The Golden Age of Hollywood was rife with feuds between stars. From Bette Davis and Joan Crawford to Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando, these bouts of offscreen drama were often as compelling as anything put on film. Among these notorious feuds was a years-long period of strife between Elizabeth Taylor and Debbie Reynolds. When a third party suddenly drove a wedge between the famed actresses, just like something out of a Hollywood film, they found themselves thrust front and center into the white-hot spotlight of media frenzy and speculation.

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How Did Elizabeth Taylor & Debbie Reynolds’ Friendship Begin?
Image via Loew’s Inc.

Undoubtedly two of the most recognizable and prolific performers of their generation, Elizabeth Taylor and Debbie Reynolds started out in entertainment at a young age. While an adolescent, Taylor secured a rigorous contract with MGM and had been working steadily for years, and Reynolds would later join the studio at age 17. It didn’t take long for the actresses to become fast friends, and according to Reynolds, “We went to school together on the lot, when she was in between films. I was just a beginner, and she and I were not in any manner alike, but we got along very well because I was in awe of going to school with Elizabeth Taylor. And if anyone said they weren’t, then they were lying. Or blind.”

As the Korean War raged in the early 1950s, Reynolds traveled overseas to entertain American troops and met fellow performer Eddie Fisher, a talented singer who’d been working professionally since age 12 and already had several hits to his name. Falling in love, they married in 1955 and Reynolds gave birth to their first child, Carrie Fischer, the following year. In 1957, Elizabeth Taylor married for the third time, tying the knot with Oscar-winning film producer Mike Todd in a ceremony including Reynolds and Fisher, who served as the maid of honor and best man, respectively. But after just one year of marriage, tragedy struck when Todd was killed in a plane crash in New Mexico. Decades later, deploying her trademark irreverent humor, Carrie Fisher revealed that her father sought to comfort a grieving Taylor and “rushed to her side, gradually moving to her front.”

How Did Elizabeth Taylor & Eddie Fisher’s Affair Begin?
Image via Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

If there’s one thing the tabloids love, it’s the exploitation of a personal scandal for the sake of public consumption. And shortly after the untimely death of Mike Todd, Elizabeth Taylor, and Eddie Fisher gave the media exactly the kind of story it craved. The two stars began seeing each other, and after divorcing Reynolds in 1959, Fisher married Taylor. According to Todd Fisher, Reynolds’ and Fisher’s second child who was named after Taylor’s former husband, the tabloids pounced on the story and were quick to vilify Taylor and his father.

In his 2018 memoir, My Girls: A Lifetime With Carrie and Debbie, Todd Fisher wrote, “Eddie was declared a philandering, opportunistic loser, and Elizabeth was labeled a bad-girl, home-wrecking slut. Debbie, the good girl, the innocent, unsuspecting victim, and single mom, was globally embraced with love and sympathy.” For her part, Reynolds managed to largely avoid media contact as the controversy involving her ex-husband and friend ensued. Putting her nose to the grindstone, Reynolds focused on work and raising her two children, but things wouldn’t fare quite as well for Fisher.

How Did the Scandal Impact Eddie Fisher’s Career?
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Five years after they wed, Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher divorced. Years prior, while working together on 1963’s Cleopatra, the actress entered into yet another extramarital affair with English actor Richard Burton, and the couple would marry and divorce twice over the next decade-and-a-half. As one of the most talked about items of their time, and despite the publicized drama and Burton’s notorious alcoholism, both stars pressed on with their high-profile careers. Eddie Fisher, however, wouldn’t be quite so fortunate.

From the time the news of his affair with Taylor broke, Fisher found himself on the chopping block. Though Taylor incurred a certain amount of judgment from a speculating public, the damage inflicted on Fisher’s reputation and career was significant. His infidelity towards Reynolds made him the subject of ire, impacting his image and negatively affecting his star power. Todd Fisher expounded on this when he wrote, “There was outrage. My dad had like contracts canceled for morality clauses…it literally ruined his career.” On top of the bad press, the singer’s reputation began to fade as a result of the evolving music of the time. With rock and roll rising in the charts, Fisher’s trademark crooner tunes were quickly becoming a thing of the past, and as his popularity declined, his affinity for drug use increased.

Why Did Elizabeth Taylor & Debbie Reynolds Eventually Reconcile?
Image via Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

They say time heals all, and in the case of Elizabeth Taylor and Debbie Reynolds, time not only mended their broken friendship but arguably made it stronger than ever before. In 1966, they unexpectedly found themselves in close quarters on the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship. Recalling the sudden encounter, Reynolds told The Hollywood Reporter, “I looked up and I saw tons of luggage going by me and birdcages and dog cages and nurses and I realized Elizabeth was on the same ship as me.” The sudden realization saw Reynolds nearly abandon the cruise altogether, though she continued with her husband’s urging.

As fate would have it, the estranged women weren’t just on the same ship, but the same floor as well. In what must have been a nerve-wracking act, Reynolds sought to make amends and sent a letter to Taylor’s room. The bold gesture paid off, and according to Reynolds, “She sent a note back to mine saying that we should have dinner and get this over with and have a good time. And we had a wonderful evening with a lot of laughs.” Taking a leap of faith with one another, the former friends rekindled their fractured relationship seemingly as fast as it had fallen apart eight years prior. And their newfound friendship would flourish for decades until Taylor’s passing in 2011.

Unlike many bitter feuds between major Hollywood players, the rift between Taylor and Reynolds ended with forgiveness and empathy. They would even work together again in the 2001 TV movie, These Old Broads, which was co-written by Carrie Fisher. According to Todd Fisher, the actresses shared some words before filming a scene that, in an example of art imitating art, saw their characters involved in a love triangle. “I’m sorry for what I did to you with Eddie,” Taylor told Reynolds. Fisher said of the tender moment, “It caught Mom off guard that Elizabeth was still so emotional about it.” Despite the heartache she endured, Reynolds simply couldn’t bring herself to hold onto such a grudge and eloquently framed her thoughts on the matter when she said, “You have to look at what life is all about, and is it worth it? And, is he worth it? The friendship was perhaps worth more.”