Not all of Elizabeth Taylor’s marriages were filled with happiness. The late Oscar winner, famously married eight times to seven husbands, reveals her true feelings in newly unearthed interviews featured in the documentary “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes,” debuting on HBO on August 3.
In candid conversations, Taylor speaks about her fourth husband, Eddie Fisher, with surprising frankness. “I never loved Eddie,” she admits. “I liked him. I felt sorry for him.” The documentary, directed by Nanette Burstein, includes 40 hours of conversations between Taylor and journalist Richard Meryman, recorded in 1964 and 1965 when Taylor was at the height of her fame alongside Richard Burton, her co-star in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and husband in two separate marriages.
Elizabeth Taylor Attempted Suicide During ‘Awful’ Eddie Fisher Marriage, New Doc Reveals: ‘Fed Up with Living’ https://t.co/QcJ0Te8UJS
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Taylor’s reflections on her relationship with Fisher, who passed away in 2010, reveal that she “liked talking” to him but he was not comparable to her third husband, Mike Todd. Todd, who produced the Oscar-winning “Around the World in 80 Days,” fathered a child with Taylor before tragically dying in a plane crash just over a year after their marriage. Taylor explains in “The Lost Tapes” that she married Fisher, a friend of Todd’s, caught up in their shared grief.
This marriage to Fisher, who was famously married to Debbie Reynolds before Taylor, led to a national scandal. Burstein’s film shows footage of Taylor and Fisher signing marriage certificates just three hours after Fisher’s divorce from Reynolds was finalized in 1959.
Five years later, Taylor describes her marriage to Fisher as “one big friggin’ awful mistake” in her interviews with Meryman. She recalls feeling lonely and confined, saying, “Eddie made sure that I felt lonely. We never went out.” The loneliness drove Taylor to a suicide attempt, where she took sleeping pills “deliberately, calmly and in front of Eddie.” She recounts, “I’d rather be dead than face divorce. I was fed up with living.”
Reflecting on the incident, Taylor later saw her suicide attempt as “self-indulgent,” particularly due to its impact on her children. She shared sons Michael Howard and Christopher Edward with her second husband Michael Wilding, daughter Liza Frances with Todd, and adopted daughter Maria McKeown with Burton.
Elizabeth Taylor’s lost tapes expose ‘awful’ marriage and suicide attempt with Eddie Fisher https://t.co/76HhV5OA3n
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Following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes” will air on HBO on August 3, offering a profound and personal glimpse into Taylor’s turbulent marriages and the emotional struggles she faced.
Key Points:
- Elizabeth Taylor discusses her unhappy marriage to Eddie Fisher in newly released interviews.
- She reveals she married Fisher out of shared grief for her late husband, Mike Todd.
- Taylor describes the marriage as a mistake and recalls feeling confined and lonely.
- Her struggles included a suicide attempt driven by depression and loneliness.
- The documentary “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes” premieres on HBO on August 3.
Lap Fu Ip – Reprinted with permission of Whatfinger News
