Taylor’s fourth husband was responsible for many of the most famous jewels in her collection, including an antique diamond tiara and a ruby and diamond Cartier set. She wore the former to the premiere of her film Around the World in 80 Days at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1957.
Taylor’s subsequent engagements (first with 30-year-old singer Eddie Fisher, then with Burton, whom she married twice) were not accompanied by rings. However, her future husbands didn’t skimp on the jewelry.
When Fisher proposed to the 27-year-old Kennedy Center honoree, he gave her a glamorous bracelet adorned with a row of 50 diamonds. Five years later, the couple divorced, Taylor having found love on the set of Cleopatra with Burton as her co-star.
Second Time’s the Charm
Although her successive marriages toBurton are the best known, Taylor never received an engagement ring from the actor. Instead, he showered her with other jewelry, such as an emerald Bulgari brooch she wore with her wedding dress in 1964. After 10 years of marriage, they divorced for the first time in 1974.
In addition to the famous Taylor-Burton diamond, worth an estimated $1 million, Burton also gave the actress the Krupp diamond (today known as the Elizabeth Taylor diamond) in 1968. Taylor’s estate sold the 33.19-carat stone for $8.8 million in 2011, according to the New York Times.
They remarried in 1975, but their second union lasted just under a year. Nevertheless, Taylor dedicated her 2002 memoir to Burton and her third husband, Todd, calling them “the two greatest loves of my life.”
After her first divorce from Burton, Taylor married future Republican Senator John Warner in an intimate ceremony on his Virginia farm. The politician proposed with a glamorous engagement ring adorned with diamonds, emeralds and rubies. They were married from 1976 to 1982, Taylor resenting the constraints of being a politician’s wife after Warner’s election to the Senate in 1979.
Taylor’s second sapphire engagement ring arrived 31 years after her first. Victor Luna, a lawyer, proposed to her in 1983 with a magnificent 16-carat sapphire. The couple never married, canceling their engagement in August 1984, a few weeks after the death of Taylor’s ex-husband, Burton, at the age of 58.
Two months after the end of her engagement to Luna, Taylor found herself engaged to businessman Dennis Stein. Their engagement, symbolized by a sapphire and diamond ring, lasted only until February 1985, and the flashy jewel was likely returned to Stein.
Taylor married for the last time in 1991, to Larry Fortensky, at Michael Jackson’s Neverland ranch. Prior to their wedding, Fortensky, then aged 39, proposed to the 59-year-old philanthropist with a simple diamond-paved ring. Their marriage lasted five years, ending in 1996.
Originally published in Vanity Fair France.
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