04 May 2023 , 13:57
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In many ways, Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds shared many similarities. Both shot to stardom at the age of just 19 - Fisher as Princess Leia in Star Wars and Reynolds as Kathy Selden in Singin' in the Rain - and both went on to become Hollywood icons in their own right.
It wasn't all smooth sailing for the mother and daughter duo however, and both spoke candidly about the ups and downs of their relationship, which included a ten-year period of "total estrangement".
Born in Burbank, California, October 21, 1956, Fisher was the firstborn child of Reynolds and her then-husband, the crooner Eddie Fisher. She would go on to discuss the realities of growing up with such famous parents in her 2008 memoir 'Wishful Drinking'.
Fisher was born into Hollywood royalty (Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)Opening up about being overshadowed on the day of her birth, Fisher wrote: "Now, my mother is a beautiful woman—she's beautiful today in her 70s, so at 24 she looked like a Christmas morning. All the doctors [in the delivery room] were buzzing round her pretty head, saying: 'Oh, look at Debbie Reynolds asleep—how pretty'.
"And my father, upon seeing me start to arrive, fainted. So all the nurses ran over saying: 'Oh look, there's Eddie Fisher, the crooner, on the ground. Let's go look at him'.
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"So when I arrived I was virtually unattended. And I have been trying to make up for that fact ever since."
Just two years later, Fisher's father left her mother for legend of the screen Elizabeth Taylor, and, Fisher says she then saw him far more on TV than she ever did in real life.
Fisher opened up about her upbringing in her autobiography (Mirrorpix)Growing up with a mother who made movies had a profound effect on the woman Fisher would one day become.
Reynolds worked hard in her showbiz career while raising her two children, and would often sleep when she was at home due to exhaustion.
In the same autobiography, Fisher remembered feeling a sense that her mum didn't belong to her when they were out and about in public, as if they were taking part in some sort of "parade".
She recalled: "I think it was when I was ten that I realised with profound certainty that I would not be, and was in no way now, the beauty that my mother was. I was a clumsy-looking and intensely awkward, insecure girl.
"I decided then that I'd better develop something else - if I wasn't going to be pretty, maybe I could be funny or smart."
The pair became close in their later years and even lived next to each other (CBS via Getty Images)When it came to developing her own career, Fisher experienced difficulties stepping out of her mother's shadow.
In an interview with The New York Times, she recounted overhearing people saying, "she thinks she's so great because she's Debbie Reynolds' daughter", despite this hurtful view being far from the truth.
As a young woman in her twenties, Fisher experienced difficulties with drug abuse, and checked herself into rehab at the age of 28.
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In the ten years that followed her discharge, she and her mother experienced a particularly turbulent time in their relationship.
During a joint interview given on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Fisher revealed: "We had a fairly volatile relationship earlier on in my 20s. I didn't want to be around her. I did not want to be Debbie Reynolds' daughter."
Giving her own side of the story, Reynolds added: "It's very hard when your child doesn’t want to talk to you and you want to talk to them, and you want to touch them, you want to hold them.
"It was a total estrangement. She didn't talk to me for probably 10 years. So that was the most difficult time of all. Very painful, very heartbreaking."
Fisher and Reynolds died within a day of each other (Getty Images)The pair thankfully became closer later in life, and even joined forces for Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds , a HBO documentary all about their complicated relationship.
Sadly, just a few short weeks before the doc was broadcast, Fisher died at the age of 60 on December 27, 2016, after suffering a heart attack.
NBC News reported that Reynolds had set the table ready for Christmas celebrations with her daughter when she heard the devastating news.
Grief-stricken Reynolds died from a stroke the following day at the age of 84.
In an interview with Good Morning America, Carrie's brother Todd Fisher shared the heartbreaking last words his mother ever said to him.
He revealed: "She said she missed her daughter and wanted to see her again. I don't think she meant it quite like that, but in 30 minutes she went to go see her again."
At the time of their deaths, Fisher and Reynolds lived next door to each other, and their houses even had a joint driveway, suggesting their lifelong love and respect for each other had long surpassed any past frictions.