Not all of Elizabeth Taylor’s marriages were fairy tales. The late Oscar winner, who married eight times to seven different men, speaks candidly about her experiences in the newly unearthed interviews featured in the documentary Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes, premiering on HBO on August 3.
In a rare interview, Taylor openly discusses her fourth husband, Eddie Fisher, whom she starred with in BUtterfield 8. “I never loved Eddie,” she admits. “I liked him. I felt sorry for him.”
Directed by Nanette Burstein, the documentary features 40 hours of conversations between Taylor, who passed away in 2011 at the age of 79 from congestive heart failure, and journalist Richard Meryman. These tapes span 1964 and 1965, a period when Taylor was at the peak of her fame alongside Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? co-star Richard Burton, whom she married and divorced twice between 1964 and 1976.
Taylor reflects on her relationship with Fisher (who died in 2010 at age 82), noting that she enjoyed talking to him but he was no Mike Todd—her third husband. Todd fathered a child with Taylor, produced the Oscar-winning Around the World in 80 Days, and died in a plane crash just over a year later. Taylor explains that Fisher, being a close friend of Todd’s, shared her grief, leading her to marry him.
However, Fisher was famously married to Debbie Reynolds at the time. Burstein’s film includes footage of Taylor and Fisher signing their marriage certificate just three hours after Fisher’s divorce from Reynolds was finalized in 1959, creating a national scandal.
Five years later, Taylor described her marriage to Fisher as “one big friggin’ awful mistake” in her interviews with Meryman. “Eddie made sure that I felt lonely,” she recalls, likening it to being locked up. “We never went out.”
Taylor recounts her deep depression, admitting she attempted suicide by taking sleeping pills in front of Fisher. “I’d rather be dead than face divorce,” she confesses. “I was fed up with living.”
Reflecting on the incident, Taylor viewed her suicide attempt as “self-indulgent,” noting the horrific impact it would have had on her children. She shared sons Michael Howard and Christopher Edward with her second husband Michael Wilding, daughter Liza Frances with Todd, and daughter Maria McKeown, whom she adopted with Burton.
After premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes will air on HBO on August 3.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741741, or visit 988lifeline.org.
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