Debbie Reynolds was ‘humiliated’ when husband Eddie Fisher DUMPED her for ‘bad girl’ Elizabeth Taylor, says the late bubbly blonde’s son Todd Fisher
Debbie Reynolds’ son Todd Fisher has shared his reflections on the 1950s sex scandal that tore his family apart.
Todd, now 65, was just a baby when his singer father Eddie Fisher dumped his mother and ran off with her girlfriend Elizabeth Taylor.
Both Debbie and her daughter Carrie Fisher have written and spoken extensively about the affair, usually covering up their grief with jokes.
Now, years after Carrie and Debbie died a day apart, Todd has shared his own memories of how “humiliated” his mother was by her betrayal.
He told Fox news that Debbie found out her marriage was over when the media confronted her as she got off the plane and told her that Eddie had left her.
As they were: Debbie Reynolds’ son Todd Fisher has shared his reflections on the 1950s sex scandal that tore his family apart; pictured 2011
Love triangle: Todd was just a baby when his singer father Eddie Fisher (center) dumped Debbie (right) and ran off with her girlfriend Elizabeth Taylor (left); the trio is pictured in 1957
‘She hadn’t even heard it yet. You can tell she’s a little shocked, but she just handles it so gracefully. That just goes to the quality of her character,” Todd said.
Eddie and Debbie both enjoyed a long friendship with Elizabeth before all three became entangled in a love triangle.
Debbie was Eddie’s maid of honor and best man when Elizabeth tied the knot with her third husband Mike Todd, with whom she had a tempestuous marriage.
In her memoir, Debbie revealed that she once witnessed Elizabeth and Mike having a heated argument that escalated into a physical fight and then resolved into a make-out session.
When Debbie expressed doubts about her friend’s turbulent home life, Elizabeth dismissively dismissed her as a “girl scout.”
“What you saw is who she was — she was really apple pie,” Todd said of his mother in his new interview. ‘There was no dark side to her. I’ve known many people (who) had one image that they portrayed to the public and another image that was who they really are. But my mother was really that person.”
He said that during the shooting of her 1963 film Mary, Mary, “they had to teach her how to smoke a cigarette. And even then she did poorly… She was really a girl scout and then became a big movie star. She was squeaky clean.”
Debbie, who grew up in the Church of the Nazarene, has been outspoken about her sexual naivety – including the fact that she was a virgin before Eddie.
Word to the wise: In the run-up to her wedding to Eddie in 1955 (pictured), Frank Sinatra warned Debbie against marrying a singer because they were incapable of fidelity.
Family Matters: Debbie walked down the aisle anyway and then quickly welcomed Carrie and Todd; Debbie and Eddie are pictured with baby Carrie in 1956
“They got married in their early 20s,” Todd said. “And I think Hollywood brought them together, too.”
He clarified, “I mean, I’m not saying they weren’t attracted to each other. My dad grabbed my mom off the stage… and said to his best friend, “I’m going to get that girl.” And he did: he married her. I’m not sure if it was the best move, but he did it.”
Leading up to her marriage to Eddie, Debbie made a film called The Tender Trap with Frank Sinatra, which warned her against marrying a singer because members of his profession were incapable of being faithful.
However, Debbie led the way and walked down the aisle anyway, quickly welcoming Carrie and Todd – the latter named after Mike Todd.
In 1958, Mike was killed in a plane crash, leaving Elizabeth devastated – and Eddie was asked to step in and comfort her.
“I understand it looking back,” Debbie mused decades later. ‘Who would pass Elizabeth? No living woman was as beautiful as she. And Eddie had even tried to act like Mike Todd, smoking big cigars.”
But at the time, Debbie was, in her own words, “the last to hear of the affair.” There were hints in the newspaper and I had noticed that my friends were whispering when I came to parties or celebrations alone.’
Despite her guilelessness, the state of her marriage became impossible to ignore when she called Elizabeth at a hotel – and Eddie answered.
Double date: Debbie was honorary mother and best man to Eddie when Elizabeth tied the knot with her third husband Mike Todd; the two couples are pictured in 1957
Side by Side: After Mike died in a plane crash, Eddie and Elizabeth began an affair that culminated in their wedding in Las Vegas in 1959 (pictured)
“Suddenly a lot of things fell into place,” Debbie said. ‘I could hear her voice asking him who was calling – they were clearly in bed together. I shouted at him, “Turn around, honey, and let me talk to Elizabeth.”
“As Carrie likes to say, my dad rushed over to Liz and gradually moved forward,” Todd said with a laugh in his new interview.
“My father left my mother for Elizabeth Taylor. A lot of people were upset about that… A lot of people said, “So your daddy left the good girl for the bad girl.”
Todd claimed, “Liz didn’t make a point of being the bad girl. She had come a long way from National Velvet… So when my mother was put in the position of being humiliated by my father… my mother was a classy person.”
Faithfully, he added, “She never turned my father against us. She could have told us that Eddie left her for Liz.”
Todd admitted, “And of course a lot of it was in our faces as kids growing up. And this scandal never really went away. It’s still talked about to this day.’
Although Debbie refrained from bad-mouthing Eddie to their children, she skillfully played the media to ensure the public took her side.
Freshly rejected, she wore diaper pins in her blouse to pose for an iconic photo with her children in front of the family home Eddie had just left.
Flashback: Years after Carrie and Debbie died a day apart, Todd talked about how “humiliated” his mother was by her betrayal; Todd, Debbie and Carrie are pictured together
Elizabeth’s public image as a ruthless man-eater was thus forever cemented, as was Eddie’s as a philandering villain.
Eddie soon found himself on the business end of a cheating scandal when Elizabeth left him for her next husband, her Cleopatra co-star Richard Burton.
Liz and Dick carried on a torrid affair at the iconic Hotel du Cap in Cannes, at a time when they were both married to other people.
When Eddie found out that Elizabeth was approaching him, he became so enraged that he pointed a gun at her while she lay in bed, according to a best-selling book about the romance between Liz and Dick called Furious Love.
But with the gun in his hand, Eddie assured his wife, “Don’t worry, Elizabeth. I’m not going to kill you. You are too Beautiful.’
Debbie and Elizabeth “eventually became good friends again,” according to Todd, and even starred in a 2001 TV movie that Carrie wrote for them.
The photo, titled These Old Broads, also featured Shirley MacLaine, who played a lightly fictionalized version of Debbie in the 1990 film Postcards From The Edge, the screenplay for which Carrie adapted from her novel of the same name.
Shortly after Elizabeth died in 2011, Debbie appeared on The View and noted, “Elizabeth loved life — and I know that because she took a part of mine.”