The Most Beautiful Woman in the World by Ellis Amburn

Author:Ellis Amburn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

Chapter 10

One More Go at Love

THE DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE OF STURM UND DRANG

In the 1970s Hungary was a brave, freedom-loving, and defiant nation trying to survive under the yoke of communist tyranny—hardly the ideal setting for one of the most expensive and showy revels of modern times. Elizabeth’s birthday party guests were flown to Budapest first-class and put up at the Duna-Intercontinental Hotel, all courtesy of the Burtons. Duna is the Hungarian word for Danube, the 1,770-mile river that flows beneath the penthouse suite the Burtons occupied in the winter of 1972. Richard’s Bluebeard costars were four of the most attractive women in the world—Raquel Welch, Nathalie Delon, Virna Lisi, and Joey Heatherton—and none of them was among the two hundred guests Elizabeth invited for the weekend of February 26–27.

When guests arrived, they discovered huge bouquets of flowers in their rooms at the Duna, as well as champagne on ice, wet bars stocked with hard liquor, and carte-blanche room service. There were several parties during the weekend, graded to the status of the guests, who included British Ambassador and Mrs. Derek Dodson; Ringo Starr and his wife; Michael Caine and Shakira Baaksh; Michael Wilding Sr. and his wife Margaret Leighton; David Niven; Susannah York; poet Stephen Spender; Princess Grace (with her lady-in-waiting Madame Aurelli); Mrs. Yul (Doris) Brynner; model Bettina; comedian Frankie Howerd, who’d given Richard a guest shot on his show early in his career; Nevill Coghill; Simon and Sheran Hornby; Kurt Frings; publicist John Springer; Emlyn Williams and his sons Brook and Alan; Welsh actor Victor Spinetti; Alexandre; Gianni Bozzachi; Joseph and Patricia Losey; Elizabeth’s mother and brother; a dozen members of Richard’s family, including Cis James and Graham Jenkins; Christopher Wilding (now at the University of Hawaii); and Liza Todd, released from Heathfield, her English boarding school, for the occasion. According to Hollywood agent Dorris Halsey, her friend George Cukor attended, and was feted by Hungarian film students, who called him “Gyuri bacsi [Uncle George].” Conspicuous by his absence was Michael Wilding Jr., who refused to attend, finding the Burtons’ gaudy lifestyle increasingly repellent.1

During a cocktail party in the Burtons’ suite, Richard introduced Maria to all her Welsh aunts and uncles. The Jenkins family adored Maria because she closely resembled Kate Burton, and some of them said Maria could easily have been Sybil’s daughter with her round face and cherubic cheeks. Richard’s brother Verdun, who’d never been in an airplane before his flight from Wales to Budapest, sat next to Princess Grace at a small family dinner. Uncomfortable in a new shirt with a collar that was too small for his muscular neck, Verdun told the Princess, “I can’t understand it. I know I asked for the right size.” The sensible Grace suggested, “You must change. You can’t sit there all evening looking as if you’re about to have a seizure.” Verdun left the table and when he returned in ten minutes, Grace noticed he was wearing the same shirt. “There was nothing wrong with the size,” Verdun explained.

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