Taylor Swift also pays homage to the star’s bold romantic spirit in her new song “Elizabeth Taylor” <\/em>from The Life of a Showgirl, <\/em>which name-checks her violet eyes, favorite romantic haunts such as Portofino, and her signature scent, White Diamonds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taylor\u2019s friend, fashion designer Vicky Tiel tells PEOPLE it\u2019s not a surprise that people are still talking about her. \u201cShe was the most famous woman on planet Earth,\u201d says Tiel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The two women met in Paris in 1964. Taylor, then with her fourth husband Richard Burton, wanted to ditch her formal ’50s style of long skirts and tasteful sheaths. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe threw away the old clothes, the Dior look and the fitted suits,\u201d says Tiel. \u201cIt was so ‘old lady.’ We were now in the ’60s, the sexual revolution. Elizabeth loved that. From then on she always wore my mini dresses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tiel traveled with her in the late ’60s and early ’70s, spending many months with her and her entourage in the finest hotels all over Europe on various film shoots. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe talked about sex all the time,\u201d she says with a laugh. The star\u2019s favorite partner in bed, she reveals, \u201cwas Richard. Absolutely. No question about it. Her lover for life was Richard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe was very fun,\u201d notes Tiel. \u201cShe took sex very lightly. She taught me a lot too; if something bad happens, you just roll your eyes, smile and don’t worry about it. She would just always laugh and be happy. She was a very, very happy person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for Burton, whom Taylor married and divorced twice, she carried him with her until the end, says Tiel. (He died in 1984 at age 58 of a massive brain hemorrhage.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBefore Richard died, I think two days before, he called me up,\u201d Tiel remembers. \u201cHe said, \u2018I don’t think I’m going to live very long, and I just wanted you and Ron [Tiel\u2019s then husband, makeup artist Ron Berkeley] to tell Elizabeth I’ll always love her the most. I love her forever and ever. And I miss her and I love her with all my heart.\u2019 “<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What do you expect me to do, sleep alone?\u201d That comment, made by Elizabeth Taylor at the height of her affair with Eddie Fisher \u2014 he was married to Debbie Reynolds and she was newly widowed \u2014 took…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting-stories"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"5\/12\/1959-Las](\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/dtmC3iTBeiyoP3sn1SoHEGJ7740=\/4000x0\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(852x0:854x2):format(webp)\/elizabeth-taylor-eddie-fisher-102125-5090eb04360c4f80b4dbfa410d2d1e8a.jpg\")