Colin Farrell reveals ‘affair’ with Elizabeth Taylor: 'She was my last romantic relationship'

The actor, 37, claimed he enjoyed an unusual relationship Hollywood icon, who was 40 years his senior

Colin Farrell has revealed that he enjoyed an unusually close relationship late actress Elizabeth Taylor before she passed away in 2011 aged 79.

The actor, 37, claimed that the Hollywood icon, who at the time was 40 years his senior, was the "last romantic relationship" he had.

"It was kind of like the last, it feels like in my head, not her, I’m projecting, but the last kind of romantic relationship I had, which was never consummated," he told chatshow host Ellen DeGeneres during a sit-down interview yesterday.

The pair first met at the Cedars Senai hospital in Los Angeles, where Farrell’s youngest son, Henry, was being born.

"I got home a few days later with Henry and I was thinking about Elizabeth and how she was doing and I called my publicist and I said I bumped into some people of Elizabeth Taylor’s, some friends of hers, could I send her some flowers?

"And my publicist said that's funny because I'm looking at and orchid from Elizabeth Taylor for you... I said wow that's amazing."

After asking for the flower to be sent to his house, he noticed it came with a hand-written note from the Cleopatra star - famed for her seven-strong list of ex-husbands.

Elizabeth Taylor as the the eponymous queen in 'Cleopatra'

Farrell asked his publicist if he could go and see Taylor, and his publicist arranged a meeting.

"That was the beginning of a year and a half or two years of what was a really cool.

"I just adored her. She was a spectacular, spectacular woman.

"I wanted to be number eight but we ran out of road,” he confessed.

One of the main things they bonded over? Their mutual battles with nightly insomnia.

"She’s wasn't much of a sleeper at night like I’m not, so at two o’clock in the morning I’d call her.

She wouldn’t mind me speaking of this because I’d be very careful of you know… I’d call her at two in the morning and the nurse would answer the phone I’d say, ‘Is she awake?’

"The nurse was like hold on I'll just check and then I’d be on the phone and I'd hear, 'Hello?' And I'd go, 'How’s it going?' and we’d talk for a half an hour, an hour, into the wee hours. Really cool."

Taylor herself described her appreciation for the star in conversation with Kim Kardashian for Harper’s Bazaar in 2011.

She said: "I love Johnny Depp, and I love Colin Farrell – both brilliant, nuanced actors with great range."

Farrell attended Taylor’s funeral in 2011, and recited a poem at the service.