Famously, the tumultuous relationship between Hollywood star Elizabeth Taylor and Welsh actor Richard Burton began in Rome while they were making the film epic Cleopatra. At that point, she was married to her fourth husband, American crooner Eddie Fisher, and had three children. Burton had two children by his Welsh wife, Sybil. What followed was a chaotic mix of tragedy, comedy, and overwhelming sexual attraction.

January 22, 1962
Burton and Taylor’s first scene together. Taylor arrives on set with Eddie, two secretaries, two maids, makeup people, and hairdressers. She is wearing a mink, which she ostentatiously lets drop to the floor. “You’re much too fat, but you do have a pretty face,” are Burton’s opening words to her. But the film’s producer, Walter Wanger, notes how the actress and actor are soon “intently talking… You could almost feel the electricity.” And Burton writes later about how Taylor’s “breasts [were] jutting out from that half-asleep languid lingering body”.

January 26, 1962
Director of Cleopatra to the producer: “Liz and Burton are not just playing Antony and Cleopatra.”

January 27, 1962
Burton appears in the makeup trailer and announces in his Old Vic voice: “Gentlemen, last night I screwed [f***ed, nailed — sources differ] Miss Elizabeth Taylor in the back of my Cadillac.”

February 5, 1962
Burton assures the producer: “I will not allow anything to hurt my career or my marriage. And I won’t do anything to harm Liz, who is a wonderful person.” But Wanger can appreciate her dangerous appeal: “The excitement Liz requires of life could be supplied by Burton because of his strength, experience and the dreams he opened up.”

February 13, 1962
Burton flies to Paris to appear as an RAF pilot in The Longest Day. Taylor’s husband Eddie Fisher breaks the Cuckold’s Code, which implicitly states the wronged husband must fume in silence, by speaking to Burton’s wife Sybil: “Your husband and my wife appear to be deeply involved. You know they’re continuing their affair?” Sybil: “He’s had these affairs before — he always comes home.”

February 14, 1962
Eddie leaves Rome “on business”. Burton takes Taylor out for the evening to the Via Veneto, Taylor wearing a leopard-skin coat and hat.

February 15, 1962
According to Jack Brodsky and Nathan Weiss, publicists on the picture, Taylor and Burton are “the hottest thing ever”. Fox executives, however, fear the public “will crucify her and picket the theatres if she breaks up another family”. In the event, there was no moral indignation, only an excited curiosity. Attitudes towards celebrity (and adultery) were changing.

February 16, 1962
Sybil escapes to New York. Taylor, fearing Burton will be affected by her dramatic departure, attempts suicide by “trying to break through a glass door and had to be restrained”, according to Wanger. Burton indeed tries to call it all off: “It was fun, while it lasted.” To no avail.

February 17, 1962
Fearful Burton will choose Sybil over her, Taylor is taken to the Salvator Mundi Hospital to have her stomach pumped, after an overdose of barbiturates. “I needed the rest. I was hysterical and needed to get away,” she says afterwards.

February 18, 1962
Eddie, still on his travels, phones the Roman villa he shares with Taylor. Burton answers. “What are you doing in my home?” asks Eddie, unaware Burton has returned from Paris — and Taylor seems to have been speedily sprung from the clinic, too. Burton: “What do you think I’m doing? I’m with my girl.” Eddie: “She’s not your girl. She’s my wife.” Burton: “Well, I’m f***ing your wife.” Both men threaten to murder each other.

February 19, 1962
Burton makes a statement to the Press, saying the affair is “all bloody nonsense”.

February 20, 1962
Newspaper reporters and photographers invade Rome. Cameramen hide in trees and bushes. Journalists pretend to be priests collecting donations.

February 27, 1962
On what Taylor decides is “the most miserable day of my life”, Eddie organizes a 30th birthday party. He gives her a $250,000 emerald necklace and a Bulgari mirror, in the shape of an asp, also encrusted with emeralds. He later spoils the munificence by sending Taylor the bill.

March 8, 1962
The newspapers all quote Burton saying he’d never leave Sybil. Taylor shoots the scene where Antony leaves Cleopatra in Alexandria, goes back to Rome, and marries Octavian’s sister. When she hears about it, Cleopatra stabs the bedclothes, mattress, and Antony’s clothes. Taylor acts it out with such genuine fury, she dislocates her thumb.

March 10, 1962
Hollywood gossip columnist Louella Parsons tells her readers: “Elizabeth Taylor has fallen madly in love with Richard Burton.” Eddie retorts: “The report is ridiculous.”

March 13, 1962
Burton and Taylor are now “so close you’d have to pour hot water on them to get them unstuck,” Brodsky tells Weiss. Taylor tells Eddie she loves Burton: “We can’t bear to be apart.” Burton is confused. “I’m leaving Sybil and going off with Elizabeth” alternates with “I’m not going to see Elizabeth anymore.”

March 16, 1962
Sybil flies to London.

March 18, 1962
The weekly paper Gente prints telescopic-lens shots of Taylor and Burton embracing and leaving a Roman club at 3.30am.

March 19, 1962
Eddie says: “Elizabeth, I’m leaving,” and she doesn’t see him for two years. According to rumors, he’s in a mental hospital. Taylor’s parting shot to Eddie is: “No one walks out on me, fa**ot. I’m more famous than the Pope and the Queen of England.”

March 21, 1962
According to the production log, Taylor is “having great difficulty delivering dialogue”.

March 27, 1962
Sybil issues a denial: “I was furious about [the rumors]. Richard was furious, so was Elizabeth… Naturally, we’re all very friendly.”

March 29, 1962
Eddie issues a statement from his bed in a New York psychiatric hospital: “One thing is undeniable: I love Liz, and she loves me. The marriage is fine, just fine.”

March 30, 1962
Eddie holds a press conference, saying rumors of his wife’s involvement with Burton are “absolutely false”. In a transatlantic phone call, however, Taylor refuses to deny the rumors: “Eddie, I can’t do that because there’s some truth in the story.” Eddie goes to see Frank Costello, consigliere to the Luciano crime family, who once said to him: “Anything you need, you come to me.” But not even Eddie wants to be responsible for having a mobster’s goons break Burton’s legs.

April 1, 1962
Actor and fellow Welshman Emlyn Williams, visiting Rome on a mission of mercy for Sybil, leaves a note for Burton, saying of Taylor: “Look here, she’s just a third-rate chorus girl.” When they meet, Burton states calmly, “I’m going to marry her” — conveying his earnestness by saying it in Welsh.

April 2, 1962
Taylor and her three children, Michael, Christopher, and Liza, are taken by Burton in his Lincoln to Corsetti’s Restaurant, where they eat lobster and ice-cream.

April 3, 1962
The Fishers announce their intention to divorce. Sybil collapses. Emlyn tells the Press: “I just can’t imagine that Richard would throw away his life like this.”

April 7,…

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