Elizabeth Taylor’s husbands: All about the starlet’s 7 grooms

Elizabeth Taylor became known for many things: those violet-colored eyes, a successful transition from child star to movie icon, multiple Academy Awards, her devotion to AIDS-related causes.

Perhaps most of all, though, people remember Taylor as a woman who walked down the aisle eight times. Over the course of her life, Taylor married seven men, tying the knot with one of them twice.

In “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes,” now streaming on Max, the starlet again takes center stage, this time with the actress narrating her own story. But before you hit play on the compelling film, let’s revisit the golden girl’s multiple “I do’s.”

Ahead, a list of Elizabeth Taylor’s seven husbands.

Conrad Hilton Jr. (1950-51)

According to a 1996 article in Entertainment Weekly, Elizabeth Taylor had already been engaged and un-engaged to two men (football player Glenn Davis and money man Bill Pawley) by the time she met Conrad Hilton Jr., the hotel chain heir and future great-uncle to Paris and Nicky Hilton, at a Los Angeles nightclub in 1949.

The two dated while Taylor finished high school. After graduation, she began filming the MGM production “Father of the Bride.”

When Taylor and Hilton decided to marry, the studio used the event as a way to promote its movie, footing the wedding bill, including the $3,500 price tag on a satin dress created by Helen Rose, the designer behind the dress Grace Kelly wore when she tied the knot with Prince Rainier III of Monaco.

Shortly after their vows, cracks in the marriage began to show. Hilton reportedly had a drinking problem, and the two didn’t have much in common, Alexander Walker wrote in his 2001 book, “Elizabeth: The Life of Elizabeth Taylor.”

In her 1988 autobiography, “Elizabeth Takes Off,” Taylor wrote that Hilton became “sullen, angry and abusive, physically and mentally,” and The New York Times noted in a 2002 profile of the actress that Hilton beat Taylor so violently she miscarried.

Eight months after their wedding, Taylor was granted a divorce on the grounds of mental cruelty. Per People, Hilton died of a heart attack in 1969.

Michael Wilding (1952-57)

Wilding and Taylor originally met in 1948 while filming “The Conspirator” in England, and began a relationship when she returned to the country to film “Ivanhoe” in 1951, Walker wrote.

He was 20 years her senior, a fact she rather liked. After Hilton, she wanted “the calm and quiet and security of friendship,” she told Life magazine in 1964.

It was the second marriage for both of them. Together, they welcomed two sons: Michael Wilding Jr. (born in 1953) and Christopher Wilding (born 1955).

But as she grew more mature and became more confident — and his career began to fade — they had problems, Walker wrote. He added that while she was filming “Giant” in 1955, a gossip magazine claimed her husband had strippers visit their home.

The Washington Post’s 1979 obituary (Wilding died after a fall in his country home) reported that Taylor considered their split a “friendly divorce.”

Mike Todd (1957-58)

Mike Todd — who was 25 years Taylor’s senior when they wed — was probably her first real true love.

“God, I loved him,” she wrote in “Elizabeth Takes Off.” “My self-esteem, my image, everything soared under his exuberant, loving care.”

They wed in Acapulco, Mexico, where she wore a hooded white dress. As for the ring, it was an emerald-cut diamond stunner Taylor called her “ice skating rink,” according to Vogue.

Shortly after their wedding, their daughter, Liza, was born.

In 1958, Todd died in a plane crash while Taylor was filming “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” But she found solace in her career. Acting, she told Life, was “the only time I could function.”

“I honestly didn’t think I would survive and didn’t much care if I did not,” she wrote in her book.

Eddie Fisher (1959-64)

Eddie Fisher was a friend of Taylor’s and Todd’s. The two sought comfort from one another after Todd’s death, and eventually fell in love. Their affair became even more of a scandal because Fisher was married to actress Debbie Reynolds at the time, per People.

Fisher and Taylor married in a Las Vegas synagogue, with the bride wearing a green silk hooded dress, Getty Images revealed.

“It was a typical two-rabbi Jewish ceremony,” Fisher wrote in his 1999 autobiography, “Been There, Done That.” “As usual, Elizabeth was late for her own wedding.”

In 1983, Reynolds told People, “A man doesn’t leave a woman for another woman unless he wants to go. You know, when Mike Todd died, I sent Eddie to help Elizabeth. I don’t think she ever really loved Eddie. He was an interim interest during her mourning period.”

In the Max documentary, Taylor calls her marriage to Fisher a “big, friggin’ awful mistake.” The pair’s relationship ended when Taylor fell in love with her “Cleopatra” co-star, Richard Burton.

Fisher and Taylor divorced in 1964.

Richard Burton (1964-74; 1975-76)

Though Richard Burton had seen Taylor at a Hollywood party in 1953, sparks didn’t fly between them until they met on the set of “Cleopatra,” where she played the title role opposite his Mark Antony. Both were married at the time.

“I’ve always admitted that I’m ruled by my passions, and I can’t pretend I didn’t know what I was doing when I became involved with Richard,” Taylor wrote in her autobiography.

According to 2009’s “Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and the Marriage of the Century,” by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger (excerpted by Vanity Fair), Fisher called his home one time and Burton answered.

“What are you doing in my house?” Fisher asked.

“What do you think I’m doing?” Burton answered. “I’m f------ your wife.”

The affair, which Taylor and Burton did not bother to hide while filming in Italy, drew anger from the pope, who issued a proclamation in the Vatican newspaper that accused them of “erotic vagrancy,” author Roger Lewis told People. Lewis borrowed the phrase for the title of his 2024 book, “Erotic Vagrancy: Everything About Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.”

In 1964, Taylor and Burton married. Taylor wore a floral headpiece, along with a yellow chiffon babydoll dress, designed by “Cleopatra” costumer Irene Sharaff, per Vogue.

The pair became famous as much for their clashes as their expensive habits.

“Richard loses his temper with true enjoyment. It’s beautiful to watch,” Taylor said, according to the excerpt of “Furious Love.” “Our fights are delightful screaming matches, and Richard is rather like a small atom bomb going off.”

In 1974, the marriage fizzled. A year later, however, they reignited the spark. This time, Taylor wore an ombré green gown and adorned her hair with feathers. The two said their vows in Africa, Vogue reported. But they divorced again a year later.

“When you are in love and lust like that,” Taylor would say in 1973 according to Vanity Fair, “you just grab it with both hands and ride out the storm.”

John Warner (1976-1982)

The first time Taylor met John Warner was when the aspiring Virginia senator was tasked with escorting the starlet to a dinner hosted by Queen Elizabeth II at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., People reported.

Taylor liked that Warner had a horse farm.

“I think she fell in love with the farm, and I guess I came along with the horses,” he quipped to the publication.

The two married in 1976, with Taylor wearing fur and a turban-style headpiece, Vogue reported.

In 1978, Warner was elected as senator and served five terms, from 1979 to 2009, according to his biography in the Congress directory. The demanding role, it seemed, left a mark on their marriage.

“He knows he wasn’t the love of my life,” Taylor told the Times in 2002. “And I know I wasn’t the love of his life. But we loved each other. We got along wonderfully until he decided to be a politician. And then he married the Senate.”

They drifted apart and separated, but remained friendly. Sometimes he even took her to events and had occasional conversations.

“We always used to sign off, ‘Hey man, until we talk again,’” Warner told People. “She was always very informal.”

Larry Fortensky (1991-96)

Taylor’s final marriage was to a regular guy. Larry Fortensky, according to IMDb, was 20 years her junior, a high school dropout, and a construction worker. The two met at the Betty Ford Clinic.

In 2011, Fortensky spoke with People about meeting Taylor for the first time.

“I knew who she was, of course, but I can’t tell you that I remember watching any of her films,” he said. “She was funny and sweet, and the more I got to know her, the sweeter she became.”

Their 1991 wedding was a spectacle attended by celebrities and hosted by Michael Jackson, who walked Taylor down the aisle with her son Michael, People reported. She wore a tiered lace Valentino gown for the wedding, which Forbes estimated to cost $2 million.

But regular-guy Fortensky wasn’t ready for the spotlight.

“Those cameras everywhere,” he told People. “Elizabeth was used to it. I never got used to it.”

After the pair divorced, they remained friends.

In 2007, The Associated Press asked Taylor if she’d marry again. Her over-the-top reaction was so incredible she became a meme before memes took over the zeitgeist.

“Married!” she screeched. “Nooooo!”

She kept her word. Taylor remained unmarried until her death in 2011.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com