Early in his acting career—and before he got sober—Colin Farrell gained a reputation as a Hollywood bad boy, known for hard partying and dating a string of famous women, including Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Angelina Jolie, and Demi Moore. But one of his relationships that didn't make it to the tabloids at the time was with apparently one of the most famous women who ever lived—and who happened to be more than four decades his senior. After her 2011 death, Farrell revealed that he had a "romantic relationship" with Elizabeth Taylor. Read on to find out more.
RELATED: Elizabeth Taylor Says Late Husband Told Her to "Go Back" During Vivid Near-Death Experience.
Farrell and Taylor met in the hospital.
Jesse Grant/Getty ImagesAccording to USA Today, the unlikely couple met in October 2009 while Taylor was in at Los Angeles’s Cedars-Sinai Hospital receiving a stent. Farrell was also in the hospital—for the birth of his son, Henry Tadeusz Farrell, with Ondine co-star Alicja Bachleda-Curús. His manager introduced the actor to the Hollywood icon.
Farrell said he hit it off with the Cleopatra star, despite their 44-year age difference. "It was kind of like the last, it feels like in my head, not her, I'm projecting, but the last kind of romantic relationship I had,” he told Ellen DeGeneres in 2014, as quoted by USA Today. “Which was never consummated."
RELATED: How Grace Kelly's Boyfriend Found Out She Was Cheating With a Rich Playboy.
They shared a lot of late-night phone calls.
Jeffrey Mayer/WireImageAlthough Farrell had previously attempted to seduce a much-older woman—according to Eileen Atkins, who said he tried to get her in bed when he was 28 and she was 69—his relationship with Taylor was never physical. Rather, it took the form of some teen-like, late-night phone calls, he revealed, admitting that connecting with the star required the help of the nursing staff.
"It was really cool, and she's wasn't much of a sleeper at night like I'm not, so at 2 a.m. I'd call her," Farrell said on Ellen. "She wouldn't mind me speaking of this because I'd be very careful of, you know… I'd call her at 2 a.m. and the nurse would answer the phone. I'd say, is she awake? And the nurse was like, hold on I'll just check, and then I'd be on the phone and I'd hear, 'Hello?' And I'd go, 'How's it going?' And we'd talk for a half an hour, an hour into the wee hours. Really cool."
He reminded her of Richard Burton.
Bob Penn/Sygma/Sygma via Getty ImagesAccording to Kate Andersen Brower, author of the biography Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit & Glamour of an Icon, Farrell reminded Taylor of Richard Burton, the Welsh star with whom she shared a passionate relationship and married twice. The author detailed some risqué encounters the pair had to Fox News in 2022.
"Colin loved to joke with her," Brower said. "He would go to her house in Bel Air, and he would pull down his pants and show her his tattoo, which was close to his crotch area. And she just loved that, because he reminded her of Richard."
RELATED: Katharine Hepburn Allegedly Set Up With 150 Women by Hollywood Escort.
They had a fight when he got caught up with work.
Gregg DeGuire/WireImageFarrell supported causes close to Taylor's heart even after she passed away. At the 2022 Elizabeth Taylor Ball to End AIDS, the Banshees of Inisherin star reminisced about their time together, as recounted by People. "She loved CSI, and anything that had a crime scene or [longtime NCIS star] Mark Harmon in it," Farrell remembered.
He also recalled a time that they fought. After not being in touch over several weeks, Farrell reached out. "She said, 'When did you get back?' And I said, 'About five or six weeks ago.' And she went, 'Why didn't you call?' And I said, 'Because, stuff is going on. My head was wrecked. I was in a bad mood. I didn't.'" But that answer didn’t suit Taylor. "She said, 'Well, that's not the kind of friendship I'm interested in, if you're only ever going to bring me your sunny days,’” he recalled.
He had aspirations of being her eighth husband.
Mike Coppola/Getty ImagesSadly, Taylor passed away of congestive heart failure in 2011 at age 79.
"I just adored her,” Farrell said to DeGeneres. “She was a spectacular, spectacular woman.” The now-47-year-old added that he might have been the final number on Taylor’s long list of husbands, if only they’d had time. "I wanted to be number eight, but we ran out of road," he explained.
For more celebrity nostalgia sent right to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.
