What Elizabeth Taylor Left Her Last Husband, 15 Years After Their Divorce

Larry Fortensky said the bequest honored a friendship that lasted long after their marriage ended

The last time Larry Fortensky spoke to Elizabeth Taylor, she was about to go into the hospital. He expected they would talk again once she got home. They had kept in touch for years after their divorce, and the phone calls had become part of both their lives. When Taylor died in March 2011, Fortensky learned the news on television.

After her death, Fortensky spoke about their marriage, the friendship that followed, and a letter he said he received from her estate’s lawyers. According to his account, Taylor had left him a bequest worth more than $800,000. He took it as a gesture of affection from someone who had remained part of his life long after their wedding photos had faded from the headlines.

They met at the Betty Ford Center

Taylor and Fortensky met in 1988 while both were receiving treatment at the Betty Ford Center. She had spent decades in Hollywood, from her childhood breakthrough in National Velvet to her Academy Award wins for Butterfield 8 and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Fortensky worked in construction. In his 2011 interview with the Daily Mail, he recalled being drawn to her humor as much as to her looks.

They continued seeing each other after treatment and married in 1991 at Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch. It was Taylor’s eighth and final marriage. The event drew intense press attention, and Taylor found a way to put that attention to work. According to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, she sold the wedding photographs to People for $1 million and used the proceeds to establish the foundation.

The photograph he kept beside his bed

Of all the pictures taken during their marriage, Fortensky’s favorite came from a trip to Switzerland the year after the wedding. He remembered Taylor suddenly deciding she wanted to make a snow angel. She threw on a coat, went outside, and lay laughing in the snow as she swept her arms back and forth. He said he kept a photograph of that moment beside his bed.

Other memories captured how differently they approached gifts. One Christmas, Taylor surprised him with a Harley-Davidson beside the tree. He gave her chocolate-covered roses. Another year, he bought her a lop-eared rabbit that she loved. He also remembered how difficult it was to get used to being photographed wherever they went. Taylor had lived with cameras for most of her life. For him, the attention never became routine.

The calls continued after the divorce

Taylor and Fortensky divorced in 1996 after five years of marriage. Fortensky said they continued talking by phone at least twice a month, sometimes for hours. Their last conversation came the day before Taylor entered the hospital for the final time. She died on March 23, 2011, at age 79.

The reported inheritance drew attention because Taylor’s marriages had long been public news. For Fortensky, its meaning came from the years after the divorce, when they still picked up the phone to talk. The story he chose to tell afterward included the money, but it also included the picture he kept close. In it, Taylor was laughing in the snow.