January 31, 1957 Elizabeth Taylor divorced her second husband – actor Michael Wilding. She lived with him for only five years, but during that time there was something very important – were born their sons Michael and Christopher.
Seven husbands and eight marriages – a brief description of the love story of the legendary Hollywood diva Elizabeth Taylor. With some of the spouses actress formed spectacular alliances that are still legends. Michael Wilding is clearly not one of them. But still, he was also an actor (whose talent may never have been fully developed due to his illness, epilepsy) – and thus a remarkable man. In addition, in her marriage to Wilding, Taylor gave birth to two darling sons, Michael and Christopher.
Taylor and Wilding’s London wedding was quite modest – after all, the actress was getting married for the second time. Moreover, only a year has passed since her divorce – in January 1951, Elizabeth was freed from the suffocating bonds of marriage with the heir of hotel magnate Conrad Hilton Jr. About the same time Wilding divorced with his first wife, Kay Young.
Although the actress had not planned a lavish celebration, she had thought of her image in great detail. Her dress with a puffed skirt was sewn by costume designer Helen Rose, author of Grace Kelly’s wedding dress. Instead of a veil, Taylor decorated her hair with white flowers.
“He’s hardly the sweetest man I’ve ever known. Still, it wasn’t easy for Michael with me. You could say he turned into a henchman – I was too young after all,” Taylor later said of her second marriage. She and Wilding were indeed partly hampered by the big age difference – twenty years. Elizabeth had counted on marriage to a mature man to provide her with a safe haven at home. And, by and large, she wasn’t wrong. That’s just a career Wilding has already started to bog down, so that Taylor has actually become the main breadwinner in the family. And in 1955, the media circulated a rumor that Michael is pleasantly spent time in the company of strippers, while his wife is busy filming the movie “Giant”. Spouses didn’t comment on the information, but a year later announced the separation. The divorce process ended on January 31, 1957.
