Liza Minnelli’s Memoir Exposes Little-Known Details about Judy Garland, Princess Diana, Ron Howard And Desi Arnaz Jr.
From Princess Diana's memorabilia to Judy Garland's tragic legacy, Liza Minnelli is finally telling all
It’s Liza Minnelli’s 80th birthday and this year, the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony winner is holding nothing back. In her newly released memoir, Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!, the actress drops several bombshells, including details on her marriages, her friendship with Princess Diana and her relationship with her mother, Judy Garland. To learn more about what Minnelli wrote in her memoir, keep reading.
Liza Minnelli and Princess Diana were good friends
Minnelli and Princess Diana had run into each other a few times over the years, but according to the actress, it wasn’t until the London premiere of her 1991 film, Stepping Out, that the two really connected.
“She and I fiercely guarded each other’s privacy,” Minnelli writes. “We’d catch up and meet for tea. Sometimes she’d come to my hotel and we’d have lunch. My instinct was always to protect her. She was a great lady, under siege from the moment she entered the royal family.”
“We talked girl talk, and could have spent weeks together. Diana spoke candidly about the pressures she was facing, in her married life and as a member of the royal family,” the actress continues. “I told her about my own experiences. It was honest and real. We understood each other. She was one in a million. After her separation from Prince Charles she decorated her private quarters at Kensington Palace with memorabilia that meant something to her. I later learnt that, among a handful of framed photographs on her living room mantelpiece, there was a picture of me. Tragically, like so many people I love, she was gone too soon.”
How Ron Howard cast Liza Minnelli in ‘Arrested Development’
Growing up, Minnelli babysat for Happy Days star Ron Howard, but they never worked together professionally until Howard created the TV show, Arrested Development.
“I babysat Ronny, as I’d always call him, and we became pals. Years went by, 40 to be exact. My phone rang one day. It was Ronny, now Ron Howard, Oscar-winning director. He’d created a new TV series called Arrested Development. There could be a great cameo role in it for me,” Minnelli writes. “Was I interested? I looked at the early episodes and was hooked. The role they had in mind was a ditzy rich widow who runs through a flurry of men, some of whom she beds. She’s manic and lovable. What’s not to like? I signed on.”
Liza Minnelli opens up about her relationship with Desi Arnaz Jr.
When Minnelli announced her engagement to Desi Arnaz Jr., the world went wild. But there was a lot of behind-the-scenes drama.
“After winning my Oscar in 1973 more doors opened for me. I looked forward to my biggest concert tour yet. I was flooded with movie scripts. Life was terrific. Although I was still married to Peter [Sellers], there was a new love in my life — Desi Arnaz Jr, the son of Lucille Ball. We were engaged but my situation was about to become even more complicated,” writes Minnelli.
In the end, Minnelli broke off her engagement to Arnaz Jr. and remained with Sellers, her husband, in 1973, but that marriage was tumultuous.
“Peter began unravelling [during our marriage.] He would scold me, taunt me, bully me in the voices of different characters. They weren’t fictitious or part of a script. They appeared to be coming from somewhere deep in him—and weren’t pleasant to be around. Then he’d calm down and change back to the warm, loving man who I thought he was,” Minnelli reveals in her memoir. “Peter had a raging case of schizophrenia, and there was no way I could or would put up with that. In fairness, I think he had reached the same breaking point with me.”
Liza Minnelli spills on her relationship with her mother
One of Hollywood’s most talked about mother-daughter relationships was that of Minnelli and Garland. And while it was chaotic at times, Minnelli reveals that they were closer than anyone realized.
“Nobody fascinated me more than Mama. She was a megastar and the press was always writing about her. They said she was a bad mother, that she drank too much, took too many pills and ignored her family. I’ve said this many times over the years, so let me say it again, loud and clear: Mama loved me passionately, and to this day I love her just as much,” Minnelli writes.
“Mama was found dead in her London flat on the morning of June 22, 1969. I cried for eight straight days. I didn’t believe Mama would kill herself, even though that’s what the press said. Hell no! She was a performer to the end, and wouldn’t go out wearing the nightgown they found her in. I was relieved by the autopsy finding: Mama had died from an ‘incautious self-overdosage’ of sleeping pills,” she continued. “For me it was a time of unimaginable sadness and fateful change. A doctor prescribed Valium to help me relax before the funeral. It was the first time I took any such drug and I marvelled at how quickly it took the edge off. Where has it been all my life? Valium eventually triggered something dreadful in me, like a match igniting a fire. A one-day blessing turned into a habit, then a full-blown case of addiction. It was a final gift, a genetic inheritance from Mama I could not escape.”
You can pick up your copy of Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! now wherever books are sold.
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