Aspel & Company

While in the UK to promote her book, Elizabeth Takes Off, Elizabeth stopped by veteran broadcaster Michael Aspel’s long running ITV program, Aspel & Company. The two discussed her life, how she got involved in AIDS, her addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs, and more. Aspel asked Elizabeth whether she thought the Betty Ford Center, where she successfully sought treatment, would have helped Richard Burton and whether he was tempted to go himself.

“I don’t know,” she said. “The last time I saw him he was very curious about it. He was very proud of what I had done, and he had asked me a lot of very pertinent questions, and it seemed to me more than idle curiosity. I think he was perhaps interested.”

Aspel later shared how he cheekily coaxed a kiss from Elizabeth following their candid interview:

“She was absolutely perfect, and at the end of the interview, which was very honest, funny and quite bawdy, as we were having our photographs taken, she said: ‘Is there any lipstick on my teeth?’

‌“And I thought the interview had gone very well and I could be cheeky, so I said: ‘No, but I wouldn’t mind some on mine.

‌“… As I was chatting with someone else, I noticed she came by my side and she was glossing up with lipstick. Then she took my face between her hands and gave me this tremendous kiss and it was magenta all across my cheek.”