Billie Lourd, the daughter of Carrie Fisher, has confirmed she did not invite her late mother’s siblings to her Hollywood Walk Of Fame ceremony – after a battle of words broke out between the family members over the guest list.
Star Wars actress Fisher – who had previously spoken openly about her battle with addiction and bipolar disorder – died in 2016 at the age of 60 after going into cardiac arrest on an airplane with cocaine, morphine and ecstasy in her system.
Days before a scheduled May 4 star ceremony for Fisher, her half-siblings Joely, 55, and Tricia-Leigh, 54, took to Instagram to launch a blistering attack on 30-year-old Lourd over the “bizarre” decision to exclude them from the event – a day after their brother Todd, 65, claimed family had ‘frozen’ him from their 30-seat guest list.
Lourd hit back, claiming the siblings “benefited from her mother’s death” in a barbed statement The Hollywood Reporterwhere she also said they “deeply hurt” her with their actions after her loss.
She said: “Days after my mother died, her brother and her sister chose to publicly process their grief and capitalize on my mother’s death, conducting multiple interviews and selling individual books for a lot of money, with the death of my mother and my grandmother as the subject. I found out through the press that they had done this. They never consulted me or considered how this would affect our relationship.
Response: Billie Lourd, the daughter of Carrie Fisher, has confirmed she did not invite her late mother’s siblings to her Hollywood Walk Of Fame ceremony – after a war of words broke out between the family members over the guest list (Lourd and Fisher in the photo 2015)
“The truth about my mother’s very complicated relationship with her family is known only to me and those who were really close to her. While I recognize that they have every right to do whatever they please, their actions were very hurtful to me during the most difficult time of my life. I chose and still choose to deal with hair loss in a very different way.
“To be clear, there is no feud. We’re not in a relationship. This was a conscious decision on my part to break a cycle with a way of life that I don’t want to be a part of for myself or my children.
“The people who knew and loved my mom at Disney and Lucasfilm created this star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to honor her legacy. This moment is about Carrie Fisher and everything she’s accomplished and what she’s meant to the world. I’m going to focus on that. May the 4th be with you.’
Lourd also apologized to “anyone who read this for feeling the need to defend myself in public” and said she only commented after she was “attacked by them in public.” She also said that Fisher’s siblings “know why” they were excluded.
The statement comes after Joely and Tricia-Leigh shared a joint post accompanied by several throwback snaps featuring Carrie that read, “In response to your question about whether or not we’ll be part of the party….
Strangely enough, we won’t be there to celebrate our sister, whom we adored. For some bizarre, misguided reason, our cousin has chosen not to involve us in this epic moment in our sister’s career.
Fury: Fisher’s sisters Joely (R) and Tricia Leigh (L) have publicly accused the late star Lourd’s daughter of ‘deliberately’ shutting them out
As they were: Fisher’s brother Todd is also publicly furious about not being invited to watch her receive a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame posthumously; photo 2014
This is something Carrie definitely wished her siblings were present. The fact that her only brother and two sisters were deliberately and deliberately left out is deeply shocking.
“We’ve all been grieving the loss of our favorite human for several years now…we’ve given Billie the space to do it in her own way. We’ve been nothing but loving and open, consistent.
“This isn’t about a picture on Hollywood Blvd… this is about celebrating the permanence of Carrie’s legacy in this industry, taking her place with a star on the iconic walk of fame alongside our parents.
“We thank the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce for honoring our sister in this way. May the Fourth be with you. Joely and Tricia Leigh Fisher.”
DailyMail.com has reached out to representatives for Billie Lourd for comment.
This comes after Todd lashed out at being denied entry to the ceremony.
A day after Carrie’s death. her grief-stricken mother, Singin’ In The Rain star Debbie Reynolds, died of a stroke after telling Todd, “I want to be with Carrie.”
Now Todd, who was close to both Carrie and Debbie, has told TMZ it was the family that froze him.
“Honestly, it’s a harrowing situation and I don’t deserve to be put in this position,” Todd said, insisting that if Carrie had her way, he’d be asked about the event.
Upset: The sisters’ post – accompanied by several throwback snaps featuring Carrie, read: “In response to your question as to whether or not we’ll be part of the party….
Throwback: Carrie, depicted in Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi, died in 2016 at age 60 after going into cardiac arrest with cocaine, morphine, and ecstasy in her system
“As the only brother of the Carrie Fisher, it’s really hurtful to be left out on this special day,” calling his exclusion “extremely hurtful and distressing, as I was always a big part of everything my sister and mother did historically throughout their life.’
It comes six years after a bitter feud broke out over the multi-million dollar estates of the Star Wars actress and her mother Debbie.
He noted that he and Carrie were present when Debbie received her second star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame in 1997 for a live performance.
Debbie received her first star on the Walk Of Fame for motion pictures in 1960, and five years later she did got to put her hand and footprints in front of what was then Grauman’s Chinese Theater with little Carrie and Todd in attendance.
Todd has now said that he himself initiated the process of getting Carrie a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, which she will finally receive on Thursday.
The date is May 4 — known as Star Wars Day because of the “May The Fourth Be With You” pun — and apparently the final seating arrangement is in the hands of Disney, which controls the sci-fi franchise.
Todd claims that when he protested his disapproval, Disney told him that Carrie’s family had already taken their assigned seats and the final decision was theirs.
To hear him tell it, he was also advised not to take the matter to Carrie’s daughter Billie and put more pressure on her.
Billie, who has followed in her family’s footsteps in acting, will be attending Thursday’s ceremony to receive the honors on behalf of her mother.
A day after losing Carrie, her mother Debbie Reynolds died of a stroke, after telling Todd, “I want to be with Carrie”; Debbie and Todd are pictured in 2011
Retro: Debbie, pictured with Carrie and Todd in 1985, shared her children with her first husband Eddie Fisher, who left the family to run off with Elizabeth Taylor
“It is heartbreaking and shocking to me that I was intentionally left out of attending this important legacy event for my sister, Carrie,” Todd said.
Todd and Carrie were Debbie’s children by her first husband Eddie Fisher, a singer who infamously abandoned the family to run off with Elizabeth Taylor.
Carrie was always blisteringly candid about her life, in semi-autobiographical novels like Postcards From The Edge and memoirs like Wishful Drinking.
Her acclaimed writing has included the screenplay for the Postcards From The Edge movie starring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine, as well as a Wishful Drinking one-woman show that became an HBO special.
Two years after his mother and sister died, Todd wrote an intimate memoir of his own called My Girls: A Lifetime With Carrie And Debbie.
He confessed that Carrie was “a little angry with me” during their last conversation, in part because “there was always some other tension between mom’s family, especially myself, and Carrie, as it was related to her drug use at the time.”
Todd recalled, “But when Carrie and I came face to face, there was no way we could have all of that. It just melted away, because the blood, the bond between brother and sister, the bond, runs so deep.’
He wrote that Carrie “collapsed” in front of him the last time she spoke to him, saying, “We should be okay with each other.” It’s the base.’