Elizabeth Taylor Reportedly Followed Very Strict Rules About Her Look During This High-Profile Marriage

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It’s no secret that if you marry into royalty or politics, your life is composed of more rules than you can count — and Elizabeth Taylor was no exception. During her seventh marriage to politician John Warner, the Cleopatra legend had to follow a series of tedious and rigorous rules, especially when it came to her appearance.

For one thing, she was forbidden to wear her favorite color. Known for her affinity for the color purple, Taylor had to sacrifice all of the purple-hued clothing in her closet while Warner was on the campaign trail. Why? “Because it smacked of royalty,” as Taylor said in a 1997 interview with POZ.

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“Washington is the hardest town for a woman in the world — especially if you’re married to a politician,” she said in the same interview. “If the woman is the politician, then it might be quite different. But if you’re wedded to the politician, it’s like your lips are sealed. You are a robot.”

There were many more rules to it, with the most well-known being the purple rule. “I was told to wear tweeds. I couldn’t wear purple or Halston pantsuits,” she said to People back in 2006.

Now, Taylor followed it for months until one day, she wore the most purple suit she owned. In the same interview with POZ, she said, “But then, after the election, the Republican women gave a luncheon in my honor for all that I had done for the campaign, and I put on my purplest Halston pantsuit.”

As previously mentioned, this marriage to Warner was her seventh. They met back in 1976 at a Washington, D.C. dinner for Queen Elizabeth II, where he escorted her, and married a few months later. They divorced in 1982, with Taylor saying she didn’t enjoy being a senator’s wife. Despite their divorce, they remained friendly until her death.

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Taylor spoke about her time as a senator’s wife in her memoir Elizabeth Takes Off, saying, “I don’t think I’ve ever been so alone in my life as when I was Mrs. Senator, and I don’t blame my ex-husband. “He never pretended to be anything but a man devoted to public service, and once that service began in earnest, I had to take a backseat to his constituency.”

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