Celebrity families are just like normal ones. They have their disagreements and drama. The exception being when everyday families fight, they usually do not have to issue a press release about it.
On May 4, 2023, Carrie Fisher will be presented with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame posthumously. Her siblings Todd Fisher, Joely Fisher, and Tricia Lee Fisher will not be present at the ceremony because Carrie’s daughter, Billie Lourd, does not agree with how they handled her mother’s death. Joely and Tricia posted on Instagram about this, and Billie responded in a statement given to Today.
Joely and Tricia both took to Instagram to explain why they will not be present on their sister’s big day. It is clear they are not happy about this.
“Strangely we won’t be in attendance to celebrate our sister , whom we adored. For some bizarre, misguided reason our niece has chosen not to include us in this epic moment in our sister’s career. This is something Carrie would have definitely wanted her siblings to be present for,” their post begins.
Joely and Tricia go on to explain that Todd will not be there, either. They seem to be at a loss for why Billie would choose to do this.
“The fact that her only brother and two sisters were intentionally and deliberately excluded is deeply shocking. We have all been grieving the loss of our favorite human for some years now…we have given Billie the space to do that in her own way,” they continue.
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Joely and Tricia believe they have done nothing wrong: “We have been nothing but loving and open, consistently.” They claim they simply want to celebrate “the permanency of Carrie’s legacy in this industry.” Billie disagrees with these statements, and she felt compelled to publicly respond.
On May 3, 2023, Billie issued a statement to Today about this family disagreement. “I have seen the postings and press release issued by my mother’s brother and sister. I apologize to anyone reading this for feeling the need to defend myself publicly from these family members. But unfortunately, because they publicly attacked me, I have to publicly respond,” she begins.
Billie goes on to set the record straight unapologetically. She does not deny they were not invited to the event. “The truth is I did not invite them to this ceremony. They know why,” she reveals.
Billie believes that her aunts and uncle “chose to process their grief publicly and capitalize on my mother’s death, by doing multiple interviews and selling individual books for a lot of money, with my mom and my grandmother’s deaths as the subject.” She does not agree with this behavior. Because of it, they are not welcome at her late mother’s ceremony.
For those of you who might need a family tree refresher, Carrie is the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher. The couple also had a son named Todd. Eddie famously left Debbie for Elizabeth Taylor, which was quite the Hollywood scandal. He eventually married Connie Stevens, and the couple had two daughters, Joely and Tricia.
Carrie and Debbie were extremely close and died just one day apart from each other. A romantic would say that the mother-daughter duo just could not bear to be apart from each other.
Billie is the daughter of Carrie Fisher and talent agent Bryan Lourd. The couple divorced when Bryan realized he was gay. Billie is Carrie’s only child. Bryan would go on to adopt husband Bruce Bozzi’s daughter, Ava.
