Elizabeth Taylor’s first love letters set for auction

A COLLECTION of passionate letters from a young Elizabeth Taylor to her first love are to be sold at auction.

The 66 unpublished letters were penned when the Hollywood legend, who died last month, was just 17.

She sent them to her first fiance William Pawley, the 22-year-old son of a former US ambassador to Brazil.

Written between March and November 1949, they give an insight into Elizabeth’s rise from Hollywood starlet to eight-times married Oscar-winner, whose enduring love affair with Richard Burton was well documented.

In one letter, dated March 28, 1949 she tells Pawley: “My heart aches and makes me want to cry when I think of you, and how much I want to be with and to look into your beautiful blue eyes, and kiss your sweet lips and have your strong arms hold me, oh so tight, and close to you.

“I want our hearts to belong to each other throughout eternity.

“I want us to be ‘lovers’ always, even after we’ve been married 75 years and have at least a dozen great-great-grandchildren.”

By September she was writing about giving back her diamond engagement ring at Pawley’s request, but appeared reluctant to end the relationship.

Bobby Livingston, a spokesman for RR auctions of Amherst, New Hampshire, said the collection was bought two years ago from Pawley, who is now retired.

“We had expected the letters to fetch between $25,000 (€17,563) and $30,000 (€21,076), but now the sky’s the limit. They could go for two or three times that amount,” Livingston said.

The online auction will take place between May 12 and 19.