1 of 3 | Carrie Fisher (right) of "On the Lot" poses with her sister Joely Fisher of "'til Death" at the Fox 2007 Programming Presentation at Wollman Rink in Central Park in New York on May 17, 2007. File Photo by Laura Cavanaugh/UPI | License Photo
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Actress Joely Fisher is opening up about the recent deaths of her half-sister, Star Wars icon Carrie Fisher, and Carrie's mother, Debbie Reynolds. Reynolds suffered a stroke and died on Wednesday at the age of 84 -- one day after 60-year-old Carrie passed away. Carrie had a massive heart attack on Dec. 23 on a flight from London to Los Angeles and died on Dec. 27.
Joely, the daughter of Reynolds' ex-husband Eddie Fisher and his second wife Connie Stevens, wrote a touching eulogy for Carrie in The Hollywood Reporter Thursday.
"My sister would have wanted a dramatic exit; she just might have wished for another couple of decades before making one," Joely quipped.
Recalling their last conversation, Joely revealed: "We spoke of our dear mothers, Connie [Stevens] and Debbie [Reynolds], both of whom have been fragile in the past year and how our roles as daughters had changed. My own belief is that our mutual father, Eddie Fisher, was everything you heard about him: charming, wildly talented, a playboy, a gambler, lost but he gravitated toward the spectacular in wives."
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Joely also said she lived out part of her childhood in the house next door to where Reynolds was raising Carrie.
"I adored Mama Debbie -- she was such a character. And I got another sister and a brother in the deal, right there on the beach! Eddie even came to see us all together ... once," Joely said.
She acknowledged that fans feel they have lost "Princess Leia," Carrie's most famous character, but she noted she must live without "my hero, my mentor, my mirror."
"My brother Todd has lost his sister and his mother, whom he has said will lay to rest together," she went on. "There is no universe where these ladies are not due their appropriate pedestals, and both will be memorialized in separate ceremonies in coming weeks. My sister Tricia Leigh and I vow to be whatever our niece Billie needs us to be. We will pick up the saber, use the force ... whatever. We will honor these two magical people who have left the tribe in the way they lived, with grandeur and grace. I want them back but since I know that is not possible, I will soldier on."
In an interview with Good Morning America that aired Thursday, Joely admitted she knew Reynolds couldn't survive without Carrie.
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"You could see it in her face," Joely said of Reynolds. "She would not last without [Carrie] on the planet."
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- Topics
- Debbie Reynolds
- Joely Fisher
- Carrie Fisher
- Eddie Fisher
- Connie Stevens
