An affair of two huge superstars was described as 'world's biggest scandal' at the time and it even drew comments from religious leaders and politicians.
A grainy set of pictures from Italy in 1963 changed celebrity culture as we know it today. Before that, the term paparazzi was unheard of outside Italy and Hollywood. But soon, it was about to become a global phenomenon. And it also made the extra marital affair of two leading superstars international news with politicians and religious leaders both weighing in.
The picture that made two superstars the most hated on the planet
The year was 1962. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were Hollywood royalty as the highest-paid actor and actress on the planet. They had just started working together on the ambitious historical drama Cleopatra. And rumour mills said that they were seeing each other. The trouble was that both were married – Burton to Sybil Williams and Taylor to Eddie Fisher. The stars kept denying their affair but could not continue for long. The following year, they took a secret vacation to Italy where a paparazzi picture of them relaxing on a yatch blew the lid from the affair. Sociologist Ellis Cashmore has called the publication of the photograph a “turning point”, beginning a new era in which it became difficult for celebrities to keep their personal lives separate from their public images. The picture suddenly turned Burton and Taylor from public sweethearts to public enemies
How the Vatican and US Congress condemned the affair
The affair was global news for the next several weeks, described by many outlets as the biggest scandal in the world. Many international news drowned out in the chaos created by ‘Liz and Dick’. It reached such proportions that even the Catholic Church had to condemn them. The Vatican publicly shamed the two actors for what it described as their ‘erotic vagrancy’. Back home in the US, the Congress (the American legislature or Parliament) faced calls to bar them from re-entering the country and ban them forever.
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor after the scandal
In 1963, Burton divorced his wife and a year later, Taylor also divorced her husband. The two got married on March 15, 1964 in what was described as the ‘wedding of the century’. Their marriage was covered in tabloids and they became even bigger stars afterwards. But it all lasted a little over 10 years when they divorced in 1974. However, the two reconciled and married again, in October 1975. Their second marriage lasted just a few months and Taylor and Burton finally split in July 1976. Burton died in 1984 at the age of 58 and was buried in Switzerland. Taylor married twice after her divorce with Burton but remained single after her final divorce in 1996. She died in 2011 at the age of 79.
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 "Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor")
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