If you think you know everything there is to know about Elizabeth Taylor, think again. An explosive new documentary reveals details about the Hollywood legend's private life that will leave you agog.
Taylor had tempestuous marriages - eight of them to seven gentlemen, to be exact. One was to popular crooner Eddie Fisher. Per FoxNews.com, the HBO documentary Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes claims that Fisher threatened her with a gun and that she was so miserable that she was on the brink of suicide.
This grim scenario is so at odds with what many of us know about this flamboyant goddess who ruled the box office, won two Academy Awards, owned a museum-worthy collection of priceless jewels and was a generous and committed humanitarian and AIDS activist.
Documentary Director Comments On The New Revelations About Elizabeth Taylor
Even The Doc Director Was Surprised At What Allegedly Went On Behind Closed Doors In Taylor's Life
The Lost Tapes features newly unearthed audio from interviews Elizabeth Taylor did with two writers in 1964 and 1985.
Director Nanette Burstein explained to Fox News Digital that she "was surprised by some of the things that [Taylor] did and admitted to doing. Like attempting suicide, for example. Because she was so unhappy with her marriage to Eddie Fisher and the fact that he put a gun to her head and said, 'You're much too pretty to shoot.' Some of these tidbits of really tumultuous moments in her life were revelations to me."
Burstein contends that Taylor felt "ashamed" of even contemplating taking her life because she had children to think of as well. But her love life was also in serious flux. Her husband, film producer Mike Todd, died at age 48 in a tragic plane crash in 1958, the year after he married Taylor.
Burstein believes that Taylor turned to Fisher on the rebound, when she was consumed with profound bereavement over Todd's death. "She was madly in love with [Todd]. She was experiencing terrible grief and obviously made a very bad decision in the midst of that. Then she didn't know how to get out of it."
Elizabeth Taylor Talked About Her Unhappiness During Her Marriage To Eddie Fisher
She Reportedly Said She Felt Lonely And Desperate
In the documentary, according to FoxNews.com, Taylor reportedly says she was lonely and isolated. "I started to sleep 14-15 hours at once. I was trying to avoid everything. I was trying to avoid life. But I was so desperate at one time that I did take some sleeping pills. I did it deliberately, calmly and in front of Eddie. I was fed up with everything. I couldn't face the thought of divorce."
She Swooned For Actor Richard Burton While Married To Eddie Fisher
Taylor reportedly claimed that Fisher, who allegedly knew of her infatuation with the swashbuckling Burton, would taunt her with a gun at night just as she was dozing off.
She allegedly said that Fisher said, "'I'm not going to kill you. I'm not going to shoot you. You're much too pretty."
Taylor admitted, "I was so scared."
A 2011 book titled Furious Love reportedly contains an account of this unsettling incident. However, Todd Fisher, Eddie Fisher's son with his previous wife, actress Debbie Reynolds, allegedly had not heard of this before, according to Fox News Digital.
Todd Fisher skeptically said to Fox News Digital, "In my entire life, my father never raised his hand to anybody. He never got in any fights. He never did anything inappropriate with a firearm. I never saw him do anything remotely close. So I would say that doesn't jive in terms of his behavior."
