One of the 20th century’s most iconic power couples, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton made 11 classic films together, including The Taming of the Shrew and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? But more than that, they created a sensation everywhere they went.
They met on the set of Holywood epic Cleopatra and embarked on an illicit affair that captured the world's imagination. Liz was still married to husband number four, Eddie Fisher, when she began her passionate romance with co-star Burton, who was still married to his first wife Sybil Williams.
All eyes were on Taylor, who had become the first woman in the world to earn $1million to play the lusty Egyptian queen opposite Burton as Mark Antony.
The Burtons’ extravagant spending would shock even the most jaded oligarch. Burton once bought a $960,000 jet plane on a whim, after they flew on it to Paris. The couple supported an army of charities, extended family, and staff. They bought property in Puerto Vallarta, Switzerland, and Ireland, and owned the Kalizma, their floating luxe palace. They also owned paintings by Monet, Picasso, Renoir, Rouault, Pissarro, Degas, Augustus John, and Rembrandt.
But their most lavish spending was on jewelry. Taylor had an insatiable love and desire for jewels. “I introduced Elizabeth to beer; she introduced me to Bulgari,” Burton joked.
Too notorious and grand for the normal Hollywood crowd, the couple spent much of their marriage socializing with the European jet set. Though Taylor was comfortable with the aristocrats of the old world, Burton was often bemused and bored.
Burton's private diaries, which were published in 2012, revealed that by 1969 the marriage was fuelled by passionate sex, explosive rows, petty jealousy and worrying amounts of booze.
The writings revealed that both Burton and Taylor consumed excessive amounts of alcohol, which led them to more and more explosive confrontations.
Taylor’s addiction to pills, Burton’s late-stage alcoholism and his affairs with younger actresses, and the couple’s frenetic lifestyle eventually tore the legendary lovers apart. They were divorced in 1974, only to remarry in 1975 and divorce again less than a year later.
