Debbie Reynolds’ Secret Battles With Carrie

The world mourned as Debbie Reynolds passed from a broken heart just days after her daughter — "Star Wars" icon Carrie Fisher — died from a heart attack on Dec. 27, 2016! In the end, the two generations of movie stars were honored in ceremonies just a day apart. Debbie was buried on Jan. 6, 2017, just a day after Carrie's memorial service on the property where the screen legends kept adjoining homes. But before the showbiz legends ended their lives as neighbors, they'd had their own family feuds.

Carrie, 60, spent her final years living next door her 84-year-old mother, with their close relationship captured in the upcoming documentary "Bright Lights." “We had a fairly volatile relationship earlier on in my 20s,” Carrie confessed in 2011. “I didn’t want to be around her. I did not want to be Debbie Reynolds’ daughter.”

And even when Carrie found her own fame as the intergalactic Princess Leia, she still struggled with her showbiz upbringing. That included her mother insisting on calling "Star Wars" director George Lucas when she heard that her daughter wasn't being flown to the film's set in a first-class seat.

As Carrie later recalled, she was lucky to be near her director when an outraged Debbie called the set to demand better treatment for her daughter, with Carrie saying: “Mother, I want to fly coach! Will you f--k off?”

“It took like 30 years for Carrie to be really happy with me,” admitted Debbie, adding: “I don’t know what the problem ever was. I’ve had to work at it. I’ve always been a good mother, but I’ve always been in show business, and I’ve been on stage and I don’t bake cookies and I don’t stay home.”

Their relationship was further strained by Carrie's own wild Hollywood lifestyle, as the actress indulged in the success of "Star Wars." Carrie struggled with both drug addiction and alcoholism, in addition to finally being diagnosed with a bipolar disorder in her 30s.

“That was the most difficult time of all," said Debbie. "Very painful, very heartbreaking.” But that was also when the mother and daughter were finally able to reconnect. “How was she going to get along in life?” asked Debbie. “How could I help her life? All I could do was love her, and always shall.”

Later in life — with Carrie finding fame as a novelist while continuing to battle her personal demons — the younger actress revealed how her famous mom taught her about the pitfalls of stardom. “The scary thing about [fame] is watching celebrity fade,” she said, talking about her Debbie's own troubled later years.

“You’re part of their audience," said Carrie. "Celebrity is just obscurity biding its time, eventually all fame will disappear, and I watched it happen. I never wanted to go into show business. I watched that world be heartbreaking.”

Debbie also watched her daughter's own long battle with addiction, saying: “I admire that she is alive, that she has chosen to make it. It would’ve been easy to give up and give in, and keep doing drugs.”

“I always feel, as a mother does, that I protect her,” said Debbie. “Who will do that when I’m gone?” Sadly, that question would never need an answer.