Elizabeth Taylor’s infamous affair with Cleopatra co-star Richard Burton ensued a century of scandal! Among the people who scrutinized their relationship was Elizabeth’s father, Francis Taylor. In her newly unearthed old interviews, featured in Nanette Burstein’s documentary Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes, the actress revealed her father’s dislike of her relationship.
“My father called me a w****,” she said in one of the tape conversations recorded from 1964 through 1965. When she decided to leave her fourth husband, Eddie Fisher, because she fell in love with Burton, people were quick to lash out. “I met such opposition from everyone,” she said on the tapes.
The duo met while working on Cleopatra, where she played the title role, and he played Mark Antony when they were both in separate marriages—Elizabeth with Fisher and Burton with Sybil Christopher. In 1962, the first press coverage of their love affair broke out, and unprecedented public criticism followed.
“The Vatican newspaper had come out with an item saying that I was so despicable. Elizabeth said on the tapes. “My own children should be taken away from me, an attack that really — well, it made me vomit.” The actress also revealed that she revealed threats of violence and recalled it as a “horrendous week.”
When she was asked whether she felt guilty about leaving Fisher for Burton and causing Mayhem, she replied affirmatively. “Oh, yes. Especially about Richard’s children. We both do, having inflicted such awful pain,” she said.
Burton shared two daughters, Kate and Jessica, with ex-wife Christopher. Elizabeth also shared sons, Michael Howard and Christopher Edward, with her second husband, Michael Wilding, plus a daughter, Liza Frances, with her third husband, Mike Todd. Elizabeth and Burton together adopted Maria McKeown.
When journalist Richard Meryman asked her whether she’s worried about the divine retribution of her actions, she said they would do their penance on earth by the order of the universe.
Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and is now streaming on Max and HBO.
