EXCLUSIVE: Inside Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds' Unique Mother-Daughter Relationship

By
This video is unavailable because we were unable to load a message from our sponsors.

If you are using ad-blocking software, please disable it and reload the page.

Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds had one of the most envied mother-daughter relationships in Hollywood.

Their quirky and magnetic bond was well documented over the years, proving that despite any differences, their deep love for one another carried their relationship until the very end.


RELATED: Debra Messing Remembers Her 'Will & Grace' Mom Debbie Reynolds: 'I Loved Her Dearly'

In 1997, Reynolds received her second star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for her work in films like Singin' in the Rain, Tammy and the Bachelor, This Happy Feeling, The Mating Game and It Started With a Kiss, to name a few. During the ceremony, Fisher was there to lend her support and offer a few loving words to her mother.

"I couldn't be prouder," Fisher said. "If I have to live in anyone's shadow, it should be yours."

"You're the best Hollywood memorabilia," she continued. "It's always interesting following your footsteps. I love you, Momma. One more star and that makes up for each of your horrible, horrible ex-husbands. So we're going for three now."

Reynolds spoke with ET moments after her ceremony and shared how excited she was for the honor.

"I'm very excited to be here today because years ago I made a picture called the The Unsinkable Molly Brown and I was able to put my footprints at the Grauman's [Chinese Theatre] and that to me was really a tremendous thrill," she said. "Today is equally a big thrill for me because I'm still here and alive to do it, and I'm especially proud of my daughter, Carrie, who came and said such funny words. She's a brilliant, young, wonderful, talented woman but she's mainly my precious baby. I love her very much."

"God is good. God shines down. It's a very special town," Reynolds said when asked about working in Hollywood. "It's a fabulous, wonderful business. This is the business -- show business -- that makes a lot of people happy and it's made me happy since I was very fortunate to stumble into it when I was 16 years old."


RELATED: Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher's Powerful Bond: Looking Back at Their Sweetest Mother-Daughter Moments

Between the two, Fisher was known as the more outspoken one, while Reynolds was known for her sweet but fair demeanor.

"Are you embarrassed that we talked about? I'm sorry I brought that up," Reynolds said during a candid interview with ET, adding a sweet apology to Fisher for embarrassing her. "It's a very funny story."

"That's her job," Fisher responded. "And my job is to embarrass my daughter. It's a family tradition."

During a celebrity fashion show red carpet in 2003, Fisher and Reynolds opened up about their biggest fashion faux pas.

"A lot of things," Fisher told ET. "Being really short and busty. Not having high cheekbones? God, I think I could go on and on."

To which Reynolds replied, "Well, I think it's best not to go on and on. I mean-- what's wrong with fashion? Carrie never was -- she's very simple. She likes basic black. I was raised a different way. So, I always like a lot of glamor and jazz-- we're very different that way."

Fisher wrote about her unusual relationship with her mother in her book, Postcards from the Edge, which was later turned into a movie, starring Shirley MacLaine and Meryl Streep.

The film went on to be nominated for two Academy Awards and left many wondering how much of the film was real.

"Postcards From the Edge is a novel she wrote, and it's a wonderful book. It's mostly about Carrie's experiences with her own problems in life and then naturally she has a mother," Reynolds told ET during an interview in 1990. "She didn't put a brother in that either. She left out that she has a brother. So, it really is more fiction. Every writer takes a bit of themselves."

"As far as the book," she continued. "There was very little of me in it other than, [besides] the stories of the clinic which are very funny. I would go to visit Carrie when she was having problems with drug abuse. Well, I would go to visit her and I'd bring her pillows and her comforters and sneak some cookies in and things I wasn't supposed to do, which a mother does."

Reynolds also spoke about her parenting skills, citing her unique approach to dealing with stressful situations.

"I don't believe in fighting [or] arguing," she told ET. "You know, I believe if you have a problem with your child, it's no good to beat them up because really it has to be a mental approach."

"The best thing to do is have isolation. If you put the child in the other room, in two or three days that's why Carrie I think became such a big reader. I didn't believe in spanking the children," she continued. "So, I put them in their room and they couldn't mix with the family or where they wanted to be. Really it's very effective and I would put tons of books in their room, no TV, so they had to use their imagination and Carrie has a brilliant imagination."


RELATED: Todd Fisher Says Mom Debbie Reynolds Missed Daughter Carrie Fisher and 'Wanted to Be With Her'

She also recalled having to deal with a few hiccups when Carrie was a teenager. "We had a little controversy at the usual times in life, 'Mommy, I don't want to go to school. I want to stay home and shop on Rodeo Drive.' And this mommy that worked her whole life said, 'I don't think so. That will not stand, you good stead in life.' So, we had a real problem at age, uh, that was 17," she said.

Reynolds, who was never afraid to express her love for Fisher, would later call her daughter, "a great gift and a great heart, she's a terrific girl."

The Singin' in the Rain actress died on Wednesday at the age of 84 after suffering a stroke. Her death came one day after Fisher died at age 60.

For more on the dynamic duo, watch the video below.