Debbie Reynolds, Elizabeth Taylor, and Eddie Fisher. These 3 celebrities are massive names on their own, but they also can never be separated.
Their connection began as a friendship and went downhill into a devastating affair. It shocked the world and became one of the most popular tabloid stories of all time. It also changed the lives and careers of everyone involved.
After years passed and the shock wore off, they were able to offer a few explanations as to how and why it happened.
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Before The Affairs
Edwin Fisher was born in Philadelphia on August 10, 1928. He eventually moved to New York, and Eddie Cantor helped him become a radio star. He had 32 hit songs in his lifetime, Including Thinking of You, Any Time, I’m Yours, and Wish You Were Here.
Debbie Reynolds was born on August 1, 1932. She was discovered at a Miss Burbank pageant and soon became a movie icon in films such as Singin’ in the Rain and The Unsinkable Molly Brown.
She met Elizbeth Taylor, who was already a major star, at the age of 17. They went to high school together on the MGM lot. She says she was in awe of her and that anyone who could say they weren’t was lying or blind.
The Elizabeth Taylor/Eddie Fisher Affair
Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher were married in 1955 and had their first daughter, Carrie, the next year. Frank Sinatra warned her that singers were never faithful and tried to persuade her to choose someone else, but she didn’t heed his advice.
The couple went to events together and showed off their love. They called each other prince and princess, and that’s what they were to the public.
Early behind-the-scenes troubles hinted at their eventual downfall. He was often jealous of her success and even refused to talk to her when Tammy, a song she sang for the 1957 film Tammy and the Bachelor, hit the top of the charts.
The couple also gained a friend in Elizabeth Taylor who Debbie met as a teenager. They went on double-dates together. Debbie was the maid of honor and Eddie was the best man when Elizabeth married Mike Todd in 1957. They were such a close-knit group that Eddie and Debbie
even named their second child after Elizabeth’s 3rd husband, Mike Todd.
Everything changed when Mike died suddenly in a plane crash in 1958. Debbie encouraged Eddie to go comfort the new widow, but that choice changed her life forever.
She always said she was the last person to find out about the affair. The tabloids had already started rumors about it. She even heard people whispering at events, using Elizabeth and Eddie’s names together. Like and subscribe to Facts Verse for more on this unforgettable Hollywood love triangle. Keep watching as Debbie Reynolds Divorce confirms why Eddie Fisher left her for good.
Confirmation of the rumors didn’t come for a while. She was lonely one day while her husband was on tour and decided to call Elizabeth’s hotel room. Eddie picked up the phone, and she knew immediately by the way he spoke that the two had been sleeping together.
The affair also changed the public image of everyone involved. Elizabeth and Eddie were the homewrecking villains and Debbie was the innocent victim.
It also affected their careers. Both Elizabeth and Debbie saw higher paychecks for their next movies. They even earned Oscar nominations during the affair.
Eddie’s singing career and variety show never recovered. He went from 17 top 10 songs at his peak to a downward spiral. Lucrative contracts dropped thanks to “morality clauses,” and his variety show was canceled in 1959.
Debbie tried to ignore the affair for a full year. Her Christian background meant she didn’t believe in divorce. She held off until Eddie and Elizabeth talked her into it in 1959. They’d asked for her consent several times and told her she was keeping true love apart.
She eventually gave in and believed they would have gotten married without her blessing. Eddie and Elizabeth were married the next day.
Debbie still tried to warn her ex-husband that his new lover couldn’t be faithful, and that was exactly what happened. Elizabeth left Eddie 5 years later and married Richard Burton after meeting him on the set of Cleopatra. Like and subscribe to Facts Verse for more on this unforgettable Hollywood love triangle. Keep watching as Debbie Reynolds Divorce confirms why Eddie Fisher left her for good.
The Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton Affair
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton began an affair that was so intense it slowed down the film. Eddie called home one night, and Richard admitted exactly what he was doing. It allegedly made Eddie so upset that he held her at gunpoint before walking away.
Elizbeth’s 2nd affair led to another divorce in 1964. Elizabeth divorced Richard in 1974, remarried him the next year, and then divorce him again the year after that. Like and subscribe to Facts Verse for more on this unforgettable Hollywood love triangle. Keep watching as Debbie Reynolds Divorce confirms why Eddie Fisher left her for good.
Why Eddie Left Debbie For Good
Debbie was torn apart when she discovered that all the rumors about Eddie and Elizabeth’s affair were true. She hadn’t expected her best friend to intentionally hurt her, and it was a heavier blow than anyone else could give her.
Debbie understood how difficult it would have been for any man to resist Elizabeth’s advances. She even said that “no living woman was as beautiful as her.”
In a way, Debbie never gave herself enough credit. She was also a beautiful woman who never had trouble attracting a man. There was only one problem; she claims that all 3 of the men she married said she wasn’t a “very passionate woman.”
She claims that many of the women she was friends with had what she lacked. Elizabeth Taylor, Ava Gardener, and Lana Turner craved and enjoyed talking about sex. She believes that was the kind of passion Eddie wanted and is the main reason he left her.
Elizabeth was more sexually experienced. She’d already had 3 husbands and had 8 before her death. Debbie was a virgin when she met Eddie and never slept with anyone during her lifetime other than her 3 husbands. Like and subscribe to Facts Verse for more on this unforgettable Hollywood love triangle. Keep watching as Debbie Reynolds Divorce confirms why Eddie Fisher left her for good.
There’s also another, somewhat unexpected reason why Debbie Reynolds believes Eddie Fisher left her for good. She claims he always wanted to be just like Mike Todd. He suddenly took up drinking and smoking and changed his personality during the affair. It was what Elizabeth needed to overcome her grief, and she was attracted to it.
The good news is that Debbie had no regrets. She doesn’t wish that she’d had more sex and always preferred raising her children to pursuing men. She also considered herself lucky despite all the struggles she had with love during her lifetime and tried not to be bitter toward Eddie because he was the father of her children.
Like and subscribe to Facts Verse for more on the lives of Elizabeth Taylor and Debbie Reynolds, 2 of Hollywood’s biggest names. Keep watching to learn more about Eddie Fisher’s affair and why it couldn’t end a beautiful lifelong friendship.
An Enduring Friendship
The story of the love triangle between Debbie Reynolds, Elizabeth Taylor, and Eddie Fisher is more than a tragedy. It’s also one of forgiveness and enduring friendship.
The two women stayed apart and didn’t speak to each other for 7 years. Debbie and her husband at the time, Harry Karl, booked the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship in 1966. As if guided by fate, Elizabeth happened to be on the same ship as Richard Burton.
They exchanged notes, had dinner, and began to talk like old times. Elizabeth and Debbie continued to talk after that, though they didn’t visit each other in person.
The friends developed an even deeper bond after meeting by chance again after a serious tragedy. They’d both been to a Michael Jackson concert the day before the September 11 attacks, and Debbie was stranded. Elizabeth invited her into her hotel. Debbie later jokingly said that it “made up for the whole Eddie thing.”
The pair also managed to star in one final movie. Carrie Fisher wrote These Old Broads in 2011. It was semi-autobiographical, with their characters fighting over the same man.
They only grew closer, and Elizabeth even made up with Todd and Carrie. She later wrote Debbie into her will, giving her a sapphire bracelet, necklace, and earrings. Like and subscribe to Facts Verse for more on this unforgettable Hollywood love triangle. Keep watching as Debbie Reynolds Divorce confirms why Eddie Fisher left her for good.
After the Affairs
Eddie Fisher remarried 3 times after Elizabeth Taylor left him. The first was when he was 47. He married 21-year-old beauty queen Terry Richard, and they stayed together for only 10 months.
He said in one of his autobiographies that he only married Connie Stevens because she was pregnant. They had 2 girls; Joely and Tricia.
His final and longest-lasting marriage was to Chinese businesswoman Betty Lin. They lasted until her death.
Eddie never managed to heal his career or public image. He never had a hit song again. His 2010 autobiography Been There Done That spoke poorly about Debbie. Carrie was so offended that she threatened to change her name when she read it.
Eddie Fisher died after complications from a hip surgery in 2010. He’ll always have a place in the film and music scene, but the world will never forget his marriages or affair.
Debbie’s love life after Eddie was a bit more complicated because she never found a man who treated her right. Her first marriage was a matter of necessity after Eddie refused to pay child support. She wed shoe magnate Harry Karl in 1960, but he was a gambling addict and alcoholic who left her with no money and cheated on her. They divorced in 1973.
Richard Hamlet was no better. He tricked her into a risky real-estate deal and gambled the rest of her money away, leaving her with even more debt. His violent streak even made her fear for her life. When he took her to the balcony of a hotel one night, all she could think about was him throwing her off to get her $1 million life insurance policy. They divorced in 1996.
Debbie Reynolds died one day after her daughter Carrie on December 28, 2016, after a sudden stroke. Her image of pure innocence isn’t likely to fade, either. By the end of her life, she no longer cared what the public thought of her.
Which Hollywood affair shocked you the most? Let us know in the comments below. Like and subscribe to Facts Verse for more on the most scandalous affairs in the film industry.
