Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton...THEIR STORY

It's hard to think of Elizabeth Taylor without thinking of the fire-and-ice relationship she shared with Richard Burton.  Their love was intense and passionate. The forbidden affair that started on the set of Cleopatra in 1961 between Taylor and Burton, both married to others at the time, is one for the Hollywood history books. The passion and love between the two actors was palpable to all who encountered them on the movie set.  But their torrid affair came with a price -- both personally and professionally.  Burton divorced Sybil Williams, and Taylor ended her marriage to Eddie Fisher, marrying Burton just nine days after her March 1964 divorce from Fisher was finalized.  Many fans disapproved. And while the scandal sent sensational shockwaves around the world, the intensity of the love between the two stars was undeniable. Reputed to be an extravagant spender, Burton proposed to Taylor with a Bulgari pendant, platinum-set with an 18.61-carat emerald surrounded by diamonds.  Designed so that it could be detached

and worn as a brooch, it was the only jewelry Taylor wore, pinned to her dress collar, during their 1964 nuptials.

"I cannot see life without Elizabeth.  She is my everything -- my breath, my blood, my mind, and my imagination." (Richard Burton, per Elizabeth Taylor My Love Affair with Jewelry.)

Burton went on to buy Elizabeth the famous 33.19-carat, Asscher-cut Krupp diamond in 1968, which she had set in platinum.  Just a year later, Burton continued his lavish spree when he acquired for his bride the 69.42-carat, pear-shaped Burton-Taylor diamond.  This flawless, D-colored diamond was subsequently mounted as a pendent on a platinum necklace by Harry Winston.

While the flame ignited between Taylor and Burton was nothing if not fierce, sadly, it did not endure.  The couple divorced in 1974, only to remarry the following year.  However, their second marriage lasted only one year.  The couple divorced for a second time in 1976.

Taylor and Burton appeared in 10 films together and in the 1983 play, Private Lives.  Among the most notable collaboration was Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1966.   

If ever there was a couple about whom it could be said "they couldn't live with, or without, each other," it may very well have been Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.  Burton died in Switzerland in 1984.  Taylor, whose health reportedly keeps her in seclusion, is said to have made plans for her ashes to be scattered in Burton's homeland of Wales upon her death and cremation.  To this day, Taylor is said to wear the 33.19-carat Krupp diamond given to her by Burton, perhaps a symbol of her undying love for him.

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