Elizabeth Taylor’s Marriage to Eddie Fisher a ‘Friggin Mistake’
A new documentary sheds light on the tumultuous personal life of Hollywood icon Elizabeth Taylor, revealing her candid thoughts on her marriage to singer Eddie Fisher. The documentary, “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes,” premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 11 and features never-before-heard audio recordings of Taylor discussing her seven marriages.
Taylor, who passed away in 2011, is brutally honest about her relationships in the documentary. She recounts her experiences with her husbands, including Conrad Hilton Jr., who she claims abused her during pregnancy, and Michael Wilding, who she felt wasn’t dominant enough for their relationship to survive.
However, Taylor is particularly harsh when discussing her fourth husband, Eddie Fisher. Fisher, who was previously married to actress Debbie Reynolds and is the father of “Star Wars” actress Carrie Fisher, had an affair with Taylor while still married to Reynolds. Taylor admits in the documentary, “I never loved Eddie. I liked him. I felt sorry for him. And I liked talking to him. But he was not Mike.”
Mike Todd, Taylor’s third husband and an Oscar-winning producer, died in a plane crash in 1958. Taylor reveals that her connection to Fisher was primarily through their mutual grief over Todd’s death. “I was keeping Mike alive by talking about him. Because Eddie, he was a great friend of Mike’s,” she says. “That was the only thing we had in common, was Mike.”
The marriage between Taylor and Fisher was short-lived and fraught with issues. They married just three hours after Fisher’s divorce from Reynolds was finalized, but Taylor quickly realized the union was a mistake. “As a matter of fact, I don’t remember too much about my marriage to him, except it was one big, friggin’ awful mistake,” Taylor confesses. “I knew it before we were married and didn’t know how to get out of it.”
Their marriage lasted four years, ending in 1964, two years after Taylor began an affair with her “Cleopatra” co-star Richard Burton. Once her divorce from Fisher was finalized, Taylor married Burton just 10 days later.
The documentary also touches on Taylor’s other marriages and her life after her seventh husband, Larry Fortensky. After their split in 1996, Taylor largely withdrew from public life until her death in 2011.
“Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes” offers a raw and unfiltered look at Taylor’s life, presenting her own words through a series of interviews with journalist Richard Meryman. The documentary provides a revealing portrait of one of Hollywood’s most enduring stars, who was known for her beauty, talent, and tumultuous personal life.
Taylor’s reflections on her marriage to Fisher highlight the complexities of her relationships and the emotional struggles she faced. Despite her many marriages and public persona, Taylor’s candid admissions in the documentary show a woman who made mistakes and lived with the consequences.
The documentary is set to stream on HBO Max starting August 3, offering fans and viewers a chance to hear Taylor’s story in her own voice. The revelations about her marriage to Fisher add a new layer to the understanding of Taylor’s life and legacy, showing that even Hollywood legends have their regrets and moments of vulnerability.
