Billie Lourd, the daughter of late actress Carrie Fisher, has given a reason for not inviting her mother’s siblings to the Star Wars icons Walk of Fame ceremony in LA. The event is scheduled to take place on May the fourth, and Fisher will receive a posthumous star on Hollywood Boulevard. However, Lourd’s mother’s family will not be attending. In a statement obtained by Entertainment Weekly, Lourd, 30, revealed that she did not invite her uncle and aunts because they allegedly attempted to profit from Fisher’s death, who passed away due to a heart attack in 2016.
“I have seen the postings and press release issued by my mother’s brother and sister,” Lourd said in the statement released on the eve of the ceremony.
“I apologise to anyone reading this for feeling the need to defend myself publicly from these family members. But unfortunately, because they publicly attacked me, I have to publicly respond. The truth is I did not invite them to this ceremony. They know why.”
Lourd went on to say her relatives “chose to process their grief publicly” by doing “multiple interviews and selling individual books” in the wake of Fisher’s death.
She claimed they also tried to bank in on the death of her grandmother, actress Debbie Reynolds, who died from a stroke one day after Fisher.
“I found out they had done this through the press. They never consulted me or considered how this would effect our relationship,” Lourd wrote, adding that it was “very hurtful to me at the most difficult time in my life”.
Fisher’s brother, Todd, told TMZ that it was “heartbreaking and shocking to me that I was intentionally omitted from attending this important legacy event for my sister. Frankly, it’s a distressing situation”
Fisher’s half-sisters, actresses Tricia Leigh Fisher and Joely Fisher, posted happy throwback photos on Instagram of the three of them together.
“For some bizarre, misguided reason our niece has chosen not to include us in this epic moment in our sister’s career,” Joely wrote. “The fact that her only brother and two sisters were intentionally and deliberately excluded is deeply shocking.”
