They weren't just a couple. Honestly, they were a weather event. Long before the era of hashtagged nicknames and Instagram apologies, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor invented the template for the modern celebrity scandal. People call them "Liz and Dick," though she actually hated that name. She preferred Elizabeth. Always.
It started with a coffee cup. Really. On the set of Cleopatra in 1962, a hungover, trembling Richard Burton asked Elizabeth to hold a cup to his lips so he could take a sip without spilling. That was it. She saw the vulnerability behind the Shakespearean bluster, and the world's most expensive train wreck left the station.
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The Affair That Literally Annoyed the Vatican
You have to understand how massive this was. They were both married to other people. Elizabeth was with Eddie Fisher (who she’d famously "stolen" from Debbie Reynolds), and Burton had his wife, Sybil, back in Wales. When the paparazzi caught them on a yacht in Ischia, the world lost its mind.
It wasn’t just tabloid fodder; it was a geopolitical incident. The Vatican’s newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, denounced Elizabeth for "erotic vagrancy." A member of the U.S. Congress even tried to get them banned from entering the country on the grounds of "moral turpitude." Imagine a modern celebrity couple causing a literal act of Congress today. It doesn't happen.
The public was obsessed because their real-life drama mirrored the movies they were filming. They were Antony and Cleopatra. They were George and Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? They weren't just acting; they were living out a loud, drunken, diamond-encrusted psychodrama in front of every camera in Europe.
Why Richard Burton Elizabeth Taylor Couldn't Stop (Or Start)
They married in 1964. They divorced in 1974. Then they remarried in 1975 in Botswana, only to divorce again a year later. It's the classic "can’t live with 'em, can’t live without 'em" cliché, but with much better jewelry.
Burton famously said, "You can't keep clapping a couple of dynamite sticks together without expecting them to blow up." That was their marriage. Dynamite. They lived on a diet of Boizel champagne and Jack Daniel's. Burton’s diaries are filled with entries that swing wildly between worshipping her and wanting to throttle her. He once wrote that she was "the most difficult woman in the world," but followed it up by saying he missed her even if she just went to the bathroom.
The "Le Scandale" Lifestyle
Everything about them was excessive.
- The Travel: They traveled with 156 suitcases. Not a typo.
- The Entourage: They had a small army of bodyguards, assistants, and even a private boat just for their dogs (because they didn't want the pets to go through quarantine).
- The Diamonds: This is what most people remember. Burton didn't just buy her rings; he bought her history.
There was the Krupp Diamond, a 33-carat "skating rink" that she wore while eating fried chicken. Then there was the Taylor-Burton Diamond, a 69-carat pear-shaped monster that cost $1.1 million in 1969. Burton actually lost the auction for it to Cartier initially. He was so furious he called from a payphone in a pub and demanded his lawyer buy it from Cartier no matter the price. He just couldn't stand the idea of someone else owning it for her.
The Professional Price of Passion
A lot of critics, like author Roger Lewis, argue that this relationship actually "destroyed" Burton as a classical actor. Before Elizabeth, he was the next Laurence Olivier. He was the king of the Old Vic. Once he became half of "Liz and Dick," he started doing movies just for the paycheck to fund their $65 million spending sprees.
Elizabeth, conversely, got better. Her work in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is arguably the best of her career. She gained weight, wore a gray wig, and screamed her lungs out at Burton. She won the Oscar. He didn't. That tension—the fading stage legend versus the burgeoning screen icon—was the third person in their marriage.
What really ended it?
Alcoholism played a massive role. You can't drink three bottles of vodka a day and keep a marriage—or a liver—functional. By the time they tried the second marriage in Botswana, it was a ghost of what it had been. Elizabeth reportedly rushed into it after a health scare, seeking the safety of the only man she truly felt "home" with. But you can't go home to a house that's currently on fire.
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The Secret Letter
Even after the second divorce, they never really stopped. They spoke on the phone constantly. When Burton died in 1984, Elizabeth was devastated. She wasn't invited to the funeral in Switzerland because the family feared a media circus, but she did receive a letter he had written her just days before he died.
She kept that letter in her bedside drawer for the rest of her life. She never told anyone exactly what it said, though she hinted it was about him wanting to come home one last time.
How to Look at Their Legacy Today
If you're looking for a "happily ever after," this isn't it. It's a tragedy about two people who were too big for the world and too loud for each other. But there are a few real takeaways from their chaos:
- Separate the Art from the Noise: If you haven't seen Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, watch it. It’s the closest thing we have to a documentary of their actual fights.
- Understand "Celebrity" vs. "Famous": They were the first to realize that their private lives were a commodity. They didn't just have fans; they had witnesses.
- The Power of Provenance: The reason Taylor's jewelry sold for $115 million after her death wasn't just the carats. It was the story. A diamond is just a rock until Richard Burton buys it to apologize for a fight in a hotel lobby.
Next time you see a "Bennifer" or a "Brangelina" headline, just remember that Elizabeth and Richard did it first, did it better, and did it with significantly more expensive diamonds. They proved that sometimes, the most enduring love stories are the ones that don't actually work out.
To really get the full picture, check out the Richard Burton Diaries. It’s the rawest look at their relationship you'll ever find. Or, just watch Cleopatra and look for the moment his hand shakes while holding that coffee cup. It’s all right there.