The Oprah Winfrey Show

Elizabeth appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show for the first time in February 1988 to chat about her new book, Elizabeth Takes Off. The queen of American daytime TV, who traveled to Los Angeles to record the interview, later shared that “we were all a bit—we, meaning [the] hair and makeup team—intimidated by the idea of meeting Elizabeth Taylor, so we think we’ve got to do bigger, more, bigger, louder, wear colour, whatever”. (Oprah joked that the hairstyle she sported in the interview was from “my electric shock phase”.) She said that, as the two were being mic’d, Elizabeth told her that she did not want to discuss any of her marriages or romantic relationships.

But that didn’t stop Oprah from asking her about them anyway. She tells Elizabeth that she’s recently seen a photo of her on a purple Harley-Davidson with Malcolm Forbes. “My hog,” Elizabeth purrs in a Southern drawl reminiscent of Maggie the Cat, referring to the motorcycle. “What is the deal [with you and Malcolm]?” she asks. “Malcolm and I are biking buddies,” Elizabeth explains. Oprah presses: “And it stops right there on the bike?” “Well, we go out in a hot air balloon once in a while,” Elizabeth replies with a laugh. “Mmhmm,” Oprah continues. She teases: “You’re so revealing. You just tell everything. [...] You’ve gotta stop talking so much.” The two laugh. “You have just gotta stop telling everything you know.”

Next, Oprah moves on to the topic of George Hamilton.

Oprah: George Hamilton. Is that just a special friendship?
‍Elizabeth: Yes.
‍Oprah: No kissy kissy?
‍Elizabeth: Why you cheeky bugger. [Laughing]
‍Oprah: I just wanna know. Just tell me so we can all go home…
‍Elizabeth: Well, I think George and I are broken up. [Elizabeth adds that they remain friends.]

Oprah would later cite the interview as one of the most difficult of her career. She said that Elizabeth “later apologized to me, because she realized it was such a painful interview. She was in a lot of pain at the time, but I didn’t know that.”

Oprah would interview Elizabeth again in 1992, shortly after she celebrated her sixtieth birthday. Elizabeth also made a surprise appearance during Oprah’s 1993 live primetime interview with Michael Jackson at his Neverland Ranch.