Elizabeth Taylor was one of the preeminent actresses of Hollywood’s late Golden Age.
In addition to her plethora of great performances on both the screen and the stage, the star was
known for her plethora of romances! Elizabeth was married to seven different men throughout
her lifetime, though she died unmarried. One of those men was actor Richard Burton, whom she
married on two separate occasions! Though many of Elizabeth’s marriages were rocky, they all ended
relatively amicably and she seems to have stayed friends with most of her ex-husbands after the
fact. Join Facts Verse as we explore how Elizabeth Taylor’s ex-husbands still remember her fondly.
Movie star Elizabeth Taylor was married to seven different men throughout her lifetime. After
achieving Hollywood stardom, most of Elizabeth's marriages were to men of her stature. However,
a stay at the Betty Ford Clinic during the 1980s gave the star an opportunity to strike
up a late-in-life romance with an unlikely character. That character was Larry Fortensky,
who found himself at the clinic for alcohol addiction after having made a career for himself
as a construction worker. Elizabeth was at the clinic for her addiction to prescription pills,
and the two instantly found themselves physically attracted to one another.
Elizabeth married Larry in 1991, and they would remain married until 1996. Elizabeth died in 2011,
and she and Larry remained good friends in the period between their divorce and her death. At
the time of her death, Elizabeth was 79 years old. She was 20 years older than her final husband,
who was 59 at the time. According to Larry, he was shocked upon receiving the news that
Elizabeth had passed. He knew she wasn't feeling well but had expected her to make a full recovery.
He had spoken to her just before she went to the hospital, believing she would outlive him.
Elizabeth Taylor and her final husband Larry Fortensky met while they were both attending the
Betty Ford Clinic in 1988. Though Larry claimed that he certainly knew who the movie star was,
he couldn’t remember if he had ever actually seen one of the many films that she had starred in.
Still, Larry was stricken by her good looks, and Elizabeth found him similarly attractive.
Elizabeth and Larry’s 1991 marriage ceremony was held at Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch.
They subsequently spent time vacationing in
Switzerland and had plenty of good times before their 1996 divorce.
According to Larry, he retained wonderful memories of Elizabeth up until his own death in 2016.
Before Larry Fortensky, Elizabeth’s previous husband had been a senator by the name of John
Warner. As she did later with Larry, Elizabeth remained friends with John Warner after their
separation. Elizabeth met John in 1976, when the latter was tasked with escorting the actress to
a party that was being put on in honor of the Queen of England, also named Elizabeth.
The couple hit it off and ended up getting married later that year.
It wasn’t until after the two wed that Larry became a senator. According to Elizabeth,
she couldn’t handle the fact that John’s new job kept him from spending time with
her. As soon as John became a senator, he had essentially no time to spend with his wife.
Because of this, their marriage eventually fell apart. However, Elizabeth had no hard feelings.
According to Elizabeth, she understood why it was so important for her husband to spend time
performing his duties as a senator. John went on to serve as a senator for three
decades before his own death at the age of 94, and he had worked incredibly hard to get
to the political position. Similarly, John understood that Elizabeth needed a spouse
that was available to spend more time with her. Elizabeth became
increasingly dependent on prescription pills during the marriage, and also took
to eating excessively. At one point during her marriage to John, Elizabeth weighed 180 pounds!
Elizabeth would often travel with John during his campaign, and it was
said that the politician saw increased crowds at his rallies when his wife was in attendance.
For her part, Elizabeth was politely asked to dress more modestly than she typically would
have otherwise, something she reluctantly agreed to. John became a senator in 1979,
marking the halfway point of his and Elizabeth’s six-year marriage. They would divorce in 1982,
and Elizabeth would make her way to the Betty Ford Clinic not long after. If you’re enjoying this
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After Elizabeth Taylor and John Warner divorced, they remained great friends up until the former’s
death in 2004. Prior to John Warner, Elizabeth Taylor had been married to actor Richard Burton…
twice. The two had started off their romance as an extramarital affair on the set of the film
Cleopatra, which premiered in 1962. According to Elizabeth, she had met Richard years previously
and vowed to herself that she was never going to succumb to his charms.
Though Elizabeth and Richard were both married during the
time that their romance started, they would soon leave their respective spouses and tie
the knot with each other. Their marriage became great tabloid fodder, and helped boost Richard’s
star status in Hollywood. Previously, the actor had been known more for his stage
work. Both Elizabeth and Richard were heavy drinkers, and their romance proved volatile.
In addition to Richard and Elizabeth engaging in screaming matches so loud that they had to
rent the hotel rooms above and below the ones that they were staying in, Richard claimed in the years
leading up to his death that he would have violent outbursts with his wife at least two times a year.
On one occasion, Elizabeth was supposedly left so battered by Richard’s abuse that she had to
take three weeks off of filming a picture so that her face could recover. Elizabeth
attributed the injuries to a car accident and went on with the tumultuous romance.
Even though they could barely get along, Elizabeth and Richard were so attracted to each other
that not even divorce could keep them apart. After divorcing once, Elizabeth and Richard infamously
remarried each other, only for their second marriage to fall apart in just a year.
Prior to Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor had been married to Eddie Fisher. Just as with Richard,
Eddie was involved with someone else when he first started his relationship with Elizabeth.
That person was Debbie Reynolds. Although Elizabeth Taylor stole Debbie’s husband,
the two ended up striking up an unlikely friendship. Elizabeth was married to Eddie
when she struck up her romance with Richard Burton on the set of Cleopatra. Similarly,
Richard Burton was married to a woman named Sybil Williams.
Throughout his and Sybil's marriage, which lasted for more than a decade after its start in 1949,
Richard Burton cheated on his spouse numerous times. Once Sybil learned about her husband's
affair with movie star Elizabeth Taylor on the set of the film Cleopatra, she had initially
hoped that the whole thing was going to go down like all of Richard’s other affairs.
However, it soon became apparent that Elizabeth and Richard’s romance was
something more serious. Once Sybil realized that her husband’s affair
with Elizabeth Taylor wasn’t going to end, she reluctantly agreed to a
divorce. They divorced in 1964, and Elizabeth and Richard tied the knot themselves shortly after.
Elizabeth had three children from her previous marriages,
and Richard had two daughters from his marriage to Sybil. Elizabeth and Richard also adopted
a daughter during their marriage. Still, their familial responsibilities didn’t stop
Elizabeth and Richard from excessive drinking and rampant fighting. The more the two fought,
the more the tabloids gave them attention. It got to the point where it was hard to
tell if they were really fighting or just playing it up for the public.
Although Richard and Elizabeth could often be found screaming at each other, the two seemed
to be madly in love and remained friends after their multiple divorces. Richard ended up dying
at 58 years old in 1984. Though Elizabeth was asked not to attend the actor's funeral at the
behest of his late wife, she was seen putting flowers onto the actor's grave later that
year. Richard's death wasn't the first time that Elizabeth had lost one of the loves of her life.
Before marrying Eddie Fisher, Elizabeth Taylor had already been married three times. Though
Elizabeth’s first two marriages were short-lived and are nowhere near as
notable as her later ones, her third marriage is the one that seems to have had the biggest
impact on Elizabeth over the course of her lifetime. Elizabeth considered her third
husband Mike Todd to be the true love of her life up until her 2011 death. This stands to reason,
as Mike was the only one of Elizabeth’s spouses that she didn’t get a divorce from. Instead,
Mike was taken from Elizabeth in a fatal and tragic plane crash.
Mike Todd was a film producer, with one of his most notable credits being the 1956 film
Around the World in 80 Days. Elizabeth and Mike married in 1957 after falling deeply in
love early the same year. Sadly, their marriage ended just as fast as it begun, when Mike passed
away in a tragic accident while traveling on his private plane, dubbed "Lucky Liz's".
Although Elizabeth Taylor was married to many different men and had some rocky marriages,
she retained amicable relationships with her ex-husbands. Now it’s time to hear from you:
did you know that all of Elizabeth Taylor’s ex-husbands still remember her fondly, or did you
think that the star’s eight marriages had all ended bitterly? As always, like this
video to show your support, and subscribe and hit the notification bell if you’d
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way!