Fisher's posthumous Walk of Fame ceremony is slated for Thursday.
Billie Lourd is explaining why she did not invite Carrie Fisher's three siblings to her late mother's posthumous Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, saying there's no need for an invitation because she doesn't have a relationship with them.
In a rare public statement given to The Hollywood Reporter, Lourd said she made a "conscious" decision not to invite Fisher's siblings -- brother Todd Fisher, and sisters Joely and Tricia Leigh Fisher -- to Thursday's ceremony because, among other things, they allegedly profited off her mother's death. The iconic Star Wars princess died on Dec. 26, 2016 at 60. The next day, Fisher's mother and Lourd's grandmother, the iconic performer Debbie Reynolds, also died at 84.
"Days after my mom died, her brother and her sister chose to process their grief publicly and capitalize on my mother’s death, by doing multiple interviews and selling individual books for a lot of money, with my mom and my grandmother’s deaths as the subject," Lourd said in the statement. "I found out they had done this through the press. They never consulted me or considered how this would affect our relationship,” reads Lourd’s statement. “Though I recognize 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."
Todd published My Girls: A Lifetime With Carrie and Debbie on June 5, 2018. The following year, Joely published Growing Up Fisher: Musings, Memories and Misadventures.
Lourd's statement comes on the heels of Todd telling TMZ on Tuesday he's upset over being snubbed from the guest list for Fisher's Walk of Fame ceremony.
"It's heartbreaking and shocking to me that I was intentionally omitted from attending this important legacy event for my sister, Carrie," he told the outlet.
Shortly after that, Joely posted a lengthy statement on Instagram saying, in part, "Strangely we won’t be in attendance to celebrate our sister, whom we adored. For some bizarre, misguided reason our niece has chosen not to include us in this epic moment in our sister’s career," the statement read. "This is something Carrie would have definitely wanted her siblings to be present for. The fact that her only brother and two sisters were intentionally and deliberately excluded is deeply shocking."
Lourd, who is very private about her life and shares two children with husband Austen Rydell, addressed Todd and Joely's statements, saying that their public statements "once again confirms that my instincts were right."
She added, "To be clear -- there is no feud. We have no relationship. 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."
Not long after Lourd released her public statement, Todd responded with a lengthy statement himself.
"We made every attempt to speak with Billie’s team regarding the invitation prior to making any public comments. Keeping the focus on Carrie Fisher, let’s put our differences aside for the hour long ceremony and move on from there. I was told It was a no go and why would I want to heighten level of emotion for his niece, going further to say if I showed up, she would not," said Todd in a statement to ET. "Billie saying that she was publicly attacked by me is not the case, I simply expressed my hurt and disappointment in not being invited. And to further say that we were NOT invited and “we know why!” I had no idea what her reasons were."
Todd said Lourd "could have called us and expressed her issues, even if we did not agree. Hearing about the event through a press article and from family friends was disturbing and hurtful, particularly since I was the one who initiated the Walk of Fame nomination for my sister a couple years ago."
He went on to claim that he "never capitalized on either Carrie or my mother Debbie’s deaths, and in no way meant to hurt Billie… and that is the truth. Billie’s father was well aware months in advance of my book, which, was a loving and truthful homage to the incredible lives (not deaths) of Carrie and mom and the 60 plus years I spent with them both. I was not aware of the permissions needed from Billie, who came along 40 years later."
Todd signed off saying, "As she has finally communicated these deep seeded feelings publicly and wants no relationship with me, my response is that I’ve finally learned where she stands after 7 years…..BUT could we not stand together for a moment, set aside our differences, and celebrate Carrie Fisher’s legacy in the way she deserves and the way she would have wanted?"
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