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Carrie Fisher and Todd Fisher were the only children of actor Debbie Reynolds. The two were born during Reynolds’ high-profile marriage to singer Eddie Fisher. Both Carrie and Todd grew up in the spotlight, and Carrie soon took her after her mother as an actor. She became a star after playing Princess Leia in the Star Wars trilogy. 

In 2018, two years after Carrie and Reynolds died, Todd released a memoir. He discussed what it was like growing up with a famous mother and sister. 

Debbie Reynolds [& Family];Carrie Fisher;Todd Fisher Entertainer Debbie Reynolds (C) w. children Todd (L) and Carrie Fisher (R) at the Thalians Ball.
Debbie Reynolds Todd Fisher, and Carrie Fisher|Kevin Winter/DMI/The LIFE Picture Collection

Carrie Fisher’s father left her and Todd

Reynolds married Fisher in 1955. One year later, Carrie was born on October 21, 1956. After Carrie, the couple welcomed a son. They named him after a close friend, movie producer Mike Todd. 

Shortly after Reynolds gave birth to Todd, she and Eddie’s marriage ended. After Eddie’s friend, Todd, died in a plane crash, Eddie began seeing Elizabeth Taylor. What started as an affair resulted in Eddie leaving Reynolds and their two children for Taylor. 

Todd Fisher recalled being in the middle of Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds

Following her divorce from Eddie, Reynolds raised Carrie and Todd alone for multiple years. In his 2018 memoir, My Girls: A Lifetime with Carrie and Debbie, Todd shared that he often got caught in the middle of his mother and sister. He said Carrie felt smothered by their mother’s fame, and he never shared the same problem. His allegiance to Reynolds caused tension between Todd and Carrie. Before she died in 2016, Todd said Carrie wanted to resolve any of their past issues, per The Daily Mail

“Finally, it was just Carrie and me, alone in the house, after an evening of paying little or no attention to each other,” Todd wrote, recalling his last time with Carrie. “I was surprised to see that she was in tears. ‘I can’t do this,’ she said. ‘I can’t have this tension between us.’”

“She went on to talk about the fact that a day would come when Mom would be gone when it would be just the two of us, and we were going to need each other more than we ever had in our lives,” he continued.

Why Debbie Reynolds had another baby, according to Todd Fisher

According to Todd, Reynolds’ feared leaving Carrie by herself. Throguought her life, the When Harry met Sally star often spoke about her tribulations. In several memoirs, Carrie described living with bipolar disorder. She also revealed that she had an addiction to multiple substances. 

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How Carrie Fisher Tried To Impress Her Father, Eddie Fisher

When Carrie died of cardiac arrest on December 27, 2016, Reynolds died one day later. Todd wrote that while Reynolds’ fans think she died of a “broken heart,” he understood there was more to her grief. 

“Debbie Reynolds willed herself right off this planet to personally see to it that Carrie would never be alone,” Todd wrote. 

Todd continued to say that his mother’s actions weren’t different from how she cared for Carrie. He wrote that Reynolds only had another child to ensure Carrie wouldn’t live a lonely existence. 

“’That had been her driving force all of Carrie’s life, including having me so that Carrie wouldn’t be an only child,” he said. ‘’And it continued to be her driving force when Carrie left.”

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