Elizabeth Taylor’s 4 Children: Where Michael, Christopher, Liza and Maria Are Today
Liz Taylor may have married eight times, but the star also became a mother to four children throughout her life.
Elizabeth Taylor, award-winning British-American actress, is known for more than just her leading lady status and her violet-colored eyes. The Hollywood starlet is also often remembered for her significant number of marriages — eight, to be specific — to a total of seven men.
At just 18 years old, Taylor married her first husband, Conrad Hilton Jr., who was 23 at the time, in 1950. Following their divorce, Taylor went on to tie the knot with husbands Michael Wilding, Mike Todd, Eddie Fisher, Richard Burton (twice), John W. Warner and Larry Fortensky.
Although Taylor had more weddings than most, she didn’t have children with each of her husbands, welcoming just three kids with two men and adopting one child with another. Get to know each of Elizabeth Taylor’s four children, Michael, Christopher, Liza and Maria.
Michael Wilding Jr.
Taylor’s first child is Michael Wilding Jr., who was born to the actress and her second husband, Michael Wilding, on January 6, 1953. Her first son followed in her footsteps as an actor, appearing in his mother’s film, The Taming of The Shrew (1967). In the 1980s, Wilding Jr. began his own acting career.
In 1971, Wilding Jr. became a father to his first child, daughter Laela Wilding. A few years later, the actor had another daughter, Naomi, in 1976. In 1982, he married his now-wife, Brook Palance, with whom he welcomed a third child, son Tarquin, in 1989.
From 1985 to 1988, Wilding Jr. starred in the soap opera Guiding Light and later appeared in multiple episodes of Dallas. Nowadays, Wilding Jr. is a sculptor living in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Christopher Wilding
The actress’ second child, Christopher, was born on February 27, 1955, to her and husband Michael Wilding. Christopher, too, dipped his toe in the entertainment pool, but ventured towards the sound department in the 1980s. He worked on movies such as Tombstone (1993) and The Shadow (1994).
In 1981, Wilding married oil heiress and activist Aileen Getty. Throughout their six year marriage, the couple welcomed two children: sons Caleb in 1983 and Andrew in 1985. Sometime after his marriage with Getty ended, Wilding married Margaret Carlton and the two had son Lowell Wilding in 1991.
In 2016, Wilding spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about his late mother. “She was so beautiful, some people tended to overlook her great acting chops,” he shared.
As of 2016, he’s resided in Calabasas, California with his wife Margaret.
Liza Todd
The Hollywood starlet had just one child with her third husband, Mike Todd, before his untimely death in 1958. The couple was married for just over a year before Todd was killed in a plane crash a few short months after welcoming their daughter. Although he was about 23 years her senior, Taylor recalled Todd as the first true love of her life.
“God, I loved him,” she shared. “My self-esteem, my image, everything soared under his exuberant, loving care.”
Liza Todd was born on August 6, 1957, and spent her early years at a boarding school in Switzerland, as well as on the set of her mother’s films. Todd chose to pursue an artistic path as well, becoming an accomplished sculptor after attending Hornsey College of Art in London and the Art Institute in Los Angeles.
In 1984, Todd married painter Hap Tivey, with whom he had two sons: Quinn in 1986 and Rhys in 1991. After almost two decades of marriage, Todd and Tivey divorced in 2003.
Today, Todd is best known for her equine sculptures, such as her famous recreation of the horse Secretariat, and currently resides in upstate New York.
Maria Burton
Prior to her fifth (and most tumultuous) marriage with Richard Burton, Taylor was in the process of adopting her daughter, Maria McKeown, who was born in 1961. When Taylor tied the knot with Burton, he too adopted Maria as his own daughter, and she became Maria Burton.
Unlike her star parents, Burton led a life outside the spotlight. She married Richard Carson, with whom she welcomed daughter Elizabeth “Eliza” in 1982. The two eventually divorced and Burton walked down the aisle again with Thomas McKeown. The two had a son, Richard McKeown, in 2001, but eventually they divorced as well.
Burton followed the entertainment lifestyle like her parents, but veered more towards writing and directing. She has worked on movies such as Just Friends (1996) and Temps (1996).
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