Once the news of the affair broke, the Georgia-based congresswoman contacted the United States Attorney General and formally requested that the couple be banned from returning to the U.S. on behalf of “undesirability” (via Entertainment Weekly). Naturally, infidelity was and is not a legal insubordination, so the request was promptly denied. That didn’t stop the world of headlines from voicing their discontent though. The momentum of the congresswoman’s request even prompted Taylor to skip the “Cleopatra” premier (per Showbiz Cheat Sheet).
Even the Vatican partook in the rampant dialogue surrounding the love affair between Taylor and Burton, addressing an open letter to the actress and accusing her of “erotic vagrancy.” Naturally, Taylor’s marriage to Eddie Fisher ended, and Richard Burton called it quits with his wife (Sybil Williams). The two stars would go on to marry one another in 1964. They divorced in 1974, remarried later that year, and then divorced for the final time in 1975 (via Showbiz Cheat Sheet).
