Elizabeth Taylor Fell For Richard Burton After One ‘Vulnerable’ Move

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s love affair was unlike anything that had come before it.

The iconic couple — who married twice, from 1964 to 1974, and then again from 1975 to 1976 — came into each other’s orbits while both were in other relationships. Taylor was married to Eddie Fisher at the time, while Burton was married to Sybil Williams.

In Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar, a three-part BBC documentary series about the actress, those closest to her recall what it was like to see the shift in her life unfolding.

“My mother was still married to Eddie Fisher. I think she was unhappy,” son Christopher Wilding says in the second episode, which aired Oct. 4. “It wasn’t a normal situation, and at that time, her attitude was, ‘F— it. I’m going to do it my way, and if you don’t like it, too bad.”

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In a voice over using an old recorded interview, Taylor recalls when Burton was cast as Antony to her Cleopatra in the 1963 flop Cleopatra.

“The first day on the set, he was hungover and very vulnerable and his hands were shaking,” Taylor says. “He asked me to hold a coffee cup up to his lips, and I was gone.”

Jorjanne Strumme, Taylor’s assistant and friend, recalls the relationship between them happening “in such a passionate way,” adding, “It was galvanic and explosive and undeniable.”

The connection came as no surprise to actress Joan Collins, who knew about Burton’s on-set ways firsthand.

“His reputation is that he slept with all of his leading ladies. All actors made passes at actresses — they took it as their divine right,” she explains of the time. “So when he made a pass at me [on the set of 1957’s Sea Wife], I rejected him, and he said, ‘You can’t do that, you’re breaking my record.’ ”

It wasn’t long before Taylor and Burton’s affair became public knowledge. “There was obviously something going on with Richard and Elizabeth, and Eddie knew about it,” Collins recalls.

“I remember it was a big dinner. Burton was there, and it was all extremely uncomfortable. Eddie was trying to make up with this Cartier bracelet, and she kind of tossed it aside. I said, ‘I’ll have it,’ ” Collins says with a laugh.

“Everybody was appalled because it was just so obvious. Eddie Fisher, he was just looking very crestfallen and beaten — a beaten man.”

Part 3 of Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar airs Oct. 11 on the BBC.