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“What do you expect from me, sleeping alone?” This comment, made by Elizabeth Taylor in the midst of her affair with Eddie Fisher – he was married to Debbie Reynolds and she was newly widowed – took on a life of its own.
Fourteen years after Taylor died in 2011 at the age of 79, Hollywood’s last great supernova is being dubbed “the first reality star” in the documentary series “Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar,” executive produced by Kim Kardashian and available on Fox Nation.
Taylor Swift also pays homage to the star’s bold romantic spirit in her new song “Elizabeth Taylor,” from Showgirls, which name-checks her purple eyes, favorite romantic locations like Portofino, and her signature scent, White Diamond.
Taylor’s friend, fashion designer Vicki Thiel, tells PEOPLE that it’s no surprise people are still talking about her. “She was the most famous woman on the planet,” Thiel says.
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The two women met in Paris in 1964. Taylor, who was with her fourth husband Richard Burton at the time, wanted to ditch the formal ’50s style of long skirts and classy sheaths.
“She threw away her old clothes, her Dior look, her fitted suits,” Thiel says. “It was very ‘grandma.’” We were now in the ’60s, the sexual revolution. Elizabeth loved it. From then on, she always wore my minidresses. ”
Thiel traveled with her in the late ’60s and early ’70s, spending months with her and her entourage in the finest hotels across Europe filming various films.
“We talked about sex all the time,” she says with a laugh. The star’s favorite partner in bed was “Richard. Absolutely, no doubt about that. The love of her life was Richard,” she revealed.
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“She was so much fun,” Thiel says. “She took sex very lightly. She taught me a lot too. If something bad happens, just roll your eyes and smile and don’t worry about it. She was always smiling and happy. She was a very, very happy person.”
As for Burton, whom Taylor married and divorced twice, Thiel said she held onto him until the end. (He died in 1984 at the age of 58 from a massive brain hemorrhage.)
“Before Richard died, I think it was two days ago, he called me,” Thiel recalls. “He said, ‘I don’t think I’ll live that long. And I wanted you and Ron[Tiel’s then-husband and make-up artist Ron Barclay]to tell Elizabeth that I will always love her the most. I love her forever, and I miss her and love her dearly.'”
Shortly afterward, Thiel visited Taylor at his home in Bel Air. “She’s taking a bath,” she recalls. “She said, ‘Okay, come take a bath.’ So she goes to the bathroom. She has a bathtub, and she has shelves around the bathtub. It’s all diamond-edged frames. They’re not real, but there are gorgeous frames, maybe 20 frames, surrounding the bathtub. It was all pictures of her and Richard.”
Taylor, who co-founded the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) in 1985 and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation in 1991, continues to be a touchstone for new generations with her bold and unapologetic life. She once summed it up this way: “I’ve always been a rebel.”
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Meanwhile, the Elizabeth Taylor Estate, which co-produced the 2024 HBO documentary Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes using hours of interviews from the mid-’60s, is “thrilled” by the endorsement from another Taylor, Swift.
“I feel like she and my mom hit it off,” said Taylor’s son Christopher Wilding. “They’re both the epitome of female empowerment.”
