Billie Lourd has opened up about her estrangement from her late mother Carrie Fisher’s family.
The American Horror Story star spoke out after it was reported in the press that Carrie’s siblings will not be present when her posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame is unveiled.
Earlier this week, Carrie’s brother Todd told TMZ it was “heartbreaking and shocking to me that I was intentionally omitted from attending this important legacy event for my sister, Carrie”.
Following this, the Star Wars performer’s sisters Joely and Tricia Leigh released a similar joint statement on Instagram explaining they’d also not been invited to the unveiling.
In a lengthy statement issued to The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday evening, Billie explained her reasoning for not inviting her uncle and aunts to the event.
“I apologise to anyone reading this for feeling the need to defend myself publicly from these family members,” she began. “But unfortunately, because they publicly attacked me, I have to publicly respond.
“The truth is I did not invite them to this ceremony. They know why.”
Billie went on to accuse both Todd and Joely of “capitalising on my mother’s death by doing multiple interviews and selling individual books for a lot of money” on the subject of both Carrie and her own mother, Debbie Reynolds’ deaths.
Carrie and Debbie died within days of one another in December 2016.
“The truth of my mom’s very complicated relationship with her family is only known by me and those who were actually close to her,” Billie continued.
“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 press release Todd Fisher gave to TMZ and the posting Joely Fisher placed on Instagram, once again confirms that my instincts were right. To be clear — there is no feud. We have no relationship. This was a conscious decision on my part to break a cycle with a way of life I want no part of for myself or my children.”
She concluded: “This moment is about Carrie Fisher and all that she accomplished and what she meant to the world. I’m going to focus on that.”
Todd Fisher has since issued his own rebuttal, insisting he“never capitalised on either Carrie or my mother Debbie’s deaths, and in no way meant to hurt Billie”.
Instead, he said, his book was a “loving and truthful homage to the incredible lives, not deaths, of Carrie and mom and the 60 plus years I spent with them both”.
Billie previously shared the screen with her late mother in the eighth Star Wars film The Last Jedi, going on to appear in the follow-up The Rise Of Skywalker.
More recently, she has appeared in five seasons of American Horror Story, the comedy Booksmart and an episode of Will & Grace, in which she played the on-screen granddaughter of her own late grandmother Debbie Reynolds’s character.