Marilyn Monroe, reputedly her first topless shot for Playboy.

The naked truth about Marilyn Monroe’s famed appearance on the first Playboy cover: The iconic blonde bombshell (born Norma Jeane Mortenson) never actually posed for the magazine at all. In fact, when the late Hugh Hefner used “the famous Marilyn Monroe nude” (the exact words emblazoned upon the publication’s splashy inaugural cover) to launch the men’s lifestyle and entertainment glossy — and his storied Playboy brand as a whole — in 1953, Monroe hadn’t consented to the then-four-year-old images’ use, nor had Hefner directly paid her a dime.

Wow, I think this might be the best I’ve ever seen her look. Never was much of a fan, but she’s sexy af in this pic