Judy Garland's Kids Are 'Proud' to Have Had Her As Their Mother
In this month’s highly anticipated biopic Judy, Renée Zellweger stars as the late-1960s Judy Garland in the final year of her life.
The upcoming film explores the legendary actress and singer’s relationship with her two youngest children, Lorna and Joey Luft (Judy’s then-teen daughter Liza Minnelli only makes a brief appearance), and her struggles to earn enough money to give them a stable home.
In the trailer for Judy, viewers get a glimpse of how the star’s battles with debt, depression, and drug addiction weighed on her family. But the film also highlights Judy’s devotion and sacrifice for her children. In reality, the iconic star’s kids are still champions for their mother today. Here's what to know about Judy as a mom.
Liza Minnelli
On March 12, 1946, Judy welcomed her first daughter, Liza, from her marriage with director Vincente Minnelli. Looking back on her childhood in an audio recording for The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Liza recalled, “My mother was a very strict disciplinarian, but fair. ... She never overpunished us.”
Liza, 73, also told The New York Times in 1984 that even as a young child, she “was always treated like a grown-up,” and soon filled the role of comforter and confidante for her mother. Despite their closeness, Liza said life with her mother was fraught with turmoil.
''There were no middles, no times when I was just tranquil. I was used only to screaming attacks or excessive love bouts, rivers of money or no money at all, seeing my mother constantly or not seeing her for weeks at a time,” she told The Times.
Still, Liza says she prefers to dwell on the positive memories of her mother. Judy always took an active interest in every aspect of her daughter’s life, and she passed on her sense of humor, her resiliency, and her ambition.
“For the rest of my life, I will be proud to be Judy Garland’s daughter,” Liza told Closer Weekly in 2017.
Lorna Luft
On November 21, 1952, Judy welcomed another daughter, Lorna Luft, with her third husband Sid Luft.
Lorna, now 66, wrote a book about her mother, Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir, which was published in 1998 and later adapted as the 2001 Emmy-winning TV miniseries, Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows.
In the book, Lorna details her chaotic childhood growing up amidst her mother’s descent into the prescription-drug addiction that would end her life in 1969.
But through the years, Lorna has repeatedly rejected the popular depiction of her mother as a tragic figure.
“She hated being called a tragic figure. We all have tragedies in our lives, but that does not make us tragic. She was funny and she was warm and she was wonderfully gifted," she told The Guardian in 1999. "She had great highs and great moments in her career. She also had great moments in her personal life. Yes, we lost her at 47 years old. That was tragic. But she was not a tragic figure.”
Joey Luft
Judy’s son, Joey Luft, was born on March 29, 1955. Like his older sister and half sister, Joey also witnessed his mother’s highs and lows from a young age.
“There were times when my mom wasn’t acting right, so I’d ask my dad, ‘Is she sick?’ and he explained it all to me,” Joey, 64, told Closer in 2017. “It was exceptionally hard to deal with as a kid. I was powerless. She was a great person, but she had that addiction.”
Joey, who was 14 in 1969 when Judy died of an overdose of barbiturate, also chooses to cherish the good times with his mother.
“I don’t want to talk about the bad things,” Luft told the Los Angeles Times in 2014. “That isn’t what my mom was about. She was a performer. She was a mother. She loved people. She was the most caring person. She had the greatest sense of humor.”
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