Carrie Fisher was finally honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in May 2023, but sadly, not everyone from the late superstar’s family was invited. Carrie’s only child, daughter Billie Lourd, said she did not invite Carrie’s three siblings, Todd, Joely and Tricia Leigh Fisher, to participate in the event, and that they “know why,” per her statement given to The Hollywood Reporter.
“I have seen the postings and press release issued by my mother’s brother and sister,” Billie wrote. “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. The truth is I did not invite them to this ceremony. They know why.”
“Days after my mom died, her brother and her sister 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,” Billie continued, referring to Carrie’s shocking death on Dec. 27, 2016 at age 60. A day later, Billie’s grandmother and Carrie’s mom, Old Hollywood icon Debbie Reynolds, passed away at age 84. “I found out they had done this through the press. They never consulted me or considered how this would affect our relationship,” the statement continued. “Though I recognize they have every right to do whatever they choose, their actions were very hurtful to me at the most difficult time in my life. I chose to and still choose to deal with her loss in a much different way.”
Carrie’s sister Joely published a memoir called Growing Up Fisher: Musings, Memories and Misadventures in 2017, while her brother Todd released My Girls: A Lifetime with Carrie and Debbie in 2018. With so much drama going on between the Fisher family members, let’s learn more about Carrie’s three siblings, below.
Carrie and Todd are Hollywood royalty through and through. Their parents Debbie and Eddie were uber-famous when they married in 1955 and divorced 4 years later. Todd, born two years after Carrie on February 24, 1958, followed in his parent’s footsteps as he became multihyphenate in Tinseltown, with producing, acting and directing credits according to his IMDB.
While Carrie and her mother’s relationship could be famously tumultuous at times, Todd wrote in his memoir that he shared a different bond with the Singin’ in the Rain icon. “Carrie perceived me as a bit of threat because Debbie and I had a quiet, peaceful, unspoken love that did not require constant attention,” he wrote in the 2018 tome, per Variety. “Carrie was more insecure about her relationship. I didn’t mind being Debbie Reynolds’ son, but Carrie was always trying to get out from under Debbie Reynolds’ shadow.”
Todd would later go on to become a Christian minister. He has also married three times, with the last wedding to former actress Catherine Hickland in 2012. While he doesn’t appear to have an Instagram, Todd does occasionally speak out, as in the case of missing out on the Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony. “It’s heartbreaking and shocking to me that I was intentionally omitted from attending this important legacy event for my sister, Carrie,” he told TMZ in May 2023.
After Eddie Fisher split with Debbie Reynolds, he famously married Elizabeth Taylor. After that union ended in divorce five years later, Eddie married Connie Stevens and they welcomed two daughters, Joely in 1967 and Tricia Leigh in 1968. Joely would go on to have the most success in Hollywood after her sister Carrie, as she was nominated for a Golden Globe for her work on Ellen DeGeneres’ sitcom Ellen in 1994. From 2006 until 2010, Joely also starred opposite actor Brad Garrett as in the sitcom ‘Til Death. She is married cinematographer Christopher Duddy and they share three children.
More recently, Joely took to her Instagram to share a statement on the Hollywood Walk of Fame scandal. With sister Tricia Leigh co-signing, the message, which featured a photo of Joely, Tricia Leigh and Carrie, read in part: “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. The fact that her only brother and two sisters were intentionally and deliberately excluded is deeply shocking.”
Tricia Leigh is the youngest of all the Fisher siblings. She also fell for the Hollywood bug and got into acting at an early age. Her first big role was alongside Patricia Arquette in the 1987 comedy Pretty Smart. She then became a guest star on many television shows throughout the 90s. In 2012, Tricia Leigh, her husband Byron Thames and their three children began appearing on the reality series Beverly Hills Nannies.
As mentioned, Tricia Leigh posted the same photo of her and her two sisters to her Instagram in a response to being left out of Carrie’s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony. The message began: “In response to all of you asking whether or not we will be part of the celebration…. Strangely we won’t be in attendance to celebrate our sister , whom we adored.”
As for Billie’s statement to The Hollywood Reporter regarding the invite snub, it concluded, “The press release Todd Fisher gave to TMZ and the posting Joely Fisher placed on Instagram, once again confirms that my instincts were right. To be clear — there is no feud. We have no relationship. This was a conscious decision on my part to break a cycle with a way of life I want no part of for myself or my children.”
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