Joe DiMaggio was an American legend—but no one hid as many cruel secrets underneath his debonair image.

1. He’s A Dark Legend

Despite his electric baseball career, Joe DiMaggio presented one painstakingly curated image to the world: That of a graceful, utterly polite gentleman. But if you scratch the surface of his life, that veneer reveals a rotten inside.

His marriage to Marilyn Monroe was infamously dysfunctional, and most don’t even know the half of it. Then there were his vicious acts of revenge, his cruel acts, and his ultimate deathbed betrayals. Joe DiMaggio is not who you think he is.

2. His Family Didn’t Want Him

Explaining where DiMaggio got his jealousy and control issues from starts at his own beginnings. The eighth of nine children, DiMaggio’s mother desperately hoped he was the last child in their bursting-at-the-seams family, only to have Joe disappoint her when another came along.

Now, I’m not saying this is the only reason DiMaggio had a chip on his shoulder, but it certainly didn’t help. By the time he hit the big leagues, that chip was a boulder.

Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

3. He Was Controlling

DiMaggio is inextricably connected to the New York Yankees, and became a superstar almost immediately. On the field, he was devilishly good, in the locker room he was humble and quiet—but after games, his demanding side came out.

Slim and compact, DiMaggio was always dressed impeccably, and insisted everyone in his company do the same. If they didn’t comply, he’d ice them out. He was beginning to prune his image to exactly how he wanted it. All he needed next was the girl.

Sporting News, Wikimedia Commons

4. He Had A Type

By 1937, DiMaggio was famous enough to get a minor part in the upcoming film Manhattan Merry-Go-Round. That one film put his life on a new course. While there, he met fellow bit-part actor Dorothy Arnold, a blonde beauty—and DiMaggio liked his blonde beauties. Although she was 19 and he was 23, they fell into a serious relationship, marrying two years later.

Unfortunately, domestic bliss was not in DiMaggio’s future.

Los Angeles Daily News, Wikimedia Commons

5. He Was A Horrible Husband

To his adoring Yankee fans, there was nothing as American apple pie as Joe DiMaggio. So when Arnold walked down the aisle, she likely imagined a charmed life full of white picket fences, shaggy dogs, and bouncing babies ahead of her. But Arnold—and the public at large—was sorely mistaken.

DiMaggio let all pretense drop early into his marriage, and began having aa smoke, drinking, and relentlessly cheating on his wife. That was far from all.

Los Angeles Daily News, Wikimedia Commons

6. He Kept Up Appearances

If Joe DiMaggio was a bad husband (and he was) he was even a worse father. When Arnold gave birth to their son, Joe Jr, DiMaggio was apathetic at best, and mostly thought of the boy as an “irritant”. His son would later confess, “He was concerned with image, with how things looked. He wasn’t concerned with me as a person”. But DiMaggio got crueler.