By the time 30-year-old star Elizabeth Taylor met Welsh actor Richard Burton on the set of Cleopatra in the early 60s, she was married to her fourth husband, Eddie Fisher. She had “stolen” the crooner from his wife Debbie Reynolds.
But a year or so later, it was goodbye Eddie and hello Richard. Liz ditched Eddie and married Richard in 1964.
It is hard to imagine, in pre-social media times, how large the jet-setting, partying, devil-may-care couple loomed in the media. They were “Liz and Dick”, the most famous couple in the world.
They were larger than life, the Jay-Z and Beyoncé of their day. And so nobody was surprised when in 1968 Richard Burton bought the 33.19 carat Krupp Diamond ring for Liz. It became known as “The Elizabeth Taylor Diamond”.
Here’s the story behind “Liz and Dick”, Cleopatra and that very special diamond ring.
Liz And Dick
When Taylor met Burton in the early 60s on the set of the lavish Cleopatra she had been making movies for nearly twenty years. Her big break came in 1944 with the horsey melodrama National Velvet. She had gone on to star in hit films such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and the steamy Butterfield 8.
And at the age of 30, she was already on her fourth husband, Eddie Fisher, having (literally) stolen him from Debbie Reynolds. His daughter Carrie Fisher was only around 3-years-old when he walked out.
Cleopatra was a lavish, big-budget affair that starred Taylor as the queen herself and Burton as her Roman lover Mark Anthony. There was lots of up close and personal time and rumors soon started making the rounds that the two were having an affair. They were.
Well, by 1964 Liz had ditched Eddie Fisher and married Richard Burton. Theirs was a passionate, yet turbulent marriage marred by his drinking and her insecurity. They divorced in 1974 and then remarried briefly in 1975. Believe it or not, Taylor was married a total of eight times to seven different men, including twice to Richard Burton.
Enter The Krupp Diamond
When they married, Liz had already begun amassing what was to become one of the largest private jewelry collections in the world. So, it was no surprise when in 1968 Burton bought Liz the Krupp Diamond at an auction in New York for $307,000.
The ring quickly became one of Taylor’s favorite pieces.
It was called the Krupp Diamond because it had been wned by Vera Krupp, the wife of German industrialist Alfred Krupp. Vera had ԁıеԁ in 1967 and the ring was sold off as part of her estate.
Not much is known about the history of the diamond and the ring, but it was likely cut and set before the 1920s. And the other thing to remember is that it is a clear, nearly flawless stone.
After parting from Burton, Taylor married two more times and made one of her final public appearances at her close friend Michael Jackson’s funeral in 2009. After the 79-year-old Taylor ԁıеԁ in 2011, Christie’s auctioned off her personal effects. And when the gavel came down on what was by then known as “The Elizabeth Taylor Diamond”, it sold for nearly $9 million.
Rather boringly, it was purchased by a South Korean conglomerate called E-Land. All in all, Liz’s jewelry collection fetched some $157 million at the auction!
And it probably now graces the finger of a Korean mogul’s significant other.
