Inside Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s incredible relationship – from arguments to marrying twice

Elizabeth Taylor walked down the aisle eight times during her life, but the only man she married twice was fellow actor Richard Burton.

The duo, who met while filming 1961’s Cleopatra embarked on a Hollywood-style affair and became one of the golden couples of the era, even acting together in 11 films. The pair were married for ten years before divorcing, and although they ended up reconciling and marrying again, the pair split for the final time after a few months.

Here’s everything you need to know about their two relationships, from when they first crossed paths to their heartbreaking decision to divorce for the second time…

First meeting

Elizabeth and Richard first crossed paths during the filming of 1961’s Cleopatra, and despite the fact that he was a married man, Richard couldn’t help but notice Elizabeth’s beauty. He reportedly whispered to her: “Has anybody ever told you that you’re a very pretty girl?” when they first met.

Elizabeth later joked of the moment: “Here’s the great lover, the great wit, the great intellectual of Wales, and he comes out with a line like that.“

© Michael Ochs Archives

The legendary actress reportedly didn’t initially take to her co-star, however, she fell for while giving him a cup of coffee after Richard was recovering from a hangover.

The star reflected: “He was such a slob, he was such a mess, and I looked into those green eyes that were twinkling and smiling at me and he drank the whole mug and we kept staring at each other.”

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The pair were both married at the time, Elizabeth to singer and actor Eddie Fisher and Richard to actress Sybil Williams. The pair had an incredible chemistry, however, which led to Eddie not visiting the set whenever the duo filmed scenes together.

Affair

Elizabeth and Richard ultimately embarked on an affair, news that ultimately went worldwide, going so far as Elizabeth receiving a condemnation from the Vatican. In a published newspaper, the Vatican described their relationship as an “insult to the nobility of the hearth”.

© The Graham Stark Photographic Li

Conscious of their respective marriages, Elizabeth admitted the pair tried to resist each other. “We did try and resist,” she said. “My marriage with Eddie was over, but we didn’t want to do anything to hurt Sybil.”

First wedding

After the pair divorced from their respective spouses in 1963, Richard proposed to Elizabeth and the duo married on 15 March 1964. At their wedding, the minister even noted: “You have gone through great travail in your love for each other.”

The couple went on to star in several films as husband and wife, including Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, however, their marriage wasn’t always smooth sailing. “We were like magnets, alternately pulling toward each other and, inexorably, pushing away,” she once explained.

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The pair would often argue during their first marriage, with Richard sending many letters to his wife apologising for their fights.

Elizabeth and Richard still weathered the arguments on their tenth anniversary, Elizabeth wrote: “My darling (my still) my husband, I wish I could tell you of my love for you, of my fear, my delight, my pure animal pleasure of you—(with you)—my jealousy, my pride, my anger at you, at times. Most of all my love for you, and whatever love you can dole out to me—I wish I could write about it but I can’t. I can only ‘boil and bubble’ inside and hope you understand how I really feel.

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“Anyway I lust thee, your (still) wife. P.S. O’Love, let us never take each other for granted again! P.P.S. How about that—ten years!”

However, a month after their anniversary, the couple confirmed they would be divorcing.

Second marriage

The pair’s love seemed to remain strong for each other as a year later, they wed in a private ceremony in Botswana for the second time in 1975.

Recounting their second wedding, Elizabeth wrote in her diary: “We exchanged rings, fathomless looks, and were married once again, back where we belonged. Always belonged.“

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However, the pair would go on to divorce once again just ten months later. “I love Richard with every fibre of my soul, but we can’t be together,” Elizabeth said of their relationship.

Richard also reflected: “Elizabeth and I lived on the edge of an exciting volcano. I’m not easy to be married to or live with. I exploded violently about twice a year with Elizabeth. She would also explode. It was marvellous. But it could be murder.”

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Despite their blistering arguments and divorces, the pair still held feelings for one another. Speaking to Vogue, Elizabeth said: “I was still madly in love with him the day he died. I think he still loved me, too.“