Debbie Reynolds‘ son, Todd Fisher, opened up about the actress’ Wednesday, December 28, death in a new interview.
“She was very peaceful and quiet,” he told ABC News on Thursday, December 29. “It happened very gently.”
The Singin’ in the Rain star died at the age of 84 on Wednesday, one day after the passing of her daughter, Carrie Fisher. According to TMZ, shortly before she suffered a possible stroke, she told Todd that she missed Carrie and wanted to be with her.
“She loved taking care of my sister more than anything. So, she gets to do that, and that’s what she wanted to do,” Todd told ABC News. “I don’t think she really meant it quite like that, but … she went to go see her again.”
Reynolds and the Star Wars actress had a complicated relationship and were once estranged for 10 years. They were closer in recent years, however, and even lived next door to each other in Beverly Hills.
“I think we’ve always been open and honest — that’s why we didn’t get along,” Reynolds told The New York Times in 2010. “As a parent you must give your opinion. And if that causes a breach, then it causes a breach. Carrie and I have disagreements and stalemates, but we still walk away loving each other.”
Carrie recently opened up about their relationship to NPR’s Terry Gross. “She’s an immensely powerful woman, and I just admire my mother very much,” she said last month. “She also annoys me sometimes when she’s mad at the nurses, but she’s an extraordinary woman. There’s very few women from her generation who worked like that, who just kept a career going all her life, and raised children, and had horrible relationships, and lost all her money, and got it back again. I mean, she’s had an amazing life, and she’s someone to admire.”