Carrie Fisher's daughter refuses to invite family to Princess Leia's Walk of Fame star unveiling
Carrie Fisher's daughter, Billie Lourd, has refused to invite the star's siblings to a Hollywood ceremony honouring the Star Wars actress's career, accusing them of exploiting her memory.
Ms Lourd, 29, made a rare public statement on Wednesday about the rift in the family after claiming she felt attacked by her aunts and uncles on social media. Fisher died, aged 60, in December 2016 after suffering a cardiac arrest on a flight from London to Los Angeles.
The day after Fisher's death her mother Debbie Reynolds – whose film credits include Singing in the Rain - died of a stroke. Ms Lourd said Todd, Joely and Tricia Leigh Fisher would know why they had not been invited to Thursday’s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony.
"Days after my mum died, her brother and her sister chose to process their grief publicly and capitalise on my mother's death, by doing multiple interviews and selling individual books for a lot of money, with my mum and my grandmother's deaths as the subject.
"I found out they had done this through the press. They never consulted me or considered how this would affect our relationship," she said.
"Though I recognise 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."
The split became public when Todd Fisher, Carrie's younger brother, told the showbusiness website TMZ that he and his two sisters had been excluded from the event. He denied capitalising on his mother and sister's death.
Mr Fisher said: "It's heartbreaking and shocking to me that I was intentionally omitted from attending this important legacy event for my sister, Carrie.”
Joely and Tricia Leigh published a joint statement on Instagram.
"For some bizarre, misguided reason our niece has chosen not to include us in this epic moment in our sister's career,” they wrote. "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."
