Letters Spill Details of Liz Taylor's First Love

Elizabeth Taylor is famed for becoming a bride eight times over, but more than 60 love letters reveal a romance that predated all of those: Unpublished letters written by a 17-year-old Taylor to her first fiance will be auctioned in May. The young starlet wrote to William Pawley on pale pink stationery in 1949, telling him, "I've never known this kind of love before—it's so perfect and complete—and mature." The letters bare the thoughts of a young woman worried about her weight (I'm just stuffing myself on a box of candy—honestly I've got to stop eating so much") and her high school exams.

But mostly, she fawns over Pawley, the 22-year-old son of a former ambassador to Brazil. In May of that year, she tells him she'd give up her career for him, writing "I'll never love anyone else—period." By September, however, Taylor was writing about returning her engagement ring at Pawley's request, reports the AP. "I know with all my heart and soul that this is not the end for us—it couldn't be—we love each other too much." But as we all know, it was. Less than eight months later, she married hotel heir Conrad Nicholson "Nicky" Hilton. (Click to read the secrets contained in another celeb's recently revealed love letters.)