Judy Garland's Daughter on What It Was Like Living With Her Mom's Addiction
Judy Garland has left an indelible legacy as one of the most memorable Hollywood stars of all time. But while her career was taking off, she was struggling with addiction, and that left a major mark on her family. In an interview with Australian TV show Studio 10, her daughter, singer Lorna Luft, reveals dealing with her mother's addiction - and her family's strain under the spotlight of celebrity.
Living with her mother taught Luft about "the disease of addiction," she said. As a child, her father taught her to replace her mom's prescription pills with sugar. But she doesn't agree with calling her mother's life tragic. "I do think my mother was a victim of the studio system," she said. "It also gave her the ability to channel her talent to all of us. It was a real double-edged sword."
And she herself dealt with substance abuse issues during the heyday of the Studio 54 era. "We were doing cocaine, we were doing all sorts of things," she said. "I'll never forget, somebody came up to me and said, 'Do you not think that maybe you're doing the same thing that your mom did?' I said, "'No no no, she had a problem. I only do it at night.'" She said she eventually went to rehab when she wanted to have a child, and was "sick and tired of being sick and tired."
She also had to deal with her famous half-sister, Liza Minelli, Garland's daughter with her husband Vincent Minelli. (They also have a brother, Joey Luft.) Though Lorna and Liza's relationship has had its highs and lows, Luft chalks it up to typical sibling rivalry. "My sister and I will always find our way back to one another, no matter what comes into being," she said. "Our family's just a little strange because it's under a microscope."
These days, she has made a career as a singer, often singing songs that Garland made famous. But it took her a while to embrace her mom's legacy. "If there was a tiny word in any song that had the word 'rainbow,' I didn't want anything to do with it. I'd run for the hills," she said. "It wasn't until I was near my 40s that I thought, I've really gotta stop running."
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