Love Lessons Learned From Liz Taylor

With Elizabeth Taylor's death came the true end of an era. She was an old style Hollywood icon with all the glamour and gossip that entailed, and she amassed bling at a still unbroken rate.

Remarkable more for her beauty and her marriages than for her acting, she nevertheless turned in some memorable performances and won awards for her work. What is more interesting about her than all of the delicious scandals, acting highs and lows, and sad illnesses, however, is her spirit.

She laughed at herself for being in love with love, but she was candid about her abiding appreciation for male companionship and need for it. She may have lived her very public love life messily, but it appears that at least for the moment she really loved the one she was with...until she or they called it quits.

In her defense, the one relatively early husband who may have turned out to be the love of her life, Chicagoan Mike Todd who was a cutting-edge movie producer, was killed in a plane crash. Neither she nor the rest of the world really knew how that story may have otherwise ended.

The Eddie Fisher chapter of her life, involving Debbie Reynolds, was seemingly unforgivable, though rumor has it that the two women eventually made their peace. The Richard Burton years were a saga until themselves. Two such massive egos were destined to fight even before they began their infamous cocktailing, which reportedly was early and often. Clearly there was something between them because as a family lawyer, I have observed many times that where there is that much heat between warring couples, there is also some very real fire.

The passion in her later marriages appeared to pale in significance, but she gamely tried to get it right. In that regard, she's not really that different from anyone else.

Ironically, many of her other life choices were much more admirable and relatable. She chose to stand by her friends with AIDS and to muster her considerable star power to help fund the search for a cure. She endured health crisis after health crisis with dignity and grace, and regrouped when others might have chosen to fade and complain.

She was a greatly underestimated businesswoman who knew how and when to lend her name to a product and how to profit mightily from it. She was a mother, both natural and adoptive, a grandmother and even a great-grandmother. Though there may have been times when it wasn't easy being her child, four of her close kin were with her at the end.

Liz Taylor: she may have never gotten marriage and relationships exactly right, but she had a great capacity for loving and giving. If in the end we are all to be judged on love, she will again be a star!

Share:

Gemma Allen is a partner in Ladden & Allen, Chartered, and has practiced family law for most of her career. Ms. Allen has written more than 50 articles and lectured on topics that include divorce, child support, maintenance, mediation, cohabitation, women and money, and reconciliation. She helps you navigate modern relationships in “Relationship Gems.”