In our last episodes of 2024, we got to learn about the extraordinary life of the one and only, Elizabeth Taylor. We really did fall in love with her humor, her beauty and her love of the the F word. Not only was she an absolute star, but she didn’t just use that star power to get more diamonds (of which she had plenty). She also used her platform to fight for those that she felt were being treated unfairly. We love her and her big sexy mouth and genuinely hope you like this series.
Jump to…
Early Life
Hollywood and early Elizabeth
America’s Sweetheart
Elizabeth’s Marriages
Rehab and recovery (coming soon)
AIDS Advocacy (coming soon)
Legacy (coming soon)
A Star is Born
Elizabeth Taylor was born February 27, 1932. Yes, that makes her a Pisces, meaning that she is the first confirmed Pisces that we’ve ever covered on this show before. Yes, it’s totally possible that there have been other mysterious fishes that have made it to our show, but historically girls birthdays have not always been written down.
Elizabeth’s family, though American, lived in England. And when we say they were well connected. Whoa, buddy. Elizabeth’s godfather was a dude named Victor Cazalet. He was a very big deal. We talk about him and his Nazi fighting friends on a Patreon episode called The Glamour Boys, so check that out if it is your thing.
Victor and Elizabeth’s dad might have been boyfriends, but that’s not really relevant to the story. I just like gossip.
Elizabeth’s early life in England was what we might now call #blessed. She spent most of her time playing with dogs, riding horses and being doted on by her mother and all of the family friends who would always comment on just how beautiful the Taylor girl was.
But, as we approach the late 1930’s / early 1940’s and things in England are starting to get very bomb-y, so the Taylor family decides to hop across the Atlantic and sets up shop in Los Angeles.
Hollywood and Baby Elizabeth
Elizabeth’s mom, Sarah, had been an aspiring actress herself, so some believe that Sarah stage-mom’ed Elizabteh into acting after arriving in Hollywood. And some say that baby E wouldn’t shut up about acting after seeing Shirley Temple in The Little Princess. Whatver the reason, the Taylor’s were eager to get their beautiful daughter in the movies.
It wasn’t obviously stardom at first. The studios didn’t really know what to do with this beautiful child that acted like an adult. So, E bounced around a bit until MGM put out a casting call for a very specific role. They needed a young girl who could speak with a British accent and was comfortable riding horses.
Elizabeth, having spent half her life at this point in England, could certainly do the accent. But Elizabeth LOVED riding horses and it was something she missed a lot from her life pre-WWII. This role was so perfect and oddly suited for her, it almost seems like fate. That movie was called Lassie Come Home.
National Velvet and America’s Sweetheart
After her stint in Lassie, Elizabeth is considered for another role that involves some strange typecasting. The studio needed a girl of around 12-14 who could speak with an English accent and ride a horse (again).
This was for the film adaptation of a popular novel, National Velvet. After some back and forth (we go into the lore of this more in Episode 1), Elizabeth snags the coveted role and is thrown into international stardom. After this, Elizabeth Taylor is in demand as an actress for… well. Pretty much the rest of her life.
She was 14 years old.
The Many Marriages of Elizabeth Taylor
In the episodes, we follow the marriages of Elizabeth chronologically while telling her story, but wouldn’t but here I think it’s more fun to look at them all at once. First up, we have…
Conrad Nicholson “Nicky” Hilton Jr. (1950-1951)
Aka “Icky Nicky”. Elizabeth Taylor and Nicky Hilton (yes, that Hilton) seemed like a dream made in young celebrity heaven. Both had spotless reputations, both were beautiful and both were rich. What could go wrong?
Oh, did we mention that Elizabeth had a movie, Father of the Bride, coming out? MGM was practically salivating at the idea of promoting this film, where she plays a bride, at her wedding where she is a bride. Ummm… how romantic?
Unfrotunately, this marriage made in tabloid heaven was what important historians call a bad time. Icky Nicky was physically, verbally and mentally abusive to the poor 18 year old Elizabeth who didn’t see ANY OF THIS COMING. The marriage lasted only 8 months. Honestly, we say good for her for going against societal norms at of the time and getting out.
Michael Wilding (1952-1957)
We actually don’t have that much to say about Elizabeth’s marriage to actor Micheal Wilding, who was 20 years her senior. He gave her two beautiful sons and one of our favorite pieces in her extensive jewelry collection.
Here, we see her diamond and sapphire ring worn during her second marriage. For the love of God, if anyone can find a version of this in color, I would love to see it. We could only find black and white, but we have to imagine that this sapphire makes other sapphire engagement rings in pop culture look tiny by comparison.
Elizabeth and Micheal separated soon after the birth of their second son, but were friendly for the rest of his life.
Mike Todd, (1957-1958)
And then we have Mike Fuckin’ Todd. This dude exuded Big Dick Energy. Mike was a famous movie producer who took huge risks. But when it came to Elizabeth, he took no chances. He did not play it cool. As soon as he found out she and Micheal Wilding had separated, he swooped in. And Elizabeth was into it.
Mike Todd gifted Elizabeth a 29.4-carat emerald-cut diamond, which Elizabeth referred to as her “ice skating rink”. She also called it her “friendship ring” since she was legally still married to Wilding when Todd popped the question.
Mike and Elizabeth were obsessed with each other and were over the moon when Elizabeth welcomed their only child together, Liza, in 1957.
Sadly, tragedy struck and this happy marriage would only last a little over a year. Mike was struck down in a plane crash, when his private jet (ironically named the Lucky Liz) crashed on his way from Los Angeles to New York.
Elizabeth was understandably overcome with grief after losing the man she loved so much. So grief stricken that she did something… kind of crazy. Which brings us to husband number four.
Eddie Fisher (1959-1964)
Later in life, Elizabeth would mostly have nice things to say about all of her exes with two exceptions. Obviously, there was no love lost with Icky Nicky Hilton. Her other marital regret would be Eddie Fisher.
Eddie Fisher was one half of one of America’s favorite couples- Debbie Reynolds & Eddie Fisher were adorable, talented and had squeaky clean reputations. Eddie had been Mike Todd’s mentee and adored Mike like a father figure. When Debbie Reynolds advised her husband to go comfort the grieving widow, she had no idea she was sending her husband into the arms of another woman.
Elizabeth and Eddie’s affair was this whole thing. If you’re old enough to remember the Brad Pitt/ Jennifer Aniston/ Angelina Jolie scandal, we want you to picture that, but on steroids. The world was very much on the side of Debbie Reynolds and as far as the world was concerned, Elizabeth was a homewrecking hussy.
Elizabeth didn’t care about her reputation. She famously said something along the lines of “Mike’s dead and I’m alive. What am I supposed to do? Sleep alone?” which in itself was a scandal. That’s just how little fucks Elizabeth gave about her public persona after Mike’s death.
However, Elizabeth quickly regretted this marriage. Eddie was very aware that he was living in the shadow of Mike Todd’s memory and grew jealous and possessive. Elizabeth started taking sleeping pills every night just to minimize her time spent with him. Big yikes. So, let’s just say she was already unhappily married when she agreed to play the part of Cleopatra in Fox’s much-anticipated film.
Richard Burton, (1964-1974)
Elizabeth Taylor agreed to play Cleopatra in a landmark agreement with the movie studio Fox. She would get a salary of a million dollars plus a percentage of the gross profit. So, if you pay the $10 to rent this FOUR HOUR LONG MOVIE (good god), Elizabeth Taylor’s estate is still getting $1. For the time this was a wild deal, but our girl is smart and this movie made her rich as fuck.
But she didn’t just add to generational wealth with this project. She also met a man who would change her life. Richard Burton has entered the chat.
Known for his womanizing and epic stage presence, Elizabeth was determined not to become another notch on his bedpost.
Richard, on the other hand, was set to bring the “most beautiful woman in the world” down a few pegs. To say it was love at first sight would just be wrong.
But at second sight…
TL;DR the two had a scandalous affair while filming Cleopatra that was so world-known that not only did it basically create the paparazzi as we know it, but the pope even got involved, condemning Elizabeth and saying that she should have her children taken away from her.
Once when Eddie Fisher called Elizabeth while filming in Rome, Burton answered. When Eddie asked what he was doing there, Richard Burton allegedly said “What do you think I’m doing here? Fucking your wife!”
The two eventually divorced their spouses and married each other in a quiet ceremony where the bride wore my personal favorite color, yellow.
Side note: Elizabeth wore a lot of yellow in her life. She was also a big-mouthed brunette who had scandalous marriages. Which lead us to muse if she and our fave Anne Boleyn weren’t maybe somehow connected in a past-life kind of situation.
Anyway…
During this marriage Elizabeth obtained her two most famous jewels. The Krupp diamond (now known as the Elizabeth Taylor diamond) and the Taylor Burton diamond. The Krupp diamond, specifically, she would wear on every red carpet she walked for the rest of her life.
However, this relationship wasn’t all Oscars and diamonds and the couple’s vices (drinking & pills) and fighting (both verbally and physically) got to them, and the couple divorced in 1975.
Richard Burton, 1975 to 1976=
Nope, that is not a typo. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were not done with each other after their 1974 divorce, and decided to give it another go the following year. But since neither of them had gotten help for their growing substance abuse issues or like gone to therapy or anything… it didn’t work out.
Elizabeth and Richard would carry space for each other in their hearts for the rest of their lives tho. Some say Richard was the love of Elizabeth’s life while some say it was Mike Todd. Elizabeth never really said herself. Maybe you have more than one soul mate in your life. But soul mate or not, if you don’t put in the work, you can royally fuck it up- just like these two did.
This was not her last marriage, but she would later say that all men after Richard “were just company”.
John Warner (1976-1982)
Barf.
Oh, did you want more context? Okay, fine.
Elizabeth Taylor met Republican senatorial hopeful, John Warner, soon after her second divorce from Richard Burton. She was looking to retire from acting (which she had been doing non-stop since she was nine years old) and thought a politician’s wife would be ideal. Also, John had a farm that she adored.
Elizabeth never fully grew out of her horse girl phase, so she thought she’d hit the campaign trail with John and then after he won, she’d move to the farm, tend to the animals and live a quiet life.
That was not meant to be.
John can probably owe his win to Elizabeth being on the campaign trail with him non-stop, but our girl hated this. Campaign runners told her what to wear, what to say, how to act, how NOT to act… it was feeling all too controlling for Elizabeth and her depression (and substance abuse) issues grew.
After John’s win, Elizabeth was left alone most of the time. This was also a time when the public was scrutinizing her HEAVILY for having the audacity to age and gain weight. Her husband did nothing to help her state and even openly criticized her weight in public once or twice.
When John called her to tell her that he sold the farm along with her dogs and horses, she said… well, that’s it then. They were divorced soon after.
Larry Fortensky (1991-1996)
After her divorce from John Warner, Elizabeth’s family staged in intervention, and as a result Elizabeth was one of the first major celebrities to publicly enter rehab. This was a big deal and Elizabeth is remembered for fighting the stigma of addiction.
While in rehab though, she met a man. 👀
In 1991, Elizabeth Taylor married Larry Fortensky, a construction worker 20 years her junior at Micheal Jackson’s Neverland Ranch. Jackson, himself, officiated the ceremony.
This sounds like a fever dream I once had or a game of Ad libs, but it is in fact something that actually happened.
This marriage didn’t last long and the couple soon realized they were just from very different worlds. The marriage ended on friendly terms, and the two remained close. Larry was even the last person Elizabeth called in 2011 before entering the hospital for the final time. Sometimes exes can be friends!
Some sources:
Elizabeth the First podcast
Vanity Fair
The Hollywood reporter
Vanity Fair
The History Chicks podcast