Seven Daring and Eight Attempts: All the Husbands of Beloved Elizabeth Taylor

heir to the empire

Taylor first married on May 6, 1950, at the age of 18, but already an experienced actress with a dozen films behind her back. Conrad Hilton Nicholas Jr. became her chosen one, a magnificent wedding took place for more than 700 guests. Conrad (also known as Nikki) was heir to the Hilton hotel empire and was notoriously frivolous.

Everything would be fine, but in January 1951, the couple suddenly announced their separation. It became a public outrage and streams of mud poured over Elizabeth Taylor. The reason for the swerve was Hilton’s assault, which Taylor could not forgive. According to unconfirmed reports, due to beatings and experiments, Liz even had a miscarriage. Hilton had to make amends with a decent amount (about a million dollars), and afterwards Liz often called this marriage a mistake.

Nikki Hilton’s life wasn’t the best. In 1960 he married a second time – with Patricia McClintock the couple had two children, but in 1964 he again divorced. On February 5, 1969, he died of a heart attack caused by alcoholism. He was 42 and never had to run the hotel chain – his father survived him by almost ten years.

That same year, Taylor met actor Michael Wilding, who was almost 20 years older than her. He was married at the time, but Elizabeth managed to find him work in Hollywood, after which he immediately divorced her and married her on February 21, 1952 in Los Angeles.

This marriage lasted five years, during which Liz managed to star in ten films and give birth to two sons – Michael Howard and Christopher Edward. Then they divorced because the actress fell in love again, and with Wilding they had almost no common interests.

Wilding married twice more and in the 1960s he stopped acting due to epileptic seizures. He died in 1979 after hitting his head when falling down a flight of stairs.

Actress Michael Todd’s new lover was 23 years older than her. They met in 1956 while Taylor was still married. They got married three days after her divorce and in the same year, 1957, she gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth Frances.

Thanks to Todd, the number of roles offered to the actress increased significantly, she began to refuse what did not interest her.

This marriage lasted only a year – on March 22, 1959, Michael died in the crash of the twin-engine plane The Liz (“Liz”) in New Mexico. Taylor was filming Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the time and wasn’t ready for the hit.

After her husband’s death, Liz became addicted to alcohol and began to seek new support from a man. Singer and actor Eddie Fisher, who was 4 years older, became such a support. At that time he was married to actress Debbie Reynolds, but this fact did not stop the lovers. Resigned to losing her reputation as a grieving widow and earning the nickname “the family breaker”, Elizabeth married Eddie on May 12, 1959.

Everything went well, the couple was perfect for each other, but Taylor did not stand still and she started an affair again. After their separation, Fisher married twice more and died in 2010 of postoperative complications.

While filming Cleopatra (1963), Elizabeth began dating co-star Richard Burton. The novel immediately went public and brought in a lot of money for Cleopatra’s rental box.

This time, Taylor decided to do it smartly: she demanded to film together (the couple starred in 11 films), they constantly traveled together. Elizabeth and Richard were welcome everywhere…but his addiction to alcohol and women could not go unnoticed.

Taylor forgave her husband several times, and he gave her expensive jewelry and promised he would never look left again. In 1974, still divorced, Burton went to Switzerland. And a few months later, he reappeared in Liz’s life, promising not to drink again.

She believed and forgave, they even remarried, but it did not help: in 1976 they finally broke up. After this, Burton married twice more and died on February 5, 1984, of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Taylor married for the seventh time in 1977 to politician John Warner. She helped him become a senator from Virginia, and she herself became addicted to alcohol.

Her career went downhill, Taylor was less and less invited to play, so alcohol and sweets became her friends. The husband was busy with political affairs, so Liz had to fend for herself. She even stayed in a clinic where she was treated for drug addiction. In 1982, they divorced.

Over the next few years, the actress struggled with her habits, until in 1988 she met construction company owner Larry Fortensky, who was 20 years her junior. This marriage lasted five years: Taylor began to have health problems, and her husband did not want to take care of her. After her divorce in 1996, Elizabeth lived her life alone.

In recent years, she has been haunted by constant illnesses: a tumor was discovered in her brain, she had pneumonia several times and moved around in a wheelchair because of back problems. The actress died on March 23, 2011 of heart failure. Was she happy? Certainly, but certainly not in recent years.