In short, Elizabeth Taylor’s magnitude as a star was much greater than Eddie Fisher’s. Certainly we can read some sexual connotation out of Rickles’ words too, but without being able to ask him directly, we can’t quite know for sure how much he meant in regards to the perceived imbalance of fame, versus sexuality.

Certainly sexuality played a factor. Eddie Fisher made crude jokes about it in a slate of nightclub appearances where he capitalized on the scandal created by Elizabeth’s affair with Richard Burton during the filming of ‘Cleopatra’ with a number about “Cleo, the Nympho of the Nile”. Before the film even released, comedy sketches were making jokes about it and the affair. In a particular sketch from The Perry Como Show there is an exchange between Don Adams and Sandy Stewart where Sandy, dressed as Cleopatra complains that she’s “still wearing last year’s snake”to which Don replies “What, do you want a new snake every year? Who do you think you are, Liz Taylor?” Further on in the sketch, Sandy offers Don a romantic boat ride, to which Don replies “Just the two of us, and a thousand slaves, rowing. Just my luck, one of them will be Eddie Fisher!”

There were also the obvious conflicts of personality, lifestyle and level of fame. Her star power had supposedly been a point of contention in Elizabeth’s previous marriage to Michael Wilding. It also must be pointed out that Elizabeth had married Eddie after the death of her third husband, Mike Todd. Eddie had been best man at their wedding, and Mike Todd’s best friend. It is commonly speculated, and confirmed by Taylor in much later interviews, that she married him to be close to Todd’s memory in a wave of grief. Later, while filming Cleopatra, Elizabeth Taylor became involved with Richard Burton, who was more of her match in terms of fame and lifestyle, though he would eventually also suffer from feeling like he was in his wife’s shadow. On the set of Cleopatra, one of director Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s sons, Tom, described that “Dad advised Eddie to go back to New York. Eddie’s really out of his league here, with this romance. These two people will eat him alive, they’re so in love with each other.”

Her later conclusions about the marriage are clear in Richard Burton’s diaries, and he made his own views on the union clear. On November 16, 1966, Richard Burton recorded in his diaries that “[Elizabeth Taylor] is so ashamed of herself for having married such an obvious fool. He really is beneath contempt - a gruesome little man and smug as a boot.” This was in response to the news that Eddie Fisher was trying to get custody of Elizabeth’s adopted daughter, Maria, in their divorce. On November 20, 1968, Richard Burton wrote in his diaries that, during a fight with Elizabeth over her gossip about Warren Beatty, he said to her “Christ, if you can marry Eddie Fisher, you can marry anybody.”

Obviously Burton has reasons for hostility towards Eddie Fisher, so we can hardly expect his words to be objective, but there is really not objectivity in the histories of these interpersonal relationships. However, I think Burton’s words, particular the second quote, indicate the mismatch between the couple, both in terms of personality, and in terms of public expectation.

Sources

Richard Burton, The Richard Burton Diaries edited by Chris Williams

The Making of Cleopatra, This documentary was provided with the special, reconstructed edition of the 1963 film, which restored a lot of footage that had originally been left on the cutting room floor. I am usually skeptical of commercially produced documentaries, but used this mainly for the first person interviews and archive footage included. This documentary is available on YouTube as well.