< Engagement Rings & Weddings / Celebrity
Elizabeth Taylor’s Engagement Ring Collection Is One for the History Books
Learn all about Elizabeth Taylor’s dazzling diamond engagement rings—from her 10 engagements and eight marriages—ahead of what would have been her 94th birthday this Friday.
Elizabeth Taylor wears her emerald-cut diamond engagement ring alongside Mike Todd arrive from California on November 15, 1956. (Getty Images)
Elizabeth Taylor’s engagement ring collection rivals only her expansive and impressive career. The Academy Award-winning actress was engaged 10 times, married eight (twice to the same person), divorced seven times, and widowed once. While she had suitors proposing to her in droves, Taylor called her third husband, Mike Todd, and her fifth, Richard Burton, the greatest loves of her life.
She once said, “I’ve been astonishingly lucky with love. I’ve had two great loves in my life.” She was also incredibly lucky in natural diamonds. Elizabeth Taylor’s engagement ring collection remains an everlasting symbol of love, beauty, reflecting the rich tapestry of her love life.
Meet the Expert
- Hannah Militano has covered diamond jewelry trends, the fashion industry, pop culture, and celebrity news.
- She holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology.
- As a journalist, her work has been featured in publications such as Editorialist, Carine Roitfeld’s CR Fashion Book, L’Officiel USA, Grazia USA, Coveteur, and more.
Friday marks what would have been the 94th birthday of the Cleopatra actress, who died in March 2011 at age 79. Ahead of her birthday, see Elizabeth Taylor’s stunning assortment of dazzling diamond engagement rings.
1. Elizabeth Taylor’s Engagement Ring From William Pawley Jr.
At just 17, Elizabeth Taylor kicked off her legendary diamond ring collection with her first engagement ring. William Pawley Jr, the son of U.S. Ambassador William D. Pawley, proposed to the actress in 1949 with a cushion-cut diamond engagement ring. However, the couple never made it down the aisle.
2. Elizabeth Taylor’s Engagement Ring From Conrad Hilton Jr.
Conrad “Nicky” Hilton Jr., heir to the famous hotel empire—and Paris Hilton’s great-uncle—proposed to Taylor with a four-carat diamond engagement ring, set in platinum. It was reportedly worth $10,000 (around $110,000 now). The couple tied the knot when Taylor was 18 years old on May 6, 1950, in an MGM-funded wedding at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills. Drawing in huge crowds of paparazzi and adoring fans outside of the church, Gaumont British News dubbed the occasion “Hollywood’s Wedding of the Year.” The pair divorced eight months later.
3. Elizabeth Taylor’s Engagement Ring From Michael Wilding
Elizabeth Taylor’s Engagement Ring from British actor Michael Wilding included a large cabochon sapphire center stone surrounded by a halo of natural diamonds. It was rumored that Liz bought the ring for herself rather than Michael purchasing it for her. A second marriage for both of them, the couple married in London’s Caxton Hall in 1952.
While Wilding was 20 years her senior, Taylor told Life magazine in 1964, that she had married him for “the calm and quiet and security of friendship.” Taylor and Wilding went on to have two sons together, Michael and Christopher. Many believed the demise of the relationship was due to Taylor’s ever-rising career overshadowing his own. The couple divorced in 1957 after five years of marriage.
4. Elizabeth Taylor’s Engagement Ring From Mike Todd
When film producer Mike Todd popped the question to 24-year-old Taylor, he presented her with a massive emerald-cut engagement ring. Because the actress was still married to her second husband, Michael Wilding, at the time, Taylor told the press that it was not an engagement ring, but a 29-carat “friendship ring.”
“When Mike bought me my engagement ring, he said it was 29 and 7/8th carats because 30 would have been vulgar,” Taylor told the press. “I call it my ice skating rink.” The third marriage for both Taylor and Todd, the couple tied the knot in Mexico on February 2, 1957, weeks after she finalized her divorce. Elizabeth Taylor’s engagement ring from Mike Todd remains one of the most talked-about emerald-cut diamonds in history.
I call it my ice skating rink.
Tragically, Todd passed away on March 22, 1958, in a plane crash in New Mexico. He was on his way to receive the “Showman of the Year” award in New York City when the aircraft went down. Taylor had planned to fly with her husband, but decided to stay home at the last minute due to a cold. Their daughter, Liza, was only seven months old. After his death, Taylor continued to wear her engagement ring for years, along with many other diamond jewels he had gifted her during their love affair.
In her 2002 book, My Love Affair with Jewelry, the Hollywood icon wrote, “Mike Todd and I only had thirteen months together, but I now see that Mike’s love was a legacy to me. Mike was amazing: so loving and so unbelievably larger than life.”
5. Elizabeth Taylor’s Engagement Bracelet From Eddie Fisher
Still heartbroken from the death of Mike Todd, Elizabeth Taylor married her late husband’s close friend, crooner Eddie Fisher, on May 12, 1959. Fisher was married to Taylor’s childhood friend, Debbie Reynolds, but divorced her to marry Taylor.
Since the actress continued to wear the ring Todd had given her, Fisher proposed with a bracelet set with 50 natural diamonds. She often paired the bracelet with other jewelry Todd had gifted her. Fisher and Taylor remained married until she began working on the set of Cleopatra in 1962, where she met Richard Burton…
6. Elizabeth Taylor’s Diamonds From Richard Burton
While her engagement rings from previous suitors all turned heads, it was the diamond rings Richard Burton gave Elizabeth Taylor that eclipsed them all by comparison. Known as one of Hollywood’s greatest love affairs, Taylor and Burton’s decades-long romance began in 1962 when the actors met on the set of the film Cleopatra, and the rest is history. Natural diamond jewelry seemed to be the couple’s love language, with Burton often gifting Taylor some of the most exquisite diamonds ever seen.
While Burton was known for adding to Taylor’s jewelry collection, the most iconic has to be the Elizabeth Taylor Diamond, previously known as the Krupp Diamond. Burton purchased the 33.19-carat Asscher-cut Type IIa diamond ring for Taylor in 1968.
While the couple married twice — once in 1964 and again in 1975 — the Elizabeth Taylor Diamond is not the ring Burton technically proposed with. Yet Taylor was said to have worn it nearly every day. It was sold at a Christie’s auction in December 2011 for $8.8 million, according to Forbes.
Richard Burton also acquired the mega 69.42 carat pear-shaped diamond now known as the Taylor-Burton diamond. Again, not technically an engagement ring, the gem was one of the largest pear-shaped diamonds ever to come to market at the time. After Burton expressed interest, Parke-Bernet brought the diamond to the couple, who were vacationing in Switzerland at the time, for a private preview. Taylor wore the diamond both as a necklace and a ring.
While she owned the diamond for less than a decade—selling it in 1979 after divorcing Burton—it is still most commonly referred to as the Taylor-Burton diamond.
7. Elizabeth Taylor’s Engagement Ring From John Warner
Taylor married her seventh husband, Republican politician John Warner, in 1976 after he proposed with an engagement ring including rubies, emeralds, and natural diamonds. The two tied the knot at Warner’s estate in Middleburg, Virginia. Once he was elected to the Senate, the Butterfield 8 actress grew tired of her role as a politician’s wife, and the couple divorced in 1982.
8. Elizabeth Taylor’s Engagement Ring From Victor Luna
Elizabeth Taylor’s Engagement Ring from Mexican attorney Victor Luna featured a 16-carat sapphire surrounded by a halo of natural diamonds. Luna proposed to Taylor in 1983, but the couple called off the engagement and went their separate ways by August 1984. Insisting that the breakup had nothing to do with the death of Richard Burton earlier that month, Taylor’s publicist said at the time, “The couple remarked they will remain strong friends.”
9. Elizabeth Taylor’s Engagement Ring From Dennis Stein
Elizabeth Taylor and New York businessman Dennis Stein shared a brief two-month romance at the end of 1984, during a transitional period in her personal life. Stein presented the actress with a sapphire and natural diamond engagement ring, reportedly set in yellow gold, marking what would become one of her shortest engagements. By February 1985, the couple had called it quits, and the engagement was quietly dissolved.
10. Elizabeth Taylor’s Engagement Ring From Larry Fortensky
Elizabeth Taylor met construction worker Larry Fortensky during a stay at the Betty Ford Center in 1988, where she was receiving treatment for prescription drug dependency. He proposed with the final engagement ring of her collection—a simple pavé diamond eternity band. The couple married at Neverland Ranch, the estate of Michael Jackson, in October 1991. The ceremony reportedly cost Taylor a whopping $2 million. The newlyweds sold their wedding photographs to People for $1 million and used the proceeds to help establish the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. Fortensky and Taylor divorced five years later, in 1996, but remained close until her death in 2011.
