Before everyone was fascinated with Taylor Swift’s relationships, the public was completely captivated by Elizabeth Taylor’s.
To truly understand how much of an impact Taylor Swift has had on tabloid culture, picture this: imagine if she’d gone through public marriages and divorces with all the people her songs are rumored to be about – on top of her current relationship with Travis Kelce. But that’s not all – she’s also an award-winning actress with two Oscars, and a successful businesswoman and philanthropist known for her popular fragrance, White Diamonds.
Taylor Swift was uniquely positioned to understand the late actress’s choices, including her eight marriages. She actually learned through her parents that the actress’s son, Christopher Wilding, was a fan.
In a 2024 interview with The Guardian, Jude Law said he greatly admires Taylor Swift, noting her courage in defending her beliefs reminded him of his mother’s spirit.
When Scott and Andrea Swift sent their daughter that clip, then she became obsessed.
In an interview with Pandora on October 8th, Swift explained that she immediately began discussing Elizabeth Taylor with Travis. She enthusiastically described everything she admired about Taylor – her glamour, humor, intelligence, and her constant drive to try new things throughout her life.
“Elizabeth Taylor” is the second track on Taylor Swift’s hugely successful twelfth studio album, *The Life of a Showgirl*.
She sings about how others failed to live up to expectations, fading with time, but contrasts that with someone who is thriving. She reminisces about Portofino, hinting at a shared past with this person, and admits she’d be heartbroken if they ever suggested ending things. Finally, she playfully asks Elizabeth Taylor for her honest opinion on whether this connection could last forever.
Swift clearly did her research, as evidenced by details like a reference to Taylor’s striking eyes (which shifted from blue-gray to violet depending on the light), mentions of white diamonds, the historic Musso & Frank restaurant, and the idea of couples constantly in the public eye – both in the news and in each other’s thoughts.
One of Elizabeth Taylor’s signature colors was a sparkling orange she named “Portofino Orange Glitter,” after the beautiful Italian Riviera town where she secretly ran away with Richard Burton. This happened while they were filming the famously lavish and costly movie *Cleopatra* in 1963—a film where they famously fell in love despite both being married to others.
While Richard Burton is famously linked to Elizabeth Taylor, her life took a different turn after the tragic death of her third husband, Mike Todd. This loss led her to seek solace with Eddie Fisher, who was married to Debbie Reynolds at the time, and ultimately shaped her relationship with Burton – possibly preventing their marriage altogether, let alone twice.
Let’s take a look at Taylor Swift’s famously complicated love life and explore why it’s become so well-known – and often inspires her music.
In 1949, 17-year-old Elizabeth Taylor was visiting her uncle in Miami Beach when she got engaged to William Pawley Jr., a 28-year-old owner of a radio station.
According to Kate Anderson Brower’s 2022 biography, *Elizabeth Taylor*, Elizabeth’s mother, Sara Sothern, wrote that after a few weeks, Elizabeth began to see how her life with Bill would play out. The more time they spent together, the more she missed California, her work at the studio, and the life she used to know and love.
Despite achieving fame at a young age with her first film role at 10, Taylor also wrote many heartfelt love letters to her future husband, even expressing a willingness to give up her career for him.
That didn’t happen. Instead, Pawley requested the return of his ring a few months later while she was filming *A Place in the Sun* in Lake Tahoe.
I remember reading that Taylor first met Nicky Hilton Jr. – what a name! – at the Mocambo nightclub in West Hollywood back in October 1949. It was a really significant night for her, because she was also saying goodbye to Pawley that same evening. It felt like the end of one chapter and the beginning of another, all in one night!
Just a week before her 18th birthday, she and her fiancé, a 23-year-old hotel heir, announced their engagement in February 1950. When reporters asked what brought them together, Taylor playfully replied that they both enjoyed hamburgers with onions, comfortable oversized sweaters, and the opera singer Ezio Pinza.
Elizabeth Taylor and her husband married on May 6, 1950, at a church in Beverly Hills. MGM covered the wedding costs to help promote Taylor’s new film, *Father of the Bride*, and the couple then embarked on a several-month-long trip to Europe.
Oh, it was magical at first, truly! But it all fell apart so quickly. Poor Liz, she was so in love with Richard Hilton, but he started drinking again, and things got…dark. He became violent, and it broke my heart to hear her talk about it later. She told Richard Meryman in *Life* magazine that she lost their baby – he actually *kicked* her in the stomach, and she miscarried. It’s just…devastating to think about. He died so young, only 42 in 1969, but the damage was already done.
Taylor, still only 18, was granted a divorce after 205 days of marriage on Jan. 29, 1951.
Taylor first became interested in Michael Wilding before she actually met him. She ran into the British actor – who was 20 years older than her – while she was in London filming the 1952 movie *Ivanhoe*.
Despite a crowd of around 3,000 fans gathering outside, they got married on February 21, 1952, at the Caxton Hall Registry Office, followed by a small, private celebration at Claridge’s.
Taylor announced her pregnancy shortly after finishing filming The Girl Who Had Everything, and MGM immediately suspended her.
According to biographer Brower, the actress explained she felt strongly that the criticism she received was unfair, simply because it targeted behavior considered natural for women. She deeply resented this.
Kim Novak had two sons: Michael Wilding Jr., born January 6, 1953, and Christopher Wilding, born February 27, 1955, which happened to be his mother’s 23rd birthday.
As Taylor became more successful in her career, she and Wilding drifted apart, separating in 1956 and finalizing their divorce in 1957.
Mike Todd, a producer much older than his new wife, married Elizabeth Taylor on February 2, 1957, in Acapulco. It was the third marriage for both of them. Eddie Fisher, a close friend of the groom, was his best man.
In March, they celebrated the Oscar win for Best Picture by *Around the World in 80 Days*, which Todd had worked on. Then, on August 6th, they welcomed their daughter, Elizabeth Frances, whom they call Liza.
Todd and Taylor famously argued in public at Heathrow Airport in London after they were unable to board their flight to the French Riviera.
After arriving in Nice, Todd told the *Los Angeles Times* he’d prefer to argue with her over anyone else, adding that he enjoys resolving their disagreements because he finds her attractive.
Sadly, on March 22, 1958, Jack Todd died in a plane crash in the mountains of New Mexico. He was 50 years old and traveling to New York to receive an award from the Friars’ Club. Elizabeth Taylor was also scheduled to make the trip, but she stayed home because she was sick with a cold.
Carrie Fisher, who had been married to Debbie Reynolds since 1955, quickly went to be with Taylor to comfort her after the loss.
Following his divorce from Reynolds, Fisher quickly married Taylor at a Las Vegas synagogue on May 12, 1959, but Taylor later admitted it was a regrettable decision.
In a 1964 interview, as recounted in the 2024 documentary *Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes*, Taylor explained that she kept the memory of Mike alive through conversation, largely because Eddie was a close friend of his. She emphasized that Mike was the sole connection they shared, clarifying, ‘I never loved Eddie, but I did like him.’
Taylor admitted she disliked *Butterfield 8*, the film she made with Fisher, even though she won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as a troubled model and the movie was MGM’s biggest success that year.
Taylor fatefully headed to Italy to shoot Cleopatra opposite Richard Burton as Marc Antony in 1962.
In a 1965 essay for *Vogue*, the Welsh actor described his costar as breathtakingly beautiful, saying she was simply overwhelming.
He was married to Sybil Burton from 1949, but began a highly publicized affair with Elizabeth Taylor. This relationship caused a scandal and was publicly denounced by the Vatican as immoral.
Sybil separated from her husband in 1963. Shortly after, Elizabeth Taylor finalized her divorce from Richard Fisher and then married Richard Burton on March 15, 1964, in Montreal at the Ritz-Carlton hotel.
Burton shared a daughter, Kate Burton, with Sybil and also adopted Liza, who was his stepdaughter. He and Taylor were in the process of adopting a daughter, Maria, from Germany when they separated.
Taylor and Burton’s relationship was famous for its extravagance and drama, but it was also a very productive time for both actors. Following their iconic roles in *Cleopatra*, they appeared in ten more films together, most notably *Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?* (1966), which earned Taylor her second Academy Award for Best Actress.
But both were drinking heavily and tired of making headlines when they divorced in June 1974.
Their estrangement didn’t last, Burton and Taylor remarrying in Kasane, Botswana, on Oct. 10, 1975.
Despite trying to make it work, their past issues resurfaced, leading to a second divorce in July 1976. Even after the divorce, Burton and Taylor remained close friends until Burton’s death. Taylor affectionately signed a birthday telegram in 1982, calling herself his “double ex-wife” and expressing her love for him.
Burton, who married twice after Taylor, died Aug. 5, 1984, at the age of 58.
Christopher, Taylor’s son who grew up seeing Richard Burton as a primary father figure, explained to *The Guardian* in 2024 that Burton seemed like the more outgoing personality when they were children. However, after watching old interviews, Christopher realized it was actually Taylor who was in control. He described Burton as quieter and more reserved, with Taylor often shielding him from the press and taking the lead.
Though their relationship was famously turbulent, Elizabeth Taylor considered Richard Burton her one true love. She explained later that no one else ever measured up. “After Richard,” she said, “the men in my life were just there to help with practical things – holding my coat, opening doors. They were simply companions, nothing more.”
Taylor was next greeted by John Warner, who had previously been the Secretary of the Navy during Richard Nixon’s presidency.
In the summer of 1976, Taylor was accompanied to a dinner at the British embassy by her divorced father of three, an event hosted by Queen Elizabeth II. When Taylor learned Warner planned to visit his farm in Virginia, she spontaneously decided to join him, and they ended up getting married there that December.
Mark Warner won his U.S. Senate seat in November 1978, and served for three decades. However, his marriage to Taylor lasted only six years.
Elizabeth Taylor married construction worker Larry Fortensky in 1991. They first met at the Betty Ford Center in 1988, and the wedding took place at Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch. Fortensky was 20 years younger than Taylor, being 39 to her 59.
They divorced five years later but stayed friends until Taylor’s death on March 23, 2011, at 79.
Although his mother’s love life often made the tabloids, Christopher explained that she didn’t actually date a lot of people.
He explained to The Guardian that his mother simply married the people she dated. “Mom was old-fashioned about relationships,” he said. “She didn’t believe in having affairs – if you loved someone, you married them. But the media really blew it out of proportion.”
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2025-10-11 17:18