Judy Garland's Daughters Lorna Luft And Liza Minnelli Reminisce About Their Late Mother In Light Of Her 100th Birthday

Feb 08, 2022 by apost team

Liza Minnelli and Lorna Luft are American actresses and the daughters of late Hollywood legend Judy Garland. The sisters opened up about their mom in an interview with Entertainment Tonight in January 2022 and shared memories from growing up. Minnelli and Luft lost their mom when she was 47 to an accidental drug overdose.  

Garland had been married five times in her life, and she had Liza with her second husband Vincente Minnelli. Their daughter was born in 1946 and the couple stayed together until 1951. Garland then married Sidney Luft, and they had Lorna in 1952. Garland stayed with Sidney Luft until 1965. 

Both Luft and Minnelli have fond memories of their mother, but Garland had a difficult life. She struggled with drug addiction and low self-esteem. There were reports that she acted strangely during interviews, and her mental health was called into question. In spite of all this, Luft said that Garland resented being deemed a tragic figure. Luft conceded that her death was a tragedy, but Garland was not a tragic person. 

Minnelli also sat down for a special Oscars-themed interview in 2020 with Variety to look back at her incredible life. She shared memories of her mother Judy Garland, working with the choreographer Bob Fosse, and the struggles that led her to rehab.

Luft and Minnelli both honored their mother's legacy with a signature fragrance called "Judy." The actresses chose the scent based on their mother's favorite roses and will release the fragrance in June 2022 to celebrate what would have been Garland's 100th birthday. Keep reading to see what else Minnelli and Luft had to share about their mom. 

In the lead-up to the Oscars, Variety published a special Academy Award issue with Minnelli as the cover girl. Her mother's story of her time in London has been made into the movie "Judy," which is nominated for two awards in 2020. The two had a notoriously strained relationship amid the pressures of Hollywood and the fact that Minnelli had to live in her shadow. As a young girl, though, Minnelli insists that Garland did her best to protect her:

"I remember Mama saying, "Now don't get upset because of the way they may compare you to me because you're an entertainer too." I said, "Oh, I won't." And then she reads something where they compared me to her. She said, "How dare they? You're your own woman. Dammit! Can't they see?" And she'd throw it down in the trash."

Minnelli's own Oscar nomination and win — she is one of the only talents on earth to "EGOT" with Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony wins under her belt — came for 1972's iconic film "Cabaret." Playing the role of Sally Bowles was the defining moment of her career, working alongside the choreographer Bob Fosse who she calls "one of the great thinkers and directors," in Variety.

The publication also remarks on Minnelli's history with substance addiction which has sent her to rehab a number of times. She was open about visiting the Betty Ford Center in the 1980s, which she says her father helped her go to. Now she is four years sober, with her last stint in rehab being in 2015.

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When speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Minnelli remembers spending time with her mother and her many celebrity friends. "But it was so funny, if Momma was in the room, nobody cared. She was so funny. She was fun," she recalled. 

Luft added: "I know this is going to sound strange, but I've said it so many times, it was our normal. We didn't know they were famous; we didn't know they were different. They were our parents' friends. That was the neighborhood."

The sisters have been through a lot together, and Minnelli and Luft have become closer for it. "Born into what we were born into, we didn't have a choice, but we made a choice to say to one another, it will always be the two of us, and who we decide to invite to the party will be our decision and that's why," Luft said.

Both of the actresses shared that they don't agree with the idea that their mother was a tragic figure. "That's the thing that bugs me the most," Minnelli said. "They would say tragic Judy Garland and I'd say, 'Oh shut up.' It was her humor and her kindness. ... With her family, she was hilarious."

The sisters believe their mother should be remembered for her sense of humor instead of her struggles in life. Luft said, "I've always said this ... we've all had tragedies in life, but we're not tragic. And she had tragedies, but she was not tragic, and she didn't pass it on to us. ... Our mom had such an extraordinary sense of humor, and that was her survival guide."

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