It could be said that Billie Lourd is acutely aware of the blessings and curses of being in the public eye.
The American actress is best known – depending on the generation of fans – for her TV and film roles or as the daughter and granddaughter of two Hollywood icons.
With Carrie Fisher, the late great actor and writer, for a mother and legendary Hollywood performer, Debbie Reynolds, for a grandmother, Lourd has witnessed more than most.
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It’s been seven years this month since Lourd farewelled her beloved “Momby” and “Abadaba” who both died in 2016, just one day apart.
Fisher, Reynolds only daughter, died on December 27, aged just 60, after suffering a heart attack on Christmas Eve while on a flight from London to Los Angeles.
Reynolds passed away on December 28 after a suspected stroke. She was 84.
“It was brutal. It was really, really brutal, and I still hesitate and stutter because it’s really hard for me,” Lourd told the New Day podcast.
“I miss my mum every day and my grandma, but really, my mum the most.”
The Scream Queens star was born in 1992 in Los Angeles and is the only child of Fisher and talent agent Bryan Lourd. She was 24 at the time of her unthinkable loss.
Fisher is best remembered for her iconic role as Princess Leia in the Star Wars franchise, alongside Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally, penning the semi-autobiographical novel Postcard From The Edge and funnelling her acid wit into numerous memoirs.
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“I grew up with three parents: a mom, a dad and Princess Leia,” Lourd wrote in an essay for Time in November 2019.
“I guess Princess Leia was kind of like my stepmum – technically family, but deep down I didn’t really like her… When Leia was around, there wasn’t as much room for my mum – for Carrie.”
Reynolds was a Hollywood darling. All it took was her starring role in the 1952 classic Singin’ in the Rain for a movie star to be born.
Yet, there was little in the way of a harmonious bond between Fisher and Reynolds.
In life they separately, and in each other’s company, bemoaned the other’s existence while also tenderly praising their tragedies and triumphs.
Fisher spoke openly about her struggle with the idea her mother “belonged to the world”.
“When we went out, people sort of walked over me to get to her, and no, I didn’t like it,” she told the New York Times in a 2010 interview.
“I overheard people saying, “she thinks she’s so great because she’s Debbie Reynold’s daughter!”
As Reynolds’ saw it, it took Fisher decades to accept her.
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“I don’t know what the problem ever was. I’ve had to work at it. I’ve always been a good mother, but I’ve always been in show business, and I’ve been on stage and I don’t bake cookies and I don’t stay home,” Reynolds told People.
Lourd was also not immune. In 2017 during an interview on Late Night with Seth Myers she joked about the hierarchy of the Fisher/Reynolds’ clan.
“(My grandmother) gets really upset when I get called ‘Carrie Fisher’s daughter’,” she said.
“She wants people to call me ‘Debbie Reynolds’ granddaughter.’ It’s very offensive to her. She does not like to be cut out – not at all.”
Lourd has described both women as loving and supportive forces in her life who helped her overcome her own professional insecurities.
“The last time I saw her (Fisher) in person, this episode of Scream Queens was on, and it was a big episode for me. I had tons of scenes, and I was so hard on myself about it – I hated how I looked, hated my performance. I was really frustrated,'” Lourd told her American Horror Story co-star, Sarah Paulson, in an interview for Town & Country.
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”[Fisher] told me, ‘Come over right now. I want to watch this with you.’ And she made me sit down and watch it, and she forced me to see the good parts. She was incredible like that. But she was really hard on me, saying, ‘Shut up, you’re great in this. Have faith in yourself. Be more confident.'”
Reynolds encouraged Lourd to be fearless with the projects she pursued.
“Debbie was still encouraging me to put an act together,” Lourd said.
“Literally three days before she died, she was like, ‘What numbers are you going to put in your act? Who are you going to impersonate?’ I said, ‘I don’t think people do acts as much anymore.’ And she came back, ‘That’s why if you do one you’ll be more successful than anyone else. The act is a dying art, and someone needs to revive it.'”
In the years since Fisher and Reynolds’ passing, Lourd has stepped out on her own, both in her professional and personal lives.
“I’ve always kind of lived in their shadows, and now is the first time in my life when I get to own my life and stand on my own,” she said.
“I love being my mother’s daughter, and it’s something I always will be, but now I get to be just Billie.”
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In 2020 she and partner Austen Rydell, an actor and producer with his own Hollywood family connections, welcomed their first child together, a son they named Kingston.
The couple briefly dated in early 2016 and reconnected a year later. They became engaged in 2020 and tied the knot in 2022. That same year, they welcomed their second child, a daughter, they named Jackson.
Lourd is now the daughter-in-law of On Golden Pond actor Christopher Rydell, whose father is US director Mark Rydell.
On her big day, the Booksmart star wore diamond stud earrings that her father gave her for her “something old”.
For her “something blue”, Lourd wore her mum’s favourite ring – a blue fire opal Fisher – and her “something borrowed” was a ring Fisher had given to one of her closest friends.
As well as processing her own grief of life without her mother, Lourd is selflessly mindful of how much Fisher meant to her legion of fans.
“Sending my love and strength to everyone out there that’s missing a loved one they’ve lost,” she captioned an Instagram post in 2020.
“Especially those of you who have lost someone during this crazy year. You’re not alone.”
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That same year Lourd posted photos to her social media showing her watching her late mother as Princess Leia with her son Kingston in celebration of Star Wars Day.
In recent times, the Ticket to Paradise actor has also used her voice to defend Fisher.
In May this year Lourd excluded Fisher’s siblings from her induction into the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Lourd issued a rare public statement after being called out by her aunts and uncles ahead of the Los Angeles ceremony where the actress received the posthumous honour.
Despite being a private person, Lourd shared that “unfortunately, because they publicly attacked me, I have to publicly respond” before offering her explanation.
“The truth is I did not invite them to this ceremony. They know why,” she wrote in the statement, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.
“Days after my mum died, her brother and her sister chose to process their grief publicly and capitalise on my mother’s death, by doing multiple interviews and selling individual books for a lot of money, with my mum and my grandmother’s deaths as the subject.
“I found out they had done this through the press. They never consulted me or considered how this would affect our relationship.
“Though I recognise they have every right to do whatever they choose, their actions were very hurtful to me at the most difficult time in my life. I chose to and still choose to deal with her loss in a much different way.”
As for whether such clash between Lourd and her extended family will prompt a new, bitter disharmony, Lourd said it would not.
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“To be clear – there is no feud. We have no relationship,” she wrote.
“This was a conscious decision on my part to break a cycle with a way of life I want no part of for myself or my children.
“The people who knew and loved my mom at Disney and Lucasfilm have made this star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to honour her legacy possible.
“This moment is about Carrie Fisher and all that she accomplished and what she meant to the world. I’m going to focus on that. May the 4th be with you.”
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