Elizabeth Taylor’s 8 Marriages To 7 Different Husbands Included Multiple Affairs And A Tragic Death

Mar 08, 2022 by apost team

Elizabeth Taylor is a true Hollywood icon whose over six-decade-long career cemented her status in the film industry. Taylor was a well-versed actress, dedicated businesswoman and heartfelt humanitarian. She grew up quickly while she worked in the film industry, as much of her life was broadcast to the public eye. The stunning actress quickly found stardom due to her extreme perseverance and tenacity, as well as her unique and gorgeous looks.

Taylor passed away in 2011 and even after her death, she's continued to be an important name in the entertainment industry, and her legacy still inspires people to this day. 

Meanwhile, Taylor's extravagant lifestyle and personal life were well documented during her lifetime. She was known for her love of diamonds and luxury items, but perhaps more famous than that was her love life. Taylor was married a total of eight times with seven different men. This included the actor Richard Burton, who she famously married twice. There were some controversies that surrounded her romantic life but ultimately Taylor got the family she had always wanted, as she went on to have four children and is now survived by them along with her 10 grandchildren. 

The way that Taylor met and married each of her husbands is fascinating and explains why her love life is still the center of attention, even one decade after her death. From her first husband, hotel heir Conrad Hilton Jr. to her last husband, construction worker Larry Fortensky, Taylor's husbands have run the gamut from Hollywood types to politicians. Let's take a look at the famed actress' incredibly famous love life. 

Taylor's career in Hollywood was legendary. She was born on Feb. 27, 1932, in London, England, to parents, originally from Arkansas City, Kansas. But by 1939, Taylor's family decided to return to the United States due to the fear of impending war in Europe. After they settled in Los Angeles, Taylor's career as a child actress began in 1941, when she signed a contract with Universal Pictures, before she moved over to MGM in 1943.

The young actress obtained roles easily, but it seemed like the studio always had an issue with her, from her height to the shape of her eyebrows, to even her own name. Despite this, Taylor stayed true to herself and was extremely successful while doing so. She starred in "National Velvet," which easily became a box-office hit following its release on Christmas 1944. After this, MGM offered Taylor a new seven-year contract, and she immediately went back to work and joined the cast of the 1946 movie "Courage of Lassie."

Even though Taylor was a teenager, she began being compared to female adult actresses. She began partaking in photoshoots that made her appear like a typical teenage girl, and she began taking on more challenging and more provocative roles in movies. For example, she played a teenager who seduced her peer's date to a high school dance in the musical "A Date With Judy."

In 1950, Taylor officially made the transition to adult roles when she turned 18. Despite the thriller "Conspirator" not being released until 1950, Taylor was actually 16 during the time it was filmed. Taylor continued to land more mature roles including "Father of the Bride," where Taylor played a bride preparing for her wedding. Coincidentally, it was around the time Taylor became a bride for the first time herself, at the tender age of 18. 

apost.com

The actress' first marriage was to hotel-chain heir Conrad Hilton, Jr. in May 1950 and MGM organized their wedding as an event used to promote "Father of the Bride." The film was extremely successful following its release, and its popular sequel came out just 10 months later. A later biography of Taylor's life revealed that she realized she'd made a mistake getting married to Hilton, as the couple had little in common and allegedly he was abusive and a heavy drinker. Just eight months after the highly publicized wedding, Taylor was granted a divorce in Jan. 1951.

Just one year after her first marriage ended, Taylor took another trip down the aisle in Feb. 1952, this time with British actor Michael Wilding, who was 20 years her senior. They'd first met when Taylor filmed "Conspirator" in the UK in 1948, however, their relationship didn't begin until she returned in 1951 to film "Ivanhoe." The actress revealed she wanted "the calm and quiet and security of friendship" that their relationship with a large age gap gave her, while its thought he hoped their union would revive his career.

Together they had two sons: Michael Howard, who was born in 1953, and Christopher Edward, who was born in 1955. But sadly, their marriage wouldn't last. While Taylor's career boomed and she became more confident, she and Wilding drifted apart as his career, which hadn't picked up, became a cause of tension between the two. There were even rumors that while Taylor was off filming "Giant" in 1955, Wilding had strippers visit their home together. By July 1956 the couple had announced their separation and their divorce was finalized in Jan. 1957. 

Taylor didn't wait long to head down the aisle a third time — her marriage to theater and film producer Mike Todd was in Feb. 1957 in Acapulco, Mexico, one month after her divorce to Wilding was finalized. The couple quickly followed their nuptials with a child — their daughter Elizabeth "Liza" Frances was born in Aug. 1957. While they were married, Todd, who was known for his publicity stunts, rallied media attention around their marriage. One such example was when he held a birthday party at Madison Square Garden in June 1957 that was attended by 18,000 people and broadcast on CBS. Tragically, though, their marriage was cut short when in March 1958 Todd died in a plane crash.

Naturally, this left Taylor devastated and she was comforted by those close to her. This included singer Eddie Fisher, who was a close friend of Todd's. However, this developed into an affair, since Fisher was still married to actress Debbie Reynolds, who happened to be one of Taylor's close friends and Hollywood rivals. The fallout from the affair led to Taylor being branded a "homewrecker." Nevertheless, their romance proved strong and by May 1959, Taylor said "I do" to Fisher. Years later though, the actress revealed that she only married Fisher due to her grief over Todd's death.

The beginning of Taylor and Fisher's relationship as an extramarital affair would set the tone for the beginning of her next marriage, her most famous one, with actor Richard Burton. Taylor and Burton were cast opposite each other in "Cleopatra," which began filming in Italy in 1962. The chemistry between them was instant and soon they began an affair, despite both being married at the time.  

The couple's love affair began to be reported on in the press and caused a scandal since they were both still married. One paparazzi photo that was published of them on a yacht is believed to be a "turning point" for when celebrities began to find it difficult to keep their private lives separate from their public image. Nevertheless, the two continued their romance and were later married in 1964, the same month that Taylor's divorce from Fisher was finalized.

The couple proved their love was one for the ages and they soon became a power couple in Hollywood. Burton even adopted Taylor's daughter with Todd, Liza, while Taylor adopted Burton's daughter Maria, who was a German orphan. Over the years the couple was cast together in 11 films in total, including "The Taming of the Shrew" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Their extravagant lifestyle included diamonds, expensive clothing and art purchases, and a jet-set lifestyle that was widely reported on by the press, who dubbed their union the "marriage of the century."

However, their relationship was incredibly rocky, and they divorced in 1974 for the first time. They reconciled the following year but within another year they had divorced for good. Taylor later recalled:

"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."

The couple was incredibly iconic and their relationship even surpassed their time together, as it has continued to inspire the arts today, including the 2012 TV movie "Liz and Dick," the 2013 TV movie "Burton and Taylor" and it's even appeared as music lyrics in the 2017 Taylor Swift song "...Ready for It?"  

The end of Taylor's marriage to Burton also marked her last marriage to someone in the entertainment industry. The actress met her sixth husband, Republican politician John Warner — her seventh marriage in total — shortly after her second and final divorce from Burton. The couple wed in Dec. 1976 and Taylor even dabbled in politics as she worked on his electoral campaign. 

But his success contributed to her downfall — after Warner was elected to the Senate, Taylor found her life in Washington D.C. increasingly lonely and boring, which led her to become depressed, gain weight and become addicted to alcohol and prescription drugs. By Dec. 1981 the couple had separated and by Nov. 1982 they'd divorced.

Taylor dated other men following her seventh marriage, including engagements to Mexican lawyer Victor Luna and businessman Dennis Stein, but she didn't take another trip down the aisle until Oct. 1991, when she wed her last husband, construction worker Larry Fortensky. The couple famously met while they were both at the Betty Ford Center, a well-known rehab clinic, in 1988. Fortensky was there after he'd been arrested on a DUI charge and he told the Daily Mail in 2011, "Elizabeth was in there for pills, I was in there for beer." Twenty years her junior, Fortensky admitted to knowing who she was but that he didn't remember if he'd seen any of her movies.

The actress' lavish eighth and final wedding took place at Neverland Ranch, Michael Jackson's home, and was reported to have cost between $1.5–2 million. The high-profile event was attended by a who's who of Hollywood A-listers including Liza Minnelli, Franco Zeffirelli, Eddie Murphy, George Hamilton, Merv Griffin, Macaulay Culkin and Nancy Reagan, among others. Meanwhile, paparazzi helicopters flew overhead. The couple gave the profits from selling their wedding photos to AIDS charities. 

It was reported that the couple had a prenuptial agreement in place in which Fortensky would receive $1 million with no further support if their marriage lasted five years. Their union wasn't to be and by 1996 — five years after they wed — Taylor and Fortensky split up. Taylor said their marriage ended due to Fortensky's Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and her painful hip operations. Following their divorce, Fortensky received the million-dollar payout, and the media painted him as a gold digger of sorts, which led him to give the tell-all interview with the Daily Mail to dismiss the claims. He said:

"This is nothing to do with money, I have been offered so much over the years. This is about wanting people to know the real story. I am sick and tired of the lies. I have wonderful memories of my time with Elizabeth and I will treasure her memory for ever."

Their relationship continued on as a friendship after they divorced and they were clearly on good terms since Taylor left Fortensky a reported $825,000 in her will, which he said "honoured" their friendship. He revealed that they spoke for hours on the telephone a few times a month after they divorced and in fact, the last time they spoke before she died was the day before she entered the hospital, a few days before she passed. He said:

"I was so shocked. I was so sure she would get to go home and I would talk to her once again."

He added:

"I love her, I always will. And I know she loved me, too."

There's no denying that Taylor loved deeply in her life. As reported by Love Magazine, she once said:

"I was destined to give love, be a mother, a wife and a friend."  

Did you know about Elizabeth Taylor's eight marriages to seven different men? If you learned something from this, pass it on to those you know so they can read about it too.