Monroe's first husband dies at 84

Dougherty was the subject of 2004 documentary Marilyn's Man

James Dougherty, Marilyn Monroe's first husband, has died at the age of 84 from leukaemia-related complications.

The former Los Angeles police detective married the actress, then 16, in 1942. They were divorced four years later.

Monroe went on to marry baseball player Joe DiMaggio and the playwright Arthur Miller. Dougherty also remarried twice.

In 1997 Dougherty co-wrote a book about their marriage entitled To Norma Jeane With Love, Jimmie. In 2004 he appeared in the documentary, Marilyn's Man.

Dougherty had three children with his second wife. His third wife died in 2003, after 32 years of marriage.

He worked for the Los Angeles Police Department for 25 years as a detective.

After his retirement in 1974 he moved to Arizona and later to Maine, where he became a teacher and local politician.

'Not in love'

He refused to speak about his time with Monroe for many years but made up for it in later life.

"I love her, but I'm not in love with her," he said in 1997. "There's a lot of difference between loving someone and being in love."

Monroe always maintained theirs was a marriage of convenience

Dougherty went to sea as a merchant mariner soon after his marriage to the then Norma Jeane Baker, who took up modelling in his absence.

In Marilyn's Man, Dougherty claimed he invented her "Marilyn Monroe" persona and that she was ordered to divorce him by her studio bosses in Hollywood.

However, Monroe always maintained that their marriage was one of convenience, arranged by her guardian Grace Goddard.

Monroe died in 1962 at the age of 36. An autopsy concluded that she had died of barbiturate poisoning.

DiMaggio, whom she married and divorced in 1954, died in 1999. Miller, who was married to Monroe between 1956 and 1961, died in February this year.