Elizabeth Taylor’s friend reveals her most extravagant gift to Michael Jackson

Elizabeth Taylor was notorious for receiving lavish gifts from her seven husbands, but the Hollywood icon had no qualms about spoiling her friends.

The screen legend and AIDS activist, one of the last icons of Hollywood’s golden age, died in 2011 at the age of 79. Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes” and “Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar” produced by Kim Kardashian. The estate also launched a clothing line.

Tim Mendelson, her longtime executive assistant and friend, told Fox News Digital that his boss loved to lavish gifts.

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“In 1991, she married a man she met at the Betty Ford Center, which wasn’t supposed to happen, but they fell in love,” Mendelson said, referring to Taylor’s last husband, Larry Forten Ski.

“They got married at Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch,” Mendelson shared. “As a thank you gift, she gave him an elephant named Gypsy.”

“Sure, she bought people cars, but she gave that elephant to Michael Jackson at Neverland Ranch as a surprise,” Mendelson said with a laugh.

Elizabeth Taylor’s granddaughter Naomi Wilding (left), Dame Elizabeth Taylor and her assistant Tim Mendelsohn (J. Vespa/WireImage/Getty Images)

In return, Taylor received a titanium elephant wallet.

When it comes to her family, Taylor loves to pamper them too. If they inherited her dazzling eyes, they would get a special collection from her.

“She had amazing blue eyes, and people always said they were violet,” Mendelson explained. “Her son and brother Howard both had dazzling blue-green eyes. She would always buy them the best cashmere sweaters to match their eyes. And they had to be the softest cashmere sweaters. They must have a whole wardrobe of shelf.

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“She wasn’t afraid to dig deep into her pocket to give someone the perfect gift that only she could get,” he shared. “If someone lost a dog, she was the first person to buy them a new pet. Dog, cat , whatever animal they wanted – she would give them one.”

If someone wanted to impress the movie star, they could simply give her jewelry. Mendelson recalled that one of Taylor’s favorite pastimes was to have him bring in boxes containing various diamonds just to look at them.

“She had a jewelry cabinet,” Mendelson recalled. “She was like a little girl appreciating her talent. And she definitely had beautiful work, especially from two of the loves of her life – Mike Todd and Richard Burton.”

Elizabeth Taylor shows off some of the many diamonds given to her by Richard Burton. (Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

“She has many sentimental works [Burton]” Mendelson added that Taylor had been married twice.

According to Taylor’s website, Burton showered her with gifts over the years “just because.” During their romance in Rome, he often took her shopping for emeralds and diamonds while he was adapting the 1963 film Cleopatra for the screen.

“I can’t deny that Richard gave me some beautiful gifts on my birthday and at Christmas, but the truth is, he was a very romantic man and he would use any excuse to give me a piece of jewelry,” Taylor recalled in her book, ” My love affair with jewelry.

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Elizabeth Taylor married and divorced her “Cleopatra” co-star Richard Burton twice. (Frank Edwards/Photography International/Getty Images)

“He would give me ‘It’s Tuesday and I love you’ gifts,” Taylor wrote. “‘It’s a beautiful day’ gifts. ‘Let’s go for a walk. I want to buy you something’ gifts. Over the years I’ve started to think of these as my ‘It’s Tuesday and I love you’ jewelry. I never Wonder when he will come up with the most extraordinary ring or something very sweet and simple.

Burton also bought her several gorgeous pieces of jewelry, including a 69-carat pear-shaped diamond that became known as the Burton-Taylor Diamond. She later auctioned it off to benefit a hospital in Botswana.

According to Vanity Fair, Taylor would go on to own one of the most important private jewelry collections in the United States. It features rare pearls, diamonds, rubies and emeralds. Many of Taylor’s rare works are auctioned by Christie’s auction house.

Jewelry owned by Elizabeth Taylor is on display at the “The Collection Of Elizabeth Taylor” auction news preview on December 1, 2011 in New York City. (Slavin Vlasik/Getty Images)

Mendelson said Taylor did not discriminate when it came to jewelry.

“When I first started working for her, it was her 60th birthday,” Mendelson recalled. “I saw these earrings that looked like something she wanted. They had amethysts and were sparkly. They weren’t expensive – about a hundred bucks. She was impressed and I bought her these because they looked like Her style.

When Taylor was knighted in 2000, she returned the favor.

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“I remember wanting this watch, it was called the ‘Black Watch,’ and I thought it was so cool,” Mendelson said. “I didn’t ask her for it. But when she was looking for jewelry, she bought two pieces and said she was going to give them to her sons. We went back to L.A. and we were just hanging out. And then she turned around and she He gave me the watch and said: ‘This is always for you.

“The thing is, the Black Watch is the one who protects the queen,” Mendelson said. “She gave the other watch to another dear friend of hers, José, her hairdresser. She felt, ‘These people are watching over me like the black watchmen guarding the Queen of England.'”

Kyle MacLachlan, Taylor’s co-star in the 1994 film “The Flintstones,” recently claimed that Taylor “had to have a gift every day” when it came to bringing the live-action cartoon to life.

John Goodman, Elizabeth Perkins and Elizabeth Taylor in a scene from the 1994 film The Flintstones. (Global/Getty Images)

“Dinner is Over” podcast host Jesse Tyler Ferguson exclaimed: “Wait, wait, stop. She has to have a gift?”

“Every day brings a gift,” the “Sex and the City” actor repeated.

“In the dressing room, in the trailer, she has to have greenery around her. I said that’s going to be in my contract… Every day is a gift.”

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Elizabeth Taylor reportedly needed a gift every day on the set of The Flintstones. (Michael Putland/Getty Images)

MacLachlan, 65, gave the example of “jewellery” as an expected gift from the “National Velvet” star.

“Now this is second-hand,” he added, saying he heard the story from producer Bruce Cohen. “Bruce probably told me and said, ‘Don’t ever tell anyone.’ It was like it was too late for me.

“The Flintstones” was Taylor’s last film, although she continued to do television, including the 2001 TV movie “These Old Women.”

Elizabeth Taylor is one of the most recognizable icons of Hollywood’s golden age of filmmaking. (Getty Images)

In The Flintstones, Taylor plays Pearl Slughoople, the mother of Wilma Flintstones.

After her death in 2011, “The Flintstones” producer Bruce Cohen told The Hollywood Reporter, “The moment she said yes, we wanted to make it a special experience for her.”

“Lavender was her favorite color, so we installed lavender stairs in her trailer and filled the trailer with lavender flowers on her first day on the job. I was also told that this was a tradition, You gave her a generous gift on the first day of making, so we wanted to do the same.

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Elizabeth Taylor was seen here in 2007 during a night out. (Getty Images)

Cohen said that when he went to her house to try on clothes before the shoot, she whispered to him, “Honey, you know I love getting gifts on the first day of a shoot.” I said, “Yeah, I do.” I’ve heard about this tradition.” Then she whispered, “I like Cartier, my dear.”

“We didn’t have an Elizabeth Taylor gift allocated in the budget, so I went to Mr. Spielberg, the executive producer, and I said, ‘Steven, I need you to write me a personal check so I can go and pay for Elizabeth Taylor Shopping He loved the idea and understood why we couldn’t fit it into our budget.