Their relationship was a decade-long cycle of extreme passion, professional collaboration, and public volatility.

The romance between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton remains the definitive template for the modern celebrity power couple. Their "Le Scandale" began on the set of Cleopatra in 1962, a production so extravagant it nearly bankrupted 20th Century Fox, yet it was the off-screen drama that truly captivated the world. Both were married to others at the time, and their brazen affair triggered global headlines, even prompting a public condemnation from the Vatican for "erotic vagrancy". The Marriage of the Century