This episode is brought to you by Fully Gemstones.

The big diamonds were spectacular, but you have to be a certain kind of person with a certain kind of life to be able to sort of incorporate those kind of pieces, right?

They're sort of larger than life

pieces. She put it on her hand and she looked at her hand and she said, look at my short,

fat little fingers now. I knew right away that, I never met her, but I knew right away then I liked

her. I'm Carol Horton, the voice of jewelry. Welcome to if jewels could talk. I'm an author andton, the voice of jewellery. Welcome to If Jewels Could Talk.

I'm an author and broadcaster and the woman who initiated the role of jewelry editor at magazines like Tatler and Vogue.

This is a podcast for everyone, for people who do like jewelry, for people who don't realize they like jewelry,

and anyone intrigued by fascinating facts, new ideas and forgotten histories.

So join me as I tell sparkly tales and meet all sorts of people,

delving into four centuries of jewellery culture,

and investigate what's happening now.

Today we're going to discuss one of Hollywood's legendary movie stars.

Born in 1932, Elizabeth Taylor had a couple of Academy Awards,

BAFTAs and four Golden Globes. She was the first million-dollar Hollywood star who was acknowledged as the world's most beautiful woman.

Her beauty was accentuated by wide violet-coloured eyes and fabulous jewelry, mostly diamonds.

In midlife, she pivoted into humanitarian work, particularly for HIV-AIDS research

and fundraising. And by the time she died, she had amassed one of the finest jewelry collections in the

world, which was sold at Christie's in 2011 as the most valuable auction in history, raising

$116 million.

So we're going to talk about Elizabeth Taylor's extraordinary life in jewels.

I'm welcoming Sally Morrison, who's with the De Beers Group,

...