A New Book on Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton Goes Deep on the Couple: ‘It Was Real Love, Wasn’t It?’ (Exclusive)

Much has been written about the legendary Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, but there is much more to be said. And soon a new book will deal with the whole fascinating saga. A biography of this couple by Roger Lewis, Erotic wandering: all about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, out March 26 from Mobius, and takes a comprehensive look at the Hollywood legends. First married from 1964 to 1974 and then again from 1975 to 1976, Taylor and Burton worked together in films such as VIP persons and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Perhaps just as interesting is their rumored off-screen relationship and all that it entailed: break-ups, adultery and an occasionally hedonistic lifestyle. Lewis spoke with PEOPLE ahead of the book’s release about it all Erotic wandering.

Roger Lewis’s new book, ‘Erotic Wandering’.

With so many books about Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, how did you approach writing Erotic wandering“I really felt that I really wanted to get below the surface, to get deep into their psychology, almost as if I were approaching it like a novelist, exploring their mentality, their motivations. The book started for me when I was quite sick with pancreatic problems and I had all that [sorts] fever and hallucination. During my recovery I started looking at things like Cleopatra, Taming of the Shrew, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, all their famous films from the sixties. There was something almost a little crazy about them, and I really liked that.

Memory of the Hollywood queen, Elizabeth Taylor, in photographs

How did you come up with the title for the book? The Pope gave me the title for the book. [Burton and Taylor] were made in Italy Cleopatra. Burton was married to a very nice Welsh woman, Sybil, with two children, and Elizabeth Taylor was married to Eddie Fisher, whom she had already stolen from Debbie Reynolds, so there was already controversy surrounding her.

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor on the set of ‘Cleopatra’.

Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty

And there they were, filming this movie where they played Antony and Cleopatra, and somehow they became Antony and Cleopatra. They continued their adultery openly in and out of nightclubs and restaurants, hounded by the paparazzi in Rome, 1962. The Pope was furious and issued this proclamation in the Vatican newspaper one Sunday accusing them of “erotic wandering,” which of course created an incredible publicity for the film. Elizabeth Taylor said, “Can I sue the Pope?”, because of these remarks about her. What was the most interesting thing you learned during the process of researching the book?[With] Elizabeth Taylor, [it was] how absolutely beautiful she was when she was younger, when she was a child actress. She’s great at things like National velvet and Girl movies, and all those Tennessee Williams movies she did, like Cat on a hot tin roof, Butterfield 8, for which she won an Oscar. Early on, she was just a classic Hollywood beauty.

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The thing about Burton that really stuck with me [while] reading his diaries, what an academic, scientific character he was. He was very fond of reading. He went to Oxford and really knew about the culture. Towards the end of his life he said: “People think that the great love of my life is women or drink or fame or money.” He said, “No, the great love of my life is the English language.” I found that quite touching.

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.

William Lovelace/Express/Getty

Do you think there is a couple out there today that mirrors Taylor and Burton? No, I’m afraid not. People don’t have the guts to be so unjustifiably outrageous. There was Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, you had John Lennon and Yoko [Ono], you had Peter Sellers and Britt Ekland, Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon… You have these famous couples, but I think the Burtons were really the main ones, because they were like Punch and Judy. They just fought all the time.

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Burton and Taylor, they’re part of popular culture in this wonderful way that’s never been surpassed, and they’re the first couple to be so sassy. Before that, everyone acted according to what the studios told them and told them how to behave, producing their private lives for public consumption. Burton and Taylor just threw it all out.

With 20th Century Fox, they would have nothing to do with any of their reprimands about their behavior. When the pope reprimanded them, he didn’t make them change a bit.

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton pose in casual clothes.

Bob Penn/Sygma/Sygma via Getty

Do you think Taylor and Burton helped or hindered each other during their time together? One of the big things that happened when Burton met Taylor was that it was the end of his acting career. I know it was later Camelothe is Equus and then made a film about Equus… but basically that was it as far as his Shakespearean ambitions were concerned.

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As for Elizabeth Taylor, she is the one who is becoming, in a way, a more serious actress. You see Taylor is a really good actress now. She is not only beautiful in profile, she wears beautiful furs or bathing suits. She is present now. It has control and depth. And whatever was going on in her mind, you could feel it through her presence as an actress. She’s getting really good.

I think they learned from each other, maybe took a little from each other, and added something to each other. They are in true harmony as artists. It’s like we’re watching their marriage [in the film], but somehow stylized. It has been turned into art.

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.

Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty

Did you learn anything about Taylor during your research that was particularly interesting to you? She was a very good friend. If she decided she liked you and trusted you, she was just an incredibly good, close friend. For example, Richard Burton had all these sisters in South Wales, and whenever Elizabeth Taylor finished all her clothes, all her designer clothes, she would pack them up and send them to these old ladies in South Wales. And every Christmas she would send them very lavish gifts. She was very generous.

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Do you think Taylor and Burton could ever get things going? They could get back together, because when they definitely got divorced for the second time, what did they do? They appeared together on Broadway in a play by Noel Coward Private lives, which is a play about a divorced couple who can’t live without each other. I can’t do it with each other, I can’t do it without each other. They played themselves at the end of their lives in the same way at the beginning of their life together.

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Frank Lennon/Toronto Star via Getty

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton stun in these rare photos, plus more from the new book

When Burton died at just 58, Elizabeth Taylor didn’t go to the funeral. She didn’t want to escalate the event. A few days later, in the early hours of the morning, she visited the grave alone with some of her bodyguards. And she said, as she knelt at the grave, “This is one of the few times when Richard and I were alone.” It was true love, wasn’t it? It was a love story.

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Source: HIS Education