New Marilyn Monroe recording features in Chanel ad

PARIS (AFP) ― The voice of Marilyn Monroe will feature in a new television ad for Chanel No. 5 after previously unheard audio was unearthed of the screen siren confirming she wore only the iconic perfume to bed.

The recording, from an interview given to Marie Claire journalist Georges Belmont in 1960, was discovered by Chanel last year and will be used in a global campaign rolling out this month.

“You know, they ask you questions. Well just an example, ‘What do you wear to bed? Do you wear a pyjama top? The bottoms of the pajamas? Or a nightgown?’” she says in the recording.

“So I said Chanel No. 5! Because it’s the truth. And yet I don’t want to say ‘nude.’ But it’s the truth.”

No. 5 was created in 1921 by the nose Ernest Beaux, as a special order from Coco Chanel herself, who wanted a unique scent to pair with her fashion designs.

Monroe first confessed to Life Magazine in 1952 to wearing only “five drops of Chanel No. 5” to bed, in one of her most remembered quotes.

Many celebrities have served as the official face of the perfume before, including Catherine Deneuve, Nicole Kidman, Vanessa Paradis and most recently Brad Pitt, the first man in the role.