Elizabeth Taylor was the very definition of a Hollywood icon. As the star of legendary films like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, she won a legion of fans while also winning the Academy Award for Best Actress…twice! While her acting skills were top-notch, it was arguably her great beauty that made her a source of fascination for fans around the world. As soon as people took a look in those deep blue eyes, they just couldn’t help falling in love.
That was the natural reaction to seeing Elizabeth Taylor on the silver screen. She was even more captivating in person, which is how she ended up with so many colorful suitors. And the stories behind those relationships are just as fascinating as this amazing actress. Who did she marry? What, exactly, broke these relationships up, and how did she leave her mark on some of the greatest actors in Hollywood history? Keep reading to find out!
Conrad Hilton, Jr.
Previously, Elizabeth Taylor turned down marriage proposals from two men: US Army Football legend Glenn Davis, and billionaire Air Force pilot Bill Pawley. The first man she actually said yes to was Conrad Hilton, Jr., the famous hotel heir. He proposed after she turned 18, and they got married in an extravagant wedding at Beverly Hills’ Church of the Good Shepherd. The 600 guests and thousands of fans who flocked to the church to see these two began their very own happily ever after.
Sadly, it was not to be. The hotel heir ended up being abusive, both physically and mentally. A horrific example of this was an incident where he reportedly kicked her in the stomach so hard that it led to a miscarriage. After eight months of wedded misery, these two icons divorced, leaving Elizabeth Taylor free to find love elsewhere.
A tale of two Michaels
Elizabeth Taylor’s second husband was Michael Wilding, an actor whom she met in London. In a very progressive move, she actually proposed to him, even picking out her own luxurious diamond ring. They had two children together and enjoyed a peaceful marriage that only lasted for five years. The two ultimately divorced amid Taylor’s acting career intensifying and her desire to find a more dominant husband.
One month after their divorce, she married film producer Michael Todd. The two were quite happy, and Taylor later dubbed him one of the two great loves of her life. He was the exact kind of husband she was waiting to spend the rest of her life with. Tragically, though, he died when his private plane crashed in New Mexico. Taylor was on the plane and survived, but she later admitted that she didn’t care if she lived after learning that her third husband had died.
Eddie Fisher
The death of Michael Todd left Elizabeth Taylor shocked and grieving. Fortunately, she was able to get the support she needed from singer Eddie Fisher. There was just one problem: Fisher was already married to Debbie Reynolds, best known to younger viewers as the mother of Carrie Fisher. This didn’t keep the two from having an affair, which caused Fisher to divorce his wife. Later, he married Taylor, becoming husband and wife on May 12, 1959.
Sadly, their union wasn’t meant to be. Their time together was reportedly very toxic, and Fisher proved to be another abusive husband. At one point, he even held Elizabeth Taylor at gunpoint, reassuring her that she was too beautiful to kill. Between the abuse and her reportedly warm relationship with Richard Burton (himself a future husband), it was too much for the pair; Taylor and Fisher ended up divorcing.
Richard Burton
Out of all of Elizabeth Taylor’s many husbands, Richard Burton is the only one with this odd distinction: he married her not once, but twice! The two met when they starred in the Oscar-winning film, Cleopatra. They had crackling onscreen chemistry but were both married to other partners at the time, which caused something of an electric scandal in the tabloids. But the two were serious about their romance, and after divorcing their respective spouses, Burton and Taylor got married in 1964. However, they divorced a decade later after a marriage filled with jealousy and petty conflict.
However, after the divorced couple got together to discuss some financial issues, they felt the old spark and decided to give marriage a try, one more time. They got married in 1975, but this turned out to be a mistake. They got divorced again a year later, but Burton never stopped feeling affection for Taylor and thought about proposing to her yet again. That didn’t happen, though, and Taylor was destined to marry just one more man.
John Warner
As you can tell, Elizabeth Taylor dated plenty of actors, singers, and assorted celebrities. As a real change of pace, she later dated United States Secretary of the Navy John Warner. They got engaged in 1976 (the same year of Taylor’s second divorce from Burton) and got married later that year. There, they began what Taylor hoped would be a peaceful marriage of living on Warner’s farm.
Thanks to her support, Warner was elected to the Senate. However, Elizabeth Taylor chafed at all the restrictions she faced (including what she could and couldn’t wear) as the prominent wife of a prominent politician. Eventually, Taylor decided to leave the man, and she later bluntly stated what would have happened to her if she hadn’t divorced him: she’d “turn into a drunk and die.”