Elizabeth Taylor: A Mask for Each Wedding Ring

If you know one thing about Old Hollywood icon Elizabeth Taylor, it's that she had a lot of husbands. Each marriage had distinct characteristics, but the biggest difference was the roles Elizabeth took on. Although a clear Aphrodisian Woman, much of Elizabeth Taylor's lifetime was trying to find acceptance in playing the role of another woman both on and off screen.

For each man in her life, Elizabeth engaged in the practice of masking herself in another archetype rather than the seductress she was at heart.

You cannot change your archetype. However, you can dress up in others. People wear cultural and ideological masks to hide their true nature.

Aphrodisian Women primarly wear four major masks:

1. The angel - “the good girl” as expressed as a doting matriarch, geisha, or pastor’s wife
2. The rebel - the bad girl who acts out behaviors others see as immoral: a girl boss, proudly childless single woman, or sexually liberated seductress
3. The martyr - using selflessness as a means of ego as a healer, teacher, philanthropist, or matchmaker
4. The siren - a black widow who takes the form of an actress, model, trophy wife, or even cougar.

Liz was just eighteen years when she said "I do" to hotel heir Nicky Hilton in 1950. The nuptials overlapped with the release of her wedding-themed flick, Father of the Bride. MGM picked up the tab for her $3,500 gown (worth over $43,000 today), overusing their celebration as a promotion for the movie. The affair was a spectacle, with 600 guests and over 3,000 fans surrounding the church.

But just like the wedding, the marriage was more of a performance than a real connection. The couple split after less than a year of marriage. 

Elizabeth later admitted she was "very naive" going into the wedding. At that stage in Elizabeth's life, the wife was a glamorous role she was determined to be cast as. Nicky Hilton was a renowned playboy, gambler, and heir to millions. She was still in high school when they dated. 

Reality broke through on their honeymoon, where Hilton spent all night gambling with other women. He hated being called Mr. Taylor and spending quality time with his new bride. Elizabeth consoled herself with shopping binges, filling her lovelessness with materialism. Eventually, she realized she was not well suited for this lonely part and moved out.

Elizabeth declared that Hilton was ”indifferent to me and used abusive language.” Mrs. Hilton won her first divorce on the grounds of mental cruelty, refused alimony, then took back her maiden name.

A common mask that an Aphrodisian Woman wears is that of the sweet angel. Behind these masks can live a dangerously seductive, femme fatale strategic player. This facade lures influential, unexpecting people to her. 

During her first marriage, Elizabeth wore the mask of an Angel in the house of Hera, the goddess of the home, hearth, and motherhood. This mask represents the devoted wife and the doting mother. She fulfills the feminine image many expect of women, particularly in 1950s.

However, this is more of a performative practice than a maternal calling. 

She wants everyone to see and believe she is a successful wife. The goal is to be a source of envy, rather than invest in a reciprocal relationship behind closed doors.

A year after divorcing Nicky Hilton, Elizabeth married British actor Michael Wildling, who was 20 years her senior. The actress reportedly found their age gap appealing, as she wanted "the calm and quiet and security of friendship" from their relationship. Likely, she was burned out from Hilton's young playboy lifestyle.

In their five-year marriage, they welcomed two sons. 

During this time, Elizabeth fell even deeper into the mask of Hera, a proud homemaker and now mother.

In my experience, an Aphrodisian Woman masking as a Hera-type angel is the perfect soccer mom. She always speaks up at the PTA meetings about how concerned she is about something. Over dinner every night, promptly at 6 pm six, she subtly lets everyone know how successful she is as a mother. She lists her children’s successes and claims them as her own. 

She sees her children as a reflection of who she is; a personal accomplishment.

At this point, Elizabeth's film career truly took off, bolstered by the support of the marriage. However, things fell apart when Elizabeth discovered Michael was having strippers over their home while she was on set.

The same year she ended things with Michael, Elizabeth met, got pregnant with, and married producer Mike Todd. His film, Around The World in 80 Days, had just won Best Picture. Unlike her past two husbands, he was self-made, and he was the only man she didn’t divorce. 

He also was over 20 years her senior. Todd spoiled Elizabeth with her choice of jewels and immense extravagance, which she adored. Her career was flourishing, and he helped her along.

During this time, Elizabeth took on the mask of "the siren" in the house of Hera, exchanging love, devotion, and sexuality for lavishness, fame, and professional success. Elizabeth masterfully harnessed "Hera" qualities to extract her desires, and carved out a relationship that was in her interest.

However, only a year into their marriage, Todd was traveling in his private plane, named The Lucky Liz, after his wife. It suffered engine failure and crashed, killing him.

But Elizabeth’s angelic public image was fading. After becoming a widow, she began an affair with the pop artist and teen idol Eddie Fisher, Michael Todd’s best friend. At the time, Fisher was still married to the famed actress Debbie Reynolds.  Before Todd’s death, the four often went on double dates. Fisher was the best man in Elizabeth’s wedding, and Reynolds was her matron of honor. Reynolds even named her son after Elizabeth’s husband. Four weeks later, he was dead. Oh, and Elizabeth had been best friends with Deb since they were teenagers! 

Think of the betrayal – and how the media pounced on the scandal.

After Liz and Fisher went public with the affair, the world was stunned. Eddie was declared a philandering, opportunistic scumbag, and Elizabeth was labeled a home-wrecking slut. The media deemed Reynolds the innocent, unsuspecting victim  and embraced her with love and sympathy by the media.

However, Reynolds expressed sympathy for her former best friend. She agreed to a quick divorce and never spoke out publicly against Elizabeth. 

“A man doesn’t leave a woman for another woman unless he wants to go," Reynolds said in retrospect. "You know, when Mike Todd died, I sent Eddie to help Elizabeth. I don’t think she ever really loved Eddie. He was an interim interest during her mourning period.” 

It seems even she recognized that Elizabeth was slipping into a mask – a copying mechanism to the traumas of life.

During her marriage to Eddie Fisher, Elizabeth wore the mask of Siren in the House of Aphrodite. While previously she had evoked the image of a homemaker, even if it was in exchange for a life of status and luxury, she now was fine being perceived as "the other woman." She used her sexuality to lure a man away from his wife on a public stage, and disposed of him when she caught a bigger fish. 

The Siren in the House of Aphrodite charactersitically use their appearance and overt sexuality as a magnet, drawing both men and women into her orbit. As an actress or model, an Aphrodisian Woman is accorded license to be demonstrably extravagant and over the top. These are expected and essential components of her magnetism.

We see this in how the scandal and publicity helped Elizabeth’s career - giving her a higher salary for pictures. In 1960, she scored her first Oscar. However, Fisher lost his wife, TV series, and numerous gigs due to morality clauses. Most of all he never recovered his heartthrob image.

Although Fisher was a bandaid for Elizabeth’s mourning, she outgrew him professionally and began an affair with Richard Burton – an even bigger star.

Elizabeth met her fifth husband – commonly deemed the love of her life – on the set of Cleopatra. They were both still married to other people. 

They didn’t bother to hide their affair, brazenly letting paparazzi catch them on a yacht in Ischia. They refused to care about public scrutiny, even when they were condemned by the Vatican and on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Like Elizabeth's past husbands, Burton was also extravagant, infamously giving her a million-dollar necklace.

After being publicly clobbered for her affair with Fisher, Elizabeth took on the mask of a rebel. She abandoned the good girl image and, in fact, was in your face about trashing it. Elizabeth started taking acting roles of sharp-tongued women rebelling against men and gender roles. Her portrayals in Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, The Taming of the Shrew, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf have become some of her most iconic. Although these films have brash female leads, their storyline centers around the taming of a goddess of sex and winning her into the sanity of conventional life. At the time, Burton was her primary collaborator. 

Although when Elizabeth met Burton nine years before, she dubbed him “vulgar,” now she was head over heels for him. She and Burton had years of extravagance, turmoil, scandal, and endless bottles of booze.

While still married to Elizabeth, Eddie Fisher called his home only for Burton to answer the phone. “What are you doing in my house?” he asked. “What do you think I’m doing?” Burton answered. “I’m fucking your wife.”

Long-term, the mask of a rebel was ungratifying for Elizabeth. She attempted suicide twice during the filming of Cleopatra. The couple got into screaming matches in public and private.

“I will accuse her of being ugly. She will accuse me of being a talentless son of a bitch,” Burton said of that time. “I love arguing with Elizabeth.” 

Alcohol and jealousy consumed their marriage, with Elizabeth even chasing a woman Burton invt up to his dressing room with a broken vodka bottle. However, he carried on affairs anyway. So she carried on an addiction to pills. When they divorced – for a year – and remarried – for another year, Elizabeth said “I don’t want to be that much in love ever again.… I gave everything away…my soul, my being, everything.”

However, Elizabeth and Burton kept in contact. Later in life, Elizabeth announced she'd would like to marry him a third time, claiming “we were always madly and powerfully in love.”

 "After Richard, the men in my life were just there to hold the coat, to open the door," Elizabeth continued. "All the men after Richard were really just company."

Elizabeth, like many women, conflated frustration and passion with love. However, it was betrayal, abuse, chemical dependency, and even mental illness.

In the aftershock of Richard Burton, Elizabeth got into her sixth husband, senator John Warner, and into politics in general. Rejecting her years of materialism, she focuses on helping the downtrodden. She became a philanthropist, establishing the American Foundation for AIDS Research, partly motivated by the death of her friend Rock Hudson from the disease. She traveled the world as an advocate.

During this marriage, Elizabeth took on the persona of a martyr – a political advocate in Washington. However, she wasn't anonymously helping the needy. She wanted credit and positive publicity for her good works. She became the prototype of a celebrity activist.

After years of her image being tarnished, Elizabeth wanted everyone to know she’s a moral, giving woman. Her gifts are never anonymous. The distinctions are intrinsic to her life. The martyr mask loves to believe that it is above the material world, selfless, and its only importance is helping. her selflessness is not what it seems to be; it may appear as a lack of ego, but in fact, it is a subtle form of ego.

An Aphrodisian Woman wearing this mask pretends to not care about the accolades that come with altruism but actually, that is the very source of where she gains her self-esteem. The mask of the martyr always wishes to hide the “I,” the ego. But selfishness means for self; it is not a dirty word.

However, Elizabeth soon became bored with her martyr performance, sliping into alcoholism, drug dependency, and her seventh divorce.

Elizabeth’s final marriage – and divorce – was with Larry Forentsky, a construction worker she met in rehab. 

Although you can say this showed she abandoned her materialistic ways, the couple did sell their wedding photos for $1 million. However, she did (publicly) donate the money to AIDS advocacy, so she developed more generosity along the way. 

They divorced after five years, but instead of her past tumultuous fall-outs, they stayed in touch until she died in 2011.

She was someone very driven by finding true love, however, did not have privacy to make mistakes or the self-awareness of figuring out who was right for her. Elizabeth loved extravagance, but she had enough independence to never rely on a former lover for her financial needs to be met; she simply looked to the next man.

Elizabeth was smart, beautiful, and talented. But she was addict. That destroyed her ability to find a healthy romantic relationship.

I would work with her to escape her addictions and analyze her romantic relationships in logical terms. Okay, he’s a charming bad boy or a high-power alpha, but can he truly make you happy? Is he relationship material?

Many women have the same romantic struggles as Elizabeth; they believe that if a romance is full of drama, it must be love. You have two choices with a tumultuous relationship: you need to fix the source of conflict or leave. Many people think that they should stick it out, but growth sometimes means acknowledging and letting go. 

I wouldn’t let her marry Richard Burton a third time! 

You have to know a man through at least four seasons before you marry him: at least date them a year before asking for a ring. Oh, and if you’re going to get married eight times, make sure you take advantage and wear a great wedding dress to each.