Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton Couldn't Live Together, or Apart. So They Married Twice
A scandal on the set of Cleopatra became Hollywood's most famous on-again, off-again romance.
When Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton met on the set of Cleopatra in Rome in the early 1960s, both were married to other people. Their romance became front-page news around the world, and even the Vatican's newspaper criticized it.
Wedding number one
They married in Montreal in March 1964. They made 11 films together, including Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), which won Taylor her second Academy Award.
Diamonds and drama
Burton famously showered Taylor with jewelry, including the 33-carat Krupp diamond in 1968 and the 69-carat stone later known as the Taylor-Burton diamond in 1969. Their fights were just as famous as their gifts.
Wedding number two
They divorced in 1974. Sixteen months later, in October 1975, they remarried on a riverbank in Botswana. The second marriage lasted less than a year.
Taylor married eight times to seven husbands. Years later she said Burton had been one of the great loves of her life, and the two stayed in touch until his death in 1984.
This story is based on the stars' own interviews and memoirs and on widely reported history. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it.
