Marriages, relationships, and children
Throughout her adult years, Taylor's personal life, especially her eight marriages (two to the same man), drew a large amount of media attention and public disapproval. According to biographer Alexander Walker, "Whether she liked it or not ... marriage is the matrix of the myth that began surrounding Elizabeth Taylor from [when she was sixteen]."
[1]: 126 In 1948, MGM arranged for her to date football champion
Glenn Davis and she announced plans for them to marry once he returned from
Korea.
[79] The following year, Taylor was briefly engaged to William Pawley Jr., son of US ambassador
William D. Pawley.
[80][1]: 75–88 Film tycoon
Howard Hughes also wanted to marry her, and offered to pay her parents a six-figure sum of money if she were to become his wife.
[1]: 81–82 Taylor declined the offer, but was otherwise eager to marry young, as her "rather puritanical upbringing and beliefs" made her believe that "love was synonymous with marriage."
[13] Taylor later described herself as being "emotionally immature" during this time due to her sheltered childhood, and believed that she could gain independence from her parents and MGM through marriage.
[13]
Taylor was 18 years old when she married
Conrad "Nicky" Hilton Jr., heir to the
Hilton Hotels chain, at the
Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills on May 6, 1950.
[81][1]: 106–112 MGM organized the large and expensive wedding, which became a major media event.
[1]: 106–112 In the weeks after their wedding, Taylor realized that she had made a mistake; not only did she and Hilton have few interests in common, but he was also abusive and a
heavy drinker.
[1]: 113–119 Taylor suffered a
miscarriage during one of his violent outbursts.
[82][83][84] She announced their separation on December 14, 1950,
[85] and was granted a divorce on the grounds of mental cruelty on January 29, 1951, eight months after their wedding.
[86][1]: 120–125
Taylor married her second husband, British actor
Michael Wilding – a man 20 years her senior – in a low-key ceremony at
Caxton Hall in London on February 21, 1952.
[1]: 139 She had first met him in 1948 while filming
The Conspirator in England, and their relationship began when she returned to film
Ivanhoe in 1951.
[1]: 131–133 Taylor found their age gap appealing. She wanted "the calm and quiet and security of friendship" from their relationship;
[13] he hoped that the marriage would aid his career in Hollywood.
[1]: 136 They had two sons: Michael Howard (born 1953) and Christopher Edward (born 1955).
[1]: 148, 160 As Taylor grew older and more confident in herself, she began to drift apart from Wilding, whose failing career was also a source of marital strife.
[1]: 160–165 When she was away filming
Giant in 1955, gossip magazine
Confidential caused a scandal by claiming that he had entertained strippers at their home.
[1]: 164–165 Taylor and Wilding announced their separation on July 18, 1956, and were divorced on January 26, 1957.
[87]
Taylor was three months pregnant when she married her third husband, theatre and film producer
Mike Todd, in
Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico, on February 2, 1957.
[1]: 178–180 They had one daughter, Elizabeth "Liza" Frances (born 1957).
[1]: 186 Todd, known for publicity stunts, encouraged the media attention to their marriage; for example, in June 1957, he threw a birthday party at
Madison Square Garden, which was attended by 18,000 guests and broadcast on CBS.
[8]: 5–6
[1]: 188 His death in a plane crash on 22 March 1958, left Taylor devastated.
[8]: 5–6
[1]: 193–202 She was comforted by a friend of hers and Todd's, singer
Eddie Fisher, with whom she soon began an affair.
[8]: 7–9
[1]: 201–210 Fisher was still married to actress
Debbie Reynolds. The affair resulted in a public scandal, with Taylor being branded a "homewrecker."
[8]: 7–9
[1]: 201–210 Taylor and Fisher were married at the Temple Beth Sholom in
Las Vegas on May 12, 1959; she later stated that she married him only due to her grief.
[8]: 7–9
[1]: 201–210
[13]
While filming
Cleopatra in Italy in 1962, Taylor began an affair with her co-star, Welsh actor
Richard Burton, although Burton was also married. Rumors about the affair began to circulate in the press, and were confirmed by a paparazzi shot of them on a yacht in
Ischia.
[8]: 27–34 According to sociologist
Ellis Cashmore, the publication of the photograph was a "turning point", beginning a new era in which it became difficult for celebrities to keep their personal lives separate from their public images.
[88] The scandal caused Taylor and Burton to be condemned for "erotic vagrancy" by the
Vatican, with calls also in the US Congress to bar them from re-entering the country.
[8]: 36 Taylor was granted a divorce from Fisher on March 5, 1964, in
Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico, and married Burton 10 days later in a private ceremony at the
Ritz-Carlton Montreal.
[8]: 99–100 Burton subsequently adopted Liza Todd and Maria McKeown (born 1961), a German orphan whose adoption process Taylor had begun while married to Fisher.
[89][90]
Dubbed "Liz and Dick" by the media, Taylor and Burton starred together in 11 films, and led a jet-set lifestyle, spending millions on "furs, diamonds, paintings, designer clothes, travel, food, liquor, a yacht, and a jet."
[8]: 193 Sociologist Karen Sternheimer states that they "became a cottage industry of speculation about their alleged life of excess. From reports of massive spending [...] affairs, and even an open marriage, the couple came to represent a new era of 'gotcha' celebrity coverage, where the more personal the story, the better."
[91] They divorced for the first time in June 1974, but reconciled, and remarried in
Kasane,
Botswana, on 10 October 1975.
[8]: 376, 391–394 The second marriage lasted less than a year, ending in divorce in July 1976.
[8]: 384–385, 406 Taylor and Burton's relationship was often referred to as the "marriage of the century" by the media, and she later stated, "After Richard, the men in my life were just there to hold the coat, to open the door. All the men after Richard were really just company."
[8]: vii, 437 Soon after her final divorce from Burton, Taylor met her sixth husband,
John Warner, a Republican politician from
Virginia.
[8]: 402–405 They were married on 4 December 1976, after which Taylor concentrated on working for his electoral campaign.
[8]: 402–405 Once Warner had been elected to the Senate, she started to find her life as a politician's wife in Washington, D.C. boring and lonely, becoming depressed, overweight, and increasingly addicted to prescription drugs and alcohol.
[8]: 402–405 Taylor and Warner separated in December 1981, and divorced on 5 November 1982.
[8]: 410–411
After the divorce from Warner, Taylor dated actors
Anthony Geary[92] and
George Hamilton,
[93] and was engaged to Mexican lawyer Victor Luna in 1983–1984,
[8]: 422–434 and New York businessman Dennis Stein in 1985.
[94] She met her seventh and last husband, construction worker
Larry Fortensky, at the Betty Ford Center in 1988.
[8]: 437
[1]: 465–466 They were married at the
Neverland Ranch of her close friend
Michael Jackson on October 6, 1991.
[95] The wedding was again subject to intense media attention, with one photographer parachuting to the ranch and Taylor selling the wedding pictures to
People for $1 million (equivalent to $2.24 million in 2023), which she used to start her AIDS foundation.
[96][70] Taylor and Fortensky divorced on October 31, 1996,
[8]: 437 but remained in contact for life.
[97] She attributed the split to her painful hip operations and his obsessive-compulsive disorder.
[98][99] In the winter of 1999, Fortensky underwent brain surgery after falling off a balcony and was comatose for six weeks; Taylor immediately notified the hospital she would personally guarantee his medical expenses.
[100] At the end of 2010, she wrote him a letter that read: "You’re a part of my life that cannot be carved out nor do I ever wish it to be."
[101] Taylor's last phone call with Fortensky was on February 7, 2011, one day before she checked into the hospital for what turned out to be her final stay. He told her she would outlive him.
[102] Although they had been divorced for almost 15 years, Taylor left Fortensky $825,000 in her will.
[103]
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