Hollywood Wedding Rewind(s): Elizabeth Taylor Marries a Variety of People

Actually, what a queen! Henry VIII could have had six spouses however Elizabeth Taylor has him beat — and was certainly a a lot nicer partner general. Please be part of us as we revisit all of the weddings of Elizabeth Taylor Hilton Wilding Todd Fisher Burton Burton Warner Fortensky. She was additionally engaged to, however didn’t marry: William Pawley Jr,  lawyer Victor Luna, and businessman Dennis Stein. Enjoyable truth, she additionally dated Anthony Geary, AKA Luke on Normal Hospital, and if ever there have been an individual who may roll with married a girl with that many ex-husbands, certainly it’s a cleaning soap opera star. They met on set:

WHAT A DAME.

Truly, I’ve many enjoyable info, which I shall divide by husband, and plenty of of that are courtesy of my greatest buddy, Lord Wiki Pedia and Ms Taylor’s very very robust “Personal Life” section:

1. 1950: Nicky Hilton, whom she married at 18, largely (from my studying of issues) as a result of she wished to get out of the home and away from the management of her mother and father and MGM, which nonetheless utterly organized the marriage. Per Wiki, “Within the weeks after their wedding ceremony, Taylor realized that she had made a mistake; not solely did she and Hilton have few pursuits in widespread, however he was additionally abusive and a heavy drinker. She was granted a divorce in January 1951, eight months after their wedding ceremony.”

2. 1952: Michael Wilding, who was a lot older than she was. “Taylor discovered their age hole interesting, as she wished ‘the calm and quiet and safety of friendship’ from their relationship; he hoped that the wedding would support his profession in Hollywood…As Taylor grew older and extra assured in herself, she started to float aside from Wilding, whose failing profession was additionally a supply of marital strife. When she was away filming Big in 1955, gossip journal Confidential brought about a scandal by claiming that he had entertained strippers at their residence. Taylor and Wilding introduced their separation on July 18, 1956, and had been divorced in January, 1957.” Actually, even simply this paragraph makes me detest him. Sir, did you ever actually assume you had been going to be extra well-known or extra profitable than Ms. Elizabeth Taylor? Appearing out by having strippers at your marital residence, whereas she’s off working? SIT DOWN.

3. 1957: Mike Todd, who Elizabeth married a month after her divorce from Wilding was remaining, and who in fact tragically died in a aircraft crash barely a yr after their wedding ceremony. She all the time stated she adored him and he was her favourite of all her husbands, however I are inclined to assume that maybe she simply hadn’t gotten round to NOT adoring him, as a result of he died first. For one factor, Wiki tells me that Todd beloved the media consideration of being married to her and I think that will have gotten a bit previous. For one more, I additionally assume she could have expressed the above sentiment to annoy Richard Burton particularly. We’ll get to him!

4. 1959: Eddie Fisher. The 50s had been so tumultuous for Elizabeth! She married 4 males in ten years! This one was, in fact, significantly so. As Duke Wiki of Pedia tells us, after Mike Todd’s demise, Elizabeth  “was comforted by Todd’s and her buddy, singer Eddie Fisher, with whom she quickly started an affair. As Fisher was nonetheless married to actress Debbie Reynolds, the affair resulted in a public scandal, with Taylor being branded a ‘homewrecker.’ Taylor and Fisher had been married on the Temple Beth Sholom in Las Vegas on Might 12, 1959; she later acknowledged that she married him solely as a consequence of her grief.”  That’s most likely correct, and regardless, Debbie and Elizabeth made up less than a decade later (on a cruise) and returned to being pals with each other. (Debbie, accurately, largely blamed Eddie for the entire thing. Eddie, frankly, additionally looks like he might need been annoying as a partner.)

5. 1964: Richard Burton. Ultimately! “Whereas filming Cleopatra in Italy in 1962, Taylor started an affair along with her co-star, Welsh actor Richard Burton, though Burton was additionally married. Rumors in regards to the affair started to flow into within the press, and had been confirmed by a paparazzi shot of them on a yacht in Ischia….The scandal brought about Taylor and Burton to be condemned for “erotic vagrancy” by the Vatican, with calls additionally within the US Congress to bar them from re-entering the nation. Taylor was granted a divorce from Fisher on March 5, 1964 in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico, and married Burton 10 days later in a non-public ceremony on the Ritz-Carlton Montreal.” (a) Actually, being condemned by the Vatican for “erotic vagrancy” is GOALS and (b) Congress must relax.

6. 1975: Additionally Richard Burton. That is the half the place I simply let you know to read Furious Love once and for all! Briefly, they obtained a divorce in June,1974, then got back together and got remarried in Botswana in October, 1975, then broke up once more and obtained divorced AGAIN in July 1976. However I’ll depart you with this quote from Elizabeth: “After Richard, the lads in my life had been simply there to carry the coat, to open the door. All the lads after Richard had been actually simply firm.”

7. 1976: Firm comes calling the type of the Republican senator John Warner, who’s the one considered one of her husbands to nonetheless be alive! Congrats, Senator! (He is also very moderate for a Republican, and endorsed Hillary Clinton and has endorsed Joe Biden, as well as his own successor, the Democrat Mark Warner, to whom he is not related.) Once more per Wiki, “they had been married on December 4, 1976, after which Taylor targeting working for his electoral marketing campaign. As soon as Warner had been elected to the Senate, she began to seek out her life as a politician’s spouse in Washington, D.C., boring and lonely, turning into depressed, chubby, and more and more hooked on pharmaceuticals and alcohol.”  They divorced in 1982, and Elizabeth had a interval of being single for the longest stretch of her life, till…

8. 1991: Larry Fortensky, whom Elizabeth met at Betty Ford, and who looks like he might need been an actual mensch. She sold the photos from their wedding to People in an exclusive and used the million bucks to begin her own AIDS foundation, constructing on the AIDS basis she co-founded in 1985: amFAR. (Elizabeth was actually on the forefront of superstar AIDS activism.) I’m moved by this piece from Dr. Wi Kipedia: “Taylor and Fortensky divorced in October 1996, however remained involved for all times. She attributed the break up to her painful hip operations and his obsessive-compulsive dysfunction. Within the winter of 1999, Fortensky underwent mind surgical procedure after falling off a balcony and was comatose for six weeks; Taylor instantly notified the hospital she would personally assure his medical bills. On the finish of 2010, she wrote him a letter that learn: “Larry darling, you’ll all the time be an enormous a part of my coronary heart! I’ll love you ceaselessly.” Taylor’s final cellphone name with Fortensky was on February 7, 2011, someday earlier than she checked into the hospital for what turned out to be her remaining keep; he advised her she would outlive him. Though that they had been divorced for nearly 15 years, Taylor left Fortensky $825,000 in her will.” Additionally: Their wedding ceremony was officiated by Presidential Candidate Marianne Williamson. It was at Neverland Ranch, as you’d guess from the Individuals cowl the place Michael Jackson can also be featured together with the bride and groom. There’s lots to unpack there!

This submit initially ran on September sixteenth, 2020 — but it surely’s considered one of my favorites, so we’re pulling it again out of the vault!

[Photos: Getty, Shutterstock]