Elizabeth Taylor is set to marry for the ninth time, to a man 30 years her junior, according to reports.

PHOTOS: Taylor's long line of husbands

US showbiz websites report that the 78-year-old screen legend is engaged to a 49-year-old talent agent by the name of Jason Winters.

But sources say the couple, understood to have been together for almost three years, are keeping the news to themselves for now.

A representative for Taylor declined to confirm the status of her relationship, but told Access Hollywood: "It is well known and documented that they have been together for some time". The star of 1958's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and 1963's has made no secret about her feelings for Winters, once telling a US gossip columnist that he was "one of the most wonderful men I’ve ever known, that’s why I love him."

If news of the engagement is true, Winters will be following in several pairs of footsteps.

Taylor has been married eight times before, twice to the late actor Richard Burton.

She was last married to construction worker Larry Fortensky. But after a lavish ceremony at Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch in 1991, the pair split five years later.

The Oscar-winning actress was first married in 1950 to hotel heir Conrad Hilton, the great-uncle of socialite Paris Hilton.

Her exes are: Hilton (1950-51), Michael Wilding (1952-57), Mike Todd (1957-58), Eddie Fisher (1959-64), Burton (1964-74 and again 1975-76), John Warner (1976-82) and Fortensky (1991-96).

Taylor has suffered from poor health in recent years as a result of her lifelong battle with scoliosis, a curvature of the spine.