As the authors point out articles on Dictionary.com, in the 2000s this quote (without mentioning the author) was often found on demotivational books and became popular in dating site profiles. In the next decade, based on it, they began to appear memes, in which “worst” and “best” were replaced by other opposing concepts. In 2018, self-ironic tweet Singer Mariah Carey published on this topic.

Thus, the statement attributed to Marilyn Monroe has nothing to do with her. His key phrase became a catchphrase no later than the first half of the 2000s, and around the middle of the decade, someone added a preamble to it and put it into the mouth of the sex symbol of 20th-century cinema.

Cover photo: Wikimedia Commons