Elizabeth Taylor's granddaughter said she 'wanted to be a housewife'

Elizabeth Taylor will forever be remembered for her decades-long acting career, dazzling Hollywood life and no fewer than eight marriages.

However, a new documentary about the Hollywood starlet reveals a different side to Taylor, who died aged 79 in 2011.

The documentary includes faces from across Elizabeth's life, with friends and family acting as central narrators. Some of those include actor George Hamilton, Joan Collins, and Elizabeth's biographer, Kate Anderson Brower.

Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar, a three-part documentary produced by Kim Kardashian and set to air on BBC2 this Friday, hopes to broaden the portrayal of the Hollywood starlet, documenting her winding trajectories as actress, business tycoon, and activist trailblazer.

However, in a deeper dive into Taylor's personal life, people close to her reveal the world's most powerful and influential actress actually longed for a quiet family life as a doting housewife behind the scenes.

In first episode of the documentary, Taylor's granddaughter Naomi Wilding remembers her grandmother's devotion to love itself. 

Reflecting on her grandmother's tumultuous life on the public stage, Naomi said she believed there was a time when Taylor wished to trade the spotlight for the simple life of a housewife.

She recalled: 'She had all these conflicts. Many times, I think, she just wanted to be a housewife and stay at home with her kids.'

Elizabeth, who was famously married eight times, had her first two children with her second husband, Michael Wilding. The couple were married for five years before eventually calling it quits on their romance. 

Naomi is the daughter of Elizabeth's first-born son, Michael Jr. 

Speaking to the Observer about the new series, Naomi admitted she had been reluctant to take part, but agreed on the promise that her grandmother's story would be reframed through a human lens.

She hoped her grandmother's tumultuous life, as viewed through the media microscope, would be a 'cautionary tale' for how celebrities were treated in the future. 

The first episode of the three-part series follows how Elizabeth blossomed from a child star signing an 18-year film contract, to a widow and single mother of three, with the remaining episodes covering her ascent to being the highest paid actress in the world. 

Naomi said: 'I hope this series will change perceptions. She was bloody-minded about following her own path and making her own decisions. I'd love a new generation to appreciate that because her story is still so relevant today,' she told the publication. 

During the first episode of the documentary, narrators detail Elizabeth's battle to be the scribe to her own life, as film company MGM began calling the shots on her personal life.

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Her granddaughter, Naomi said: 'She was originally a product of the studio system, sure, but she was treated as a commodity for decades afterwards. Her first marriage was basically arranged by MGM. Aged 16, she was kissing middle-aged men on screen. I thought about her a lot when #MeToo happened, wondering what stories she would share.'

During Elizabeth's second marriage to Wilding, Naomi said the couple had grown unhappy but 'they kept going because that's what the studio expected of her'.

'My dad used to talk about this because so many of those moments were so staged,' she added. 

Also included in the documentary are old interviews with the superstar, some of which have never been heard before. 

In one segment, an old audio recording of Elizabeth hears the actress say: 'I wanted to be in control of my life and all of that just made me angrier and angrier'.

The documentary has been produced by Kim Kardashian who calls herself a protégé of Taylor, and was the last person to interview Elizabeth before her death in 2011. 

Elsewhere in the first episode, people close to the actress discuss one of her greatest loves, Mike Todd - who was Elizabeth's third husband. 

The documentary recalls the couple's romance at its earliest stages, when Mike confessed that he was in love with Elizabeth just one day after her separation from Michael Wilding.

'Elizabeth was a romantic,' her friend recalled. 'Mike swept her into his life, she was in love.'

'That period is when she's most beautiful, she just glows,' she added.

Naomi said: 'I think Mike taught her what it felt like to be loved, unconditionally, to be adored.'

'When I was growing up, it was this idea that she had these great loves, that was sort of hammered down to us.

'We didn't get 'you need to do better in school or brush your teeth', it was, love is everything, and that started with Mike,' she said.

Tragically, just a year after the couple married, Mike died in a private plane crash, just six months after the birth of his daughter, Liza Todd.

Elizabeth had been filming Cat on a Hot Tin Roof when she heard the news of her husbands death, which rendered her a widow left to care for three children.

Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar, a three-part documentary which airs on BBC2 from Friday 27 September at 9pm.