Hollywood is a place of secrets, but Merle Oberon’s secret was heavy. She was the first South Asian actress to ever be nominated for an Oscar, but for her entire life, she told everyone she was from Tasmania. She wasn't. She was born in Bombay, and she spent years terrified that a single picture of Merle Oberon’s mother would destroy the white, aristocratic image she had spent decades building.
The story of the women who raised her—Charlotte Selby and Constance Selby—is a messy, heartbreaking saga of survival in a world that didn't have a place for mixed-race women. To understand the photos, you have to understand the lie.
The Secret in the Frame: Charlotte vs. Constance
Most people who look for a picture of Merle Oberon’s mother are actually looking at Charlotte Selby. For years, Merle introduced Charlotte as her mother. When they moved to England and later to Hollywood, Merle’s story shifted. Charlotte became the "maid."
But the real twist? Charlotte wasn’t even her biological mother.
In 2014, researchers at the British Library uncovered a birth certificate that turned the legend on its head. It turns out Merle’s biological mother was actually Constance Selby, Charlotte’s daughter. Constance was only 12 years old when she gave birth to Merle (then named Estelle Merle Thompson). The father was likely Arthur Thompson, Charlotte’s own partner.
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Basically, Merle was raised believing her mother was her sister and her grandmother was her mother. It's a complicated web that explains why the few existing photos of these women are so scrutinized.
What the photos show
When you see the grainy, black-and-white images of Charlotte Selby, the first thing you notice is the "exotic" look that the press often commented on. She was a Burgher—a Eurasian ethnic group from Sri Lanka (then Ceylon)—with partial Māori heritage. Her skin was significantly darker than Merle’s.
Merle was terrified of this.
She famously used skin-lightening makeup and even underwent early cosmetic procedures that left her with scarring. When Charlotte lived with her in Hollywood, Merle would only speak to her in Hindi when they were alone. In public, Charlotte was the "dark-skinned servant." It sounds cruel because it was, but in the 1930s, being "found out" as South Asian meant your career was over.
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Why the Picture of Merle Oberon’s Mother Was Kept Hidden
Back in the day, Hollywood had "morality clauses," but they also had an unwritten "whiteness clause." Merle had to craft a backstory that made her acceptable to audiences. She claimed she was born in Hobart, Tasmania, into a wealthy family. She said her birth records were lost in a fire.
The lie was so deep that she even visited Tasmania in 1978 for a "homecoming" tour. She was terrified the whole time.
If a journalist had ever published a picture of Merle Oberon’s mother side-by-side with the star, the physical resemblance would have been undeniable, but the difference in skin tone would have raised questions she couldn't answer. Merle’s brother-in-law (really her nephew), Harry, eventually came forward after her death to explain how the family was sworn to secrecy.
The commissioned portraits
There’s a fascinating bit of history regarding the art Merle kept in her home. She didn't just hide the real Charlotte; she tried to rewrite her. She commissioned portraits of her "mother" but gave the artists specific instructions: lighten the skin. She wanted a visual record that supported her Tasmanian lie, creating a version of Charlotte that looked like a tanned European rather than a South Asian woman.
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The Tragedy of Constance Selby
While Charlotte was the one in the spotlight (or the shadows of it), the real biological mother, Constance, stayed behind in India. She lived a relatively modest life, eventually marrying and having more children. These children grew up thinking Merle was their aunt.
Imagine seeing your sister—who is actually your mother—on the big screen in Wuthering Heights, playing a quintessential English heroine, while you are living a world away in a completely different social stratum.
Constance never went to Hollywood. There are very few public photos of her. Most researchers and biographers, like Mayukh Sen, point out that this erasure was the price of Merle's success.
Actionable Insights: How to Research the Selby Family Tree
If you're looking for more than just a surface-level glance at this history, you need to know where the real data is kept. The "official" Hollywood biographies are mostly fiction.
- Check the British Library Raj Records: This is where the 2014 breakthrough happened. The India Office Records contain the actual birth and baptismal certificates of the Thompson/Selby family.
- Watch 'The Trouble with Merle': This 2002 documentary by Marée Delofski is the gold standard for unmasking the Tasmania myth. It features interviews with locals in Hobart who were confused by her visit and family members in India who knew the truth.
- Read 'Love, Queenie' by Mayukh Sen: This is the most comprehensive modern look at her life as a South Asian woman passing for white. It places the picture of Merle Oberon’s mother in the context of racial survival.
- Search for 'Estelle Merle Thompson': If you use her birth name in archival searches, you’ll find much more than searching for "Merle Oberon."
The photos we have today of Charlotte and the glimpses of Constance are more than just family snapshots. They are evidence of a woman who felt she had to delete her own family to belong to the world. Honestly, it’s one of the most tragic "success" stories in cinema history.
To see the real history of Merle Oberon, you have to look past the studio-approved headshots and into the grainy, private archives of the Selby family. That is where the truth lives.