Carrie and Debbie: A Mother-Daughter Love Story

Debbie Reynolds died just one day after her daughter, Carrie Fisher. It’s not too surprising when you consider their relationship.

It’s not an exaggeration or lie to say that someone died of a broken heart. We see it all the time, especially in elderly couples who have been together for decades. One passes away and then, within months, so does the other. And they say that losing a child is one of the worst experiences that a parent can go through. So it seems almost logical that Debbie Reynolds would die just one day after losing her daughter, Carrie Fisher.

The technical term for “dying of a broken heart” is takotsubo cardiomyopathy. It’s an enlargement of the heart that results in weakness or irregular heartbeat. Experts aren’t sure what the specific causes are other than high levels of stress hormones and arterial spasms. People who have lost a loved one are also at higher risk of stroke, especially someone like Debbie Reynolds who’d had a stroke before. Whatever happened to her physically was most likely brought on by what she was going through emotionally. Her son, Todd Fisher, said that his mother, in her final hours, had said that she wanted to be with Carrie.

"“She held it together beautifully, obviously, for the last couple of days but she was under a lot of emotion and stress from the loss [of Carrie] and it’s pretty much what triggered this event.”"

Although the relationship between Debbie and Carrie was stormy at times — as many mother-daughter relationships are — there was never any doubt that the two had a tight bond. A quick Google search of their names brings up hundreds of photos of the two together, dating back to when Carrie was just a toddler watching her mom on stage or visiting her on a movie set. When Carrie grew up and started her own career in the entertainment industry, Debbie would often travel with her, going on her book tours and attending Star Wars movie premieres.

But things weren’t always perfect, and neither of them ever tried to pretend that it was. In her semi-biographical book Postcards from the Edge, Carrie wrote about a character, Suzanne, who was battling addiction. Suzanne’s mother worried that she blamed her for her problems. In real life, Debbie spoke openly about how afraid she was for Carrie during those years and how they both had a hard time dealing with Carrie’s diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

Just a few years ago, the duo sat down for an interview with Oprah Winfrey. During the interview, Debbie said “There have been a few times when I thought I was going to lose Carrie. I’ve had to walk through a lot of my tears, but she’s worth it.” Carrie, on the other hand, talked about how she pushed her mother away when she probably needed her the most. “I didn’t want to be around her,” she said. “I did not want to be Debbie Reynolds’ daughter.”

It took Carrie many years to come to terms with her identity as the daughter of famous parents. She often said that it took her a while before she realized that not all kids had movie star parents, that her life growing up under the Hollywood lights wasn’t typical or average. Unfortunately, Carrie went through a period where she felt like the only way to separate herself from that life was to separate from her mother, and the two spent about a decade barely speaking to each other. “We didn’t get along. We had the extra, larger-than-life relationship. This is a very powerful person but in order to have my own identity, I have to forge some kind of character out of nothing,” Carrie said in that Oprah interview.

Eventually they worked out their differences. Carrie built her own career and established herself as a talented actress, something more than just Debbie Reynolds’ daughter. She stepped out from under her mother’s spotlight and learned to shine under her own. They both carried on with their careers, appearing on stage and screen. They performed together, they wrote books, and they both became advocates for awareness and treatment of mental illness.

In that 2011 interview, Debbie Reynolds talked about how proud she was of her daughter and how strong their relationship had ultimately become, saying that she and Carrie had finally found happiness. She also described how proud she was of her daughter’s strength and her ability to survive. “I always feel, as a mother does, that I protect her,” Debbie said. “Who will do that when I’m gone?”

Next: Carrie Fisher/Debbie Reynolds Documentary Still Forthcoming

And she did protect her daughter. Right up until Carrie Fisher’s final moments, Debbie Reynolds was by her daughter’s side. And when Carrie Fisher died, perhaps Debbie felt that her job here was done.