Elizabeth Taylor’s addiction to drugs, alcohol led to family intervention, son says: ‘We were all petrified’
Elizabeth Taylor’s life was plagued with problems in 1982.
At that time, her marriage to Sen. John Warner was coming to an end. The once screen siren was also faced with a crippling addiction to drugs and alcohol.
The star’s loved ones recalled her struggles in the final episode of the BBC documentary, “Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar,” which was executive produced by Kim Kardashian. It looks at the life and legacy of the actress, who died in 2011 at age 79.
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Sen. John Warner and Elizabeth Taylor at Regines, circa 1976 in New York City. (PL Gould/IMAGES/Getty Images)
Those closest to the Oscar winner said she was “abusing alcohol and pain meds, including the injectable ones.”
“She had physical ailments, especially bad back problems, for which the use of pain meds was a legitimate recourse,” explained Taylor’s son, Christopher Wilding, as quoted by People magazine.
“When she was little, we had all these miracle drugs, and you took a pill,” he said. “That was her approach – better living through science.”
Elizabeth Taylor is seen here taking part at a political fundraising event. (© Wally McNamee/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
However, Taylor’s reliance on drugs to cope with pain worsened with time.
“We’d talk to her, but things got to the point where it was decided an intervention would be necessary,” said Wilding. “We just wanted her to get help.”
“Close family members flew in and boy, that was difficult,” he admitted. “… We were all petrified.”
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Elizabeth Taylor, seen here on the set of “Cleopatra” opposite Richard Burton, died in 2011. She was 79. (API/GAMMA/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
According to the outlet, Taylor is heard in a recording talking about the experience, noting that the intervention “stopped me so dead in my tracks.”
“It leaves you totally speechless,” said the “Cleopatra” star.
“… It was like being slapped in the face with reality. And I thought, ‘My God, I thought I was a good mother. How have I allowed myself to do this to the people I love most in the world?'”
“We’d talk to her, but things got to the point where it was decided an intervention would be necessary. We just wanted her to get help… Close family members flew in and boy, that was difficult… We were all petrified.”
Elizabeth Taylor, left, and Betty Ford at Studio 54, circa 1979 in New York City. (Robin Platzer/IMAGES/Getty Images)
According to Wilding, Taylor agreed to seek help, but only if she could wait until the morning to leave for rehab. She stayed at the Betty Ford Clinic.
“She had to share a room with a stranger,” said Wilding. “Everyone was assigned… domestic chores.”
Taylor said she was grateful for the experience.
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Dame Elizabeth Taylor and son Chris Wilding during InStyle Magazine Gala to Celebrate the Release of “Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair with Jewelry” at Christies in New York City. (J. Vespa/WireImage/Getty Images)
“I felt really for the first time in my life I wasn’t being exploited by anyone,” she said. “I was being accepted for myself. I was forced to look at the… truth of who I was.”
After she completed her treatment, Taylor spoke about her experience publicly in hopes it would encourage others to get help.
Wilding previously detailed his mother’s addictions in the book “Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit & Glamour of an Icon.”
According to author Kate Andersen Brower, three doctors wrote a “combined 1,000 prescriptions for 28 drugs between 1983 and 1988, and that included tranquilizers, sleeping pills and painkillers.”
Elizabeth Taylor went public with her experience seeking help. (POOL/Jerome DELAY/AFP via Getty Images)
Wilding recalled one disturbing incident while he was staying with his mother.
According to the book, she called for him to come to her bedroom where she was holding a syringe of Demerol, which was used to treat severe pain. He claimed that Taylor asked him to “administer the shot.” He declined.
“… It wasn’t until I saw her that I realized she was already pretty f—ed up on something,” said Wilding, as quoted by Page Six. “… She looked at me with deadened yet disappointed eyes, took a breath, steadied her hand, and plunged the needle into her flesh.”
Andersen Brower wrote that Taylor’s drinking and drug use worsened during her marriage to Warner. After the couple said “I do” in 1976, she found herself “bored and lonely” living in Washington, D.C., and packing on the pounds.
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Elizabeth Taylor once said that life as a senator’s wife made her “a drunk and a junkie.” (Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)
Taylor said that life as a senator’s wife made her “a drunk and a junkie,” Andersen Brower wrote.
However, moving back to Los Angeles after calling it quits with Warner did not help Taylor’s addiction to pain medication, the outlet reported.
“She surrounded herself with assistants and housekeepers who became like family to her and were less likely to call her out on her growing problem,” Andersen Brower wrote. “She manipulated her doctors into giving her the pills she wanted, when she wanted them; it was very hard to say no to Elizabeth Taylor.”
Elizabeth Taylor and Larry Fortensky at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. (Jim Smeal/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
According to the outlet, Taylor checked into the Betty Ford Center for a seven-week stay after her family staged an intervention. She stopped drinking but still took pills. She rationalized that they were legitimate because they were prescribed by a doctor.
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In 1988, her friend George Hamilton staged a second intervention, the outlet reported. During her return to rehab, she scored her eighth and final husband, construction worker Larry Fortensky, who was 20 years her junior. The couple married in 1991 but divorced in 1996.
Taylor remained friends with Fortensky and Warner right up until her death.
