Mickey Rooney — the stage and screen legend who was married eight times — had an affair with Elizabeth Taylor when she was just 14 and he was married to his second spouse, according to an explosive new book.
In “The Life and Times of Mickey Rooney,” out Oct. 20 from Gallery Books, Richard A. Lertzman and William J. Birnes report that Pam McClenathan — a pal and caregiver to Rooney’s second wife, Betty Jane — revealed: “Betty Jane . . . told me she went to visit Mickey at [an LA film studio] around June 1946. She had [the couple’s first son] Mickey Jr. in tow and was pregnant with [second son] Timmy . . . When she opened the door to the dressing room, Elizabeth Taylor was on her knees giving Mickey a b - - w job.”
McClenathan said Taylor — who starred with Rooney in the 1944 classic “National Velvet” — was just 14 at the time. Rooney was in his mid-20s. “After that, all hell broke loose,” McClenathan told the authors, recalling that Betty Jane later “got a top attorney and big settlement, but [she] really was not happy after that. She wanted a faithful husband.”
Betty Jane was a backup singer for the likes of Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and Sam Cooke, and she and Rooney divorced in 1949. Eight days after the split was official, Betty Jane married composer Buddy Baker.
According to the book, a basic agreement was drawn up to pay Betty Jane $15,000 per year for 15 years — plus $12,000 in medical and legal costs. But she rescinded the agreement when her lawyer said Rooney was fraudulently “hiding his real income and assets.” Rooney then also paid $25,000 in cash to settle the dispute.
Rooney, who died last year at 93, had said of Betty Jane, “We just weren’t compatibly compatible.” His harem of wives also included Artie Shaw’s and Frank Sinatra’s future spouse Ava Gardner, Martha Vickers and Marge Lane — whom 5-foot-2 Rooney married for 100 days. Of course, Taylor also went on to rack up seven husbands.
A rep for the late Rooney told us, “I have no knowledge of said incident.”