Kim Kardashian Says Elizabeth Taylor Was 'One of the First' to Go Through Public Body Shaming

Elizabeth Taylor pioneered the celebrity experience in many ways.

As one of the earliest stars to be famous for most of her life, the actress and activist was often under intense scrutiny. In a new three-part BBC documentary series Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstarthose closest to Taylor look back on her struggle with weight and the public’s reaction to it.

“It’s one thing to get fat and nobody cares. It’s another thing to get fat and everyone is looking at you and commenting on it and criticizing you for it,” her son Christopher Wilding says of that time in his mother’s life in episode 3, which aired on the 11th. October.

The series shows how Taylor was the subject of jokes by everyone from the press to Saturday night live‘s not-ready-for-primetime players. In one voice, Taylor is considered “mammoth” in a photo taken at a benefit performance.

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From left: Liza Minnelli, Elizabeth Taylor and Halston at Studio 54 in New York in 1977.

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“You’re so famous that the world attacks you. People were horrible to her,” notes actress Sharon Stone.

Taylor’s weight gain has been attributed to a childhood back injury, her struggles with alcohol addiction and a lifestyle change in her 40s. Although her acting career slowed down during that period, the media microscope remained focused on her life.

“That’s what fame is. That’s how fame happens. It’s like a light switch, and then it never goes off,” says Stone.

“Being fat-shamed, I mean, it’s traumatizing. And she was one of the first to go through that,” Kim Kardashian — who was the last person to interview Taylor before the two-time Oscar winner’s death in 2011. and who serves as an executive producer on the documentary — she says in the episode. – It’s not easy to be the first, you know?

Elizabeth Taylor in the 80s.

Bertrand LAFORET/Gamma-Rapho via Getty

Taylor’s granddaughter Naomi Wilding points out that much of her grandmother’s self-esteem was wrapped up in the adulation she expected from the public after spending her entire life in the spotlight.

“Think about what it must have been like to be told you were beautiful from a young age, and then that’s what you’re criticized for – you weren’t always beautiful,” she says.

“It’s expected that if you’re rich, famous, you have all the people behind you to create perfection. So why aren’t you perfect?”

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Source: HIS Education