Richard Burton was married five times, spanning from his early 20s to his mid-50s.
The Welsh actor was wed to his first wife, Sybil Williams — whom he met on the set of the British movie The Last Days of Dolwyn — from 1949 to 1963. Their marriage was Burton’s first and longest, but they split when he met Elizabeth Taylor on the set of Cleopatra that year.
Burton and Taylor then began what would become one of Hollywood’s most famous romances. The couple married twice, once from 1964 to 1974 and again from 1975 to 1976. The pair also worked on a dozen films together, and never truly left each other’s lives.
In 1982, the actors reconnected at Taylor’s 50th birthday party, and Burton shared that although they wouldn’t walk down the aisle again, they remained in love. “I bred her in my bones, and I love her passionately,” he told PEOPLE. “She may marry someone else, and so may I, but we will always be drawn back to each other.”
Despite his connection to Taylor, Burton married two more times: first to British model Suzy Hunt (née Miller) from 1976 to 1982, and then to Sally Hay from 1983 until his death in 1984.
Here’s everything to know about Richard Burton’s spouses: wives Sybil Williams, Elizabeth Taylor, Suzy Hunt and Sally Hay.
Sybil Williams
Richard Burton and Sybil Williams Burton at London Airport after arriving from Hollywood.
PA Images via Getty
Burton married his first wife, fellow Welsh native Sybil Williams, in 1949.
They met on the set of the British movie The Last Days of Dolwyn when Williams was 19 and Burton was 23, per The Hollywood Reporter. It was Burton’s film debut, and Williams’ first and only film appearance as an extra, according to The Guardian.
The couple then acted together in the 1954 BBC radio recording of Under Milk Wood, and Williams appeared in stage shows on London’s West End. She eventually stopped acting to support Burton’s career, per the BBC. The two moved to Switzerland and then America after welcoming their daughters, Kate and Jessica, in the mid-1950s.
On her decision to give up her career for Burton’s, Williams told The New York Times in 1994 that it didn’t feel like a sacrifice.
“I loved theater and what I was doing, but I certainly wanted to go as a wife to America when Richard was offered a job there,” she said. “I knew that Richard would have an exciting career and that it would be fun, two Welsh kids on the Queen Mary, traveling first-class.”
Their marriage dissolved when Burton met Taylor on the set of the 1963 film Cleopatra. They began a high-profile relationship, and Burton and Williams divorced that year — with Williams reportedly receiving a $1 million settlement and custody of their daughters, per the BBC.
After their separation, Williams moved to New York, where she married musician Jordan Christopher in 1966 and they welcomed a daughter together, Amy. Williams went on to become a nightclub founder and theatre director.
She died at age 83 on March 7, 2013.
Elizabeth Taylor
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor attend the Royal Film Performance of The Taming of the Shrew in 1967 in London..
Bettmann/ Getty
Burton married Elizabeth Taylor twice — once in 1964 and again in 1975.
The high-profile and tumultuous relationship made headlines for decades. The two met on the set of Cleopatra in Rome in 1963 — Taylor as Cleopatra and Burton as Antony — while Taylor was still married to her first husband, Eddie Fisher, and Burton was married to Williams.
In the three-part documentary Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar, a voiceover from an old interview with Taylor describes the moment she crossed paths with Burton. “The first day on the set, he was hungover and very vulnerable and his hands were shaking,” she said. “He asked me to hold a coffee cup up to his lips, and I was gone.”
Burton thought the same. After he was introduced to Taylor, he told British columnist Roderick Mann about his feelings for her. “I was genuinely in love. I felt I didn’t know the meaning of the word before,” he said.
The actors split from their respective spouses and married on Mar. 15, 1964, in Montreal. Their public relationship — characterized by an expensive and lavish lifestyle — made them one of Hollywood’s most glamorous couples, despite their disagreements.
After 10 years of marriage, they went their separate ways on June 26, 1974, the Los Angeles Times reported. “You can’t keep clapping a couple of dynamite sticks together without expecting them to blow up,” Burton told reporters.
The following year, Burton and Taylor reconnected and remarried on Oct. 10, 1975, but their second marriage only lasted a year. The couple divorced again on July 29, 1976, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Despite this, they remained in each other’s lives, and Burton even attended Taylor’s 50th birthday party in 1982, which sparked rumors of another reunion, which he quickly shut down.
The actors shared one daughter together, Maria McKeown, whom Taylor was in the process of adopting before their marriage, and Burton adopted as well.
Taylor opened up to Vanity Fair in 2010 about her lifelong love with Burton. “Attentive, loving — that was Richard, from those first moments in Rome [filming Cleopatra], we were always madly and powerfully in love. We had more time but not enough,” she said (via the BBC).
Suzy Hunt
Richard Burton and Suzy Hunt pose for a photo together on December 22, 1977.
Bertrand LAFORET/Gamma-Rapho via Getty
Burton crossed paths with his third wife, British model Suzy Hunt, in 1976.
At the time, Burton was still in his second marriage to Taylor, and Hunt was married to her husband, British Formula 1 driver John Hunt.
However, Burton and Hunt reportedly first locked eyes while going in opposite directions on a ski lift at the Gstaad resort in Switzerland.
Of their meeting, Burton later said, “I turned around and there was this gorgeous creature, about nine feet tall. She could stop a stampede,” per the Daily Mail.
After splitting from their respective marriages, the 50-year-old Burton and 26-year-old Hunt married in a civil ceremony in Arlington, Va., on Aug. 21, 1976, according to The New York Times.
Five years later, the actor and model separated in August 1981, per The New York Times, and officially divorced in February 1982.
Sally Hay
Richard Burton and Sally Hay Circa 1980’s.
Ralph Dominguez/MediaPunch /IPX
Burton met his fourth wife, Sally Hay, in 1982 and stayed with her until his death.
The pair first met on the set of the TV miniseries Wager while filming in Vienna early that year, per UPI. Burton was in the starring role, and Hay worked behind the scenes on set.
Burton and Hay married the following year on July 3, 1983, in the presidential suite of a Las Vegas hotel. At the time of the wedding, Burton was on a one-week break from a New York stage show tour, Private Lives, which he was starring in alongside his former wife, Taylor.
In a September 2012 interview with The Telegraph, Hay recognized that it was a “bizarre situation” to be touring with her husband and his ex-wife, but shared that there were moments of normalcy, too.
“I did his make‑up, we would run the lines together before rehearsal. I watched from the wings, later I sat in the dressing room and read a book while listening to the performance on a speaker,” she told the outlet. “Then we would go home together and I would cook supper.”
Burton and Hay’s relationship only lasted about two years — and married for one — before the actor died at 58 of a cerebral hemorrhage on Aug. 5, 1984.
Since his death, Hay has not remarried, but devoted her life to setting up scholarships and memorials in Burton’s name, including donating his diaries to Swansea University, per The Telegraph.
“My love for him has never diminished,” she told the publication in November 2011.
