Elizabeth Taylor's Husbands: Inside Her 8 Marriages

Elizabeth Taylor may be known as one of the most iconic actresses of Hollywood’s Golden Age, but the Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? star also made headlines for her high-profile relationships and eight marriages.

Before Elizabeth died from congestive heart failure on March 23, 2011, at the age of 79, the star was married to seven different men (she and actor Richard Burton were married twice).

Closer takes a look back at all eight of her failed marriages.

Conrad Hilton Jr.

The screen legend was 18 the first time she tied the knot. After meeting the hotel heir at Mocambo nightclub in Los Angeles, Elizabeth and Conrad were married at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills on May 6, 1950. However, their marriage was incredibly short-lived, lasting only eight months. According to People, Elizabeth wrote in her autobiography, Elizabeth Takes Off, that Conrad “became sullen, angry and abusive, physically and mentally.” In December 1950, the couple revealed that they were separating, and their divorce was finalized shortly thereafter, reportedly on grounds of mental cruelty.

Michael Wilding

Elizabeth’s second marriage lasted much longer than her first. Only a year after finalizing her first divorce, she wed the British actor — who was 20 years her senior — in a casual ceremony at Caxton Hall in London on February 21, 1952. Their relationship turned romantic after Elizabeth returned to London to film 1952’s Ivanhoe, and they eventually welcomed two sons: Michael Jr. (born in 1953) and Christopher (born in 1955). According to the Elizabeth Taylor Archives, she described Michael as a man who could “take care of me, make me feel good about things, about the world,” adding, “He represented tranquility, security, maturity — all the things I needed in myself.” Their divorce was made final in January 1957.

Mike Todd

The Cleopatra actress married the filmmaker in 1957 in Acapulco after her marriage to her second husband came to an end, and they welcomed one child together, daughter Liza, in 1957. However, their marriage ended in heartbreak when Mike boarded his private plane, The Lucky Liz, to travel to New York during the late hours of March 21, 1958. On March 22, 1958, the plane crashed due to engine failure, killing all four passengers on board. Her marriage to Mike was one of the “happiest” times in her life. “I can tell you that very certainly,” Nanette Burstein, director of the HBO original documentary Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes, exclusively told Closer at the film’s North American premiere on June 11, 2024, during the Tribeca Film Festival. “I think that was her true love. I think that he made her confident. I think he made her feel special. I think she felt like she could do anything in the world and I think he would’ve been and continued to be — he was and would have continued to be — the great love of her life, but then he died in a plane crash.”

Eddie Fisher

After Mike’s tragic death, Elizabeth turned to his good friend, Eddie. However, at the time, the singer was married to Debbie Reynolds — who happened to be the matron of honor at Elizabeth’s wedding to Mike while Eddie was the best man. After Eddie’s divorce from Debbie, he and Elizabeth were married on May 12, 1959. “I was keeping Mike alive by talking about him because Eddie, he was a great friend of Mike’s. That was the only thing we had in common, was Mike,” Elizabeth recalled in the documentary Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes, per People. “I never loved Eddie. I liked him. I felt sorry for him. And I liked talking [to him]. But he was not Mike.” She also revealed, “As a matter of fact, I don’t remember too much about my marriage to him, except it was one big, friggin’ awful mistake. I knew it before we were married and didn’t know how to get out of it.” They divorced in March 1964.

Richard Burton

Famously nicknamed “Liz and Dick,” the Welsh actor was the only man Elizabeth married twice. The two were both married when they filmed 1963’s Cleopatra (she to Eddie, he to Sybil Christopher), but the chemistry between them resulted in both of their divorces and a tumultuous 13-year relationship. They were first married on March 15, 1964, but divorced for the first time in June 1974. They remarried in Kasane, Botswana, on October 10, 1975, but the second marriage lasted less than a year, ending in divorce in July 1976. “Their passion was so strong that it … became almost destruction,” Elizabeth’s longtime photographer Gianni Bozzacchi, author of My Life in Focus: A Photographer’s Journey with Elizabeth Taylor and the Hollywood Jet Set, exclusively told Closer in October 2021. “It was difficult.” After their second divorce, Elizabeth reportedly told a friend, “I don’t want to be that much in love ever again. I gave everything away … my soul, my being, everything.”

John Warner

Elizabeth and the former GOP senator met on a blind date to an embassy party honoring Queen Elizabeth II at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. The two were married in 1976 and divorced in 1982. According to the Associated Press, Elizabeth wrote in her book Elizabeth Takes Off, “I don’t think I’ve ever been so alone in my life as when I was Mrs. Senator, and I don’t blame my ex-husband. He never pretended to be anything but a man devoted to public service, and once that service began in earnest, I had to take a backseat to his constituency.” She added, “I never took it as a personal rejection on John’s part, certainly not on a conscious level. John wasn’t doing anything more or less than what any other senator did. I just couldn’t bear the intense loneliness, the lack of sharing with the person with whom I most wanted to share.”

Larry Fortensky

Elizabeth’s eighth and final marriage to Larry also ended in divorce. After meeting the construction worker at the Betty Ford Center in 1988, she and Larry were married at Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch on October 6, 1991. “Elizabeth was in there for pills, I was in there for beer,” he recalled to the Daily Mail of how they met in the rehab center. “I knew who she was, of course, but I can’t tell you that I remember watching any of her films.” They divorced on October 31, 1996, but remained in contact until Elizabeth’s death in 2011 at age 79. After Elizabeth died, he told the outlet, “I have wonderful memories of my time with Elizabeth and I will treasure her memory forever.”