'He was nuts': Dame Joan Collins' 'volatile relationship' with Liz Taylor's first husband Conrad Hilton Jr

Dame Joan Collins had a "volatile" relationship with Conrad Hilton Jr in the years after he was married to Elizabeth Taylor.

The 91-year-old actress had a brief dalliance with the late hotel heir- who was commonly known as Nicky - in the late 1950s following on from his abusive marriage to Joan's fellow Hollywood star.

Speaking in the new BBC documentary series 'Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar', she said: "I did. [date him] He was nuts. It was quite volatile. Once we were lying in bed, and he took out this gun from the side table and shot it to the ceiling. Nicky Hilton had a problem with being too good-looking and too rich, and I don't think he got a lot of love from his father!"

In her 1988 memoir 'Elizabeth Takes Off', the film icon recalled that her fist marriage began to crumble after just eight months as Conrad - who eventually died of a heart attack in 1969 aged 42 - became "became sullen, angry and abusive, physically and mentally."

Earlier this year, it was Nanette Burstein's documentary 'Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes' - which assembles hours of the famed actress discussing her life in unearthed recordings - that she had received a split lip at the hands of Conrad, and that he once kicked her in the stomach so hard that she suffered a miscarriage.

The 'Dynasty' legend has discussed her friendship with the 'Cleopatra' actress - who died in 2011 at the age of 79 - as part of Kim Kardashian's documentary on the Golden Age star and recalled that she and her friends would idolise Elizabeth and try to emulate her looks.

She said: "My friends and I, we all wanted to look like her. We all did big eyebrows like her. But I know that she had a difficult time."