Living with his mother’s name in the press throughout his childhood was difficult for Elizabeth Taylor’s son. The celebrity’s son Christopher Wilding, who has a second husband named Michael Wilding, makes an appearance in the recently released three-part BBC documentary series Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar.
He talks about his mother’s considerable media attention for her passionate romance with Richard Burton in episode 2, which debuted on October 4.
“I understood the attention they got because they were kind of this weird phenomenon”
Despite being married to other people at the time, Taylor and the Welsh actor fell in love while they were filming their parts as Cleopatra and Antony in the 1963 movie Cleopatra.
Burton divorced Sybil Williams, his first wife, in 1963, and Taylor separated from Eddie Fisher, who had wed Taylor in March 1964 after Eddie Fisher had divorced Debbie Reynolds.
Wilding said “I understood the attention they got because they were kind of this weird phenomenon. After a certain point, there was no way to avoid the media interest. It was just too juicy a story. It was a drag. It was a huge drag,”
He continues by talking about his time at boarding school and how, like her followers, he would read the publications to stay up to date on his mother’s happenings.
“All the other kids know about these stories. I’d hear unpleasant taunts [like,] ‘Well your mother just likes to sleep with a lot of guys,’ whatever. It was just awkward, When I was older, she expressed regret, She felt like she hadn’t been a great mom. But I felt like she was a good mother. It wasn’t easy to do.” He recalled.
“From the youngest age, all of her validation came about from that visibility”
Naomi Wilding, Taylor’s granddaughter, makes an appearance in the documentary series and states that she thinks her grandmother became “addictive” from the attention.
She said “From the youngest age, all of her validation came about from that visibility. She created celebrity the way that we see it now. She was always giving material. There was so much to be seen. She wasn’t hiding,”
As executive producer of the documentary series and the person who conducted Taylor’s last interview before her death in 2011 at the age of 29, Kim Kardashian claims to understand the challenges the film queen had juggling her roles as a mother and a superstar.
She said “You don’t plan this life for your kids. You’re an adult, you can handle it, but you don’t know which one of your babies can really handle it, so I think it’s really hard on a family, I think when people open themselves up to that scrutiny, it’s really hard just on your soul.”
Chris Wilding added “I get it, but having seen it from both sides, that’s a deal with the devil that’s really not worth it, in my opinion.”
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings