Hollywood legend Debbie Reynolds died on Wednesday a day after the death of her daughter, telling family before a suspected stroke: 'I want to be with Carrie'.
The 84-year-old was rushed from her son Todd's Beverly Hills home at around 1pm after falling ill while planning her daughter's funeral.
She died in hospital hours later. Todd Fisher revealed on Wednesday evening how his mother had been shattered with grief since his sister's death the previous day.
On the morning of her death, she told him: 'I miss her so much, I want to be with Carrie,' according to TMZ.
Carrie Fisher, 60, died on Tuesday from complications which stemmed from a heart attack she suffered on Christmas Eve while flying to Los Angeles from London.
On Wednesday, Todd Fisher said he was 'heartbroken' by their back-to-back deaths. 'She's now with Carrie and we're all heartbroken,' he said.
While Fisher had made no funeral provisions, Reynolds knew 'exactly' what she wanted, her son previously said.
Speaking before her death, he told New York Daily News that his famous mother had already chosen out where she would be buried and that they owned a family plot.
All of his sister's estate would be handed over to her only daughter, Billie Lourd, he said.
At the time of their deaths, Reynolds and her daughter enjoyed a happy, close relationship after years of estrangement.
They did not speak for 10 years when Fisher was a young adult and battling drug addiction. She would later tell how she 'didn't want to be Debbie Reynolds daughter', and was haunted by the daunting legacy of her Hollywood legend parents.
Reynolds already boasted a dazzling film career by the time she gave birth to Fisher in 1956.
Most adored for her role in the 1952 classic Singin' In The Rain, she was among a prestigious crop of actresses who became known the world over for their beauty and on-camera charm.
Her career was kick started by a beauty pageant in Burbank, California, which she won at the age of 16 in 1948.
The daughter of a carpenter from El Paso, Texas, she was born as Mary Frances Reynolds but changed her name after her first taste of stardom.
After winning the contest, she signed her first contract with Warner Bros and later joined MGM which marked the start of an extraordinary film and television career spanning almost 60 years.
Singin' In The Rain was the first of many collaborations she would go on to have with the world's leading male actors.
Unable to dance before securing the role of Kathy Selden, she took cues from Gene Kelly, a 'taskmaster' she later said 'worked her toenails to the ground'.
Reynolds went on to land dozens of other stellar roles in films including The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Tammy and The Bachelor, Goodbye Charlie and The Pleasure of his Company in which she starred alongside Fred Astaire.
Her experience with men rivaled any of her on-screen dealings for drama and heartache.
In 1955, she married singer Eddie Fisher and the pair were celebrated as America's sweethearts.
They welcomed Carrie a year later and Todd the year after that, both thriving in their careers and carrying unrivaled joint celebrity pedigree.
In 1959 however, Fisher publicly humiliated his bride when he abandoned her for one of her closest friends and by that time the world's most recognizable sex symbol, Elizabeth Taylor.
Reynolds married Eddie Fisher in 1955. The pair were celebrated as America's sweethearts and held unrivaled Hollywood pedigree
Fisher and Reynolds welcomed Carrie in 1956
Taylor, who had been married to Fisher's best friend Michael Todd, was devastated when the former suddenly died in a plane crash.
Reynolds encouraged her husband to look after her but the pair quickly began an affair.
In her memoirs, Carrie Fisher joked how her father progressed from his role as comforter to lover.
'(He) flew to Elizabeth’s side, making his way slowly to her front.
'He first dried her eyes with his handkerchief, then he consoled her with flowers, and he ultimately consoled her with his penis.'
Within hours of his divorce from Reynolds, Fisher married Taylor.
They remained together for five years before Taylor left Fisher for Richard Burton in 1964.
Despite the remarkable betrayal, Reynolds forgave Taylor and remained her friend until her 2011 death.
Fisher, who later married and divorced actress Connie Stevens, died in 2010.
During their early childhood, Reynolds often brought Todd and Carrie with her to film sets.
She continued to work after the breakdown of her first marriage and in 1964 was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her role in The Unsinkable Molly Brown.
Fisher left Reynolds for Elizabeth Taylor, who was one of her closest friends, after the death of Mike Todd, Taylor's third husband and Fisher's best friend. Fisher, Taylor and Reynolds are seen above in 1958
Reynolds encouraged her husband to comfort Taylor after the death of Michael Todd, her third husband who was killed in a plane crash. The two couples are seen above together in 1957
BETRAYED BY HER BEST FRIEND AND HUSBAND: HOW ELIZABETH TAYLOR STOLE EDDIE FISHER - AND WHY REYNOLDS DECIDED TO FORGIVE HER YEARS LATER
Elizabeth Taylor, Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds above in 1958
Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor became friends as 17-year-olds when they both worked for MGM. Each had been hired by the studio for their beauty and on-camera skills and they would go on to become two of the world's most prolific screen sirens.
When Reynolds first joined the MGM school, she was an unknown and Taylor was already a star. Mezmerised by the violet-eyed beauty, she would go on to describe for years how she, like countless men and women, was dazzled by her.
'I was just a beginner, and she and I were not in any manner alike, but we got along very well because I was in awe of going to school with Elizabeth Taylor. And if anyone said they weren’t, then they were lying. Or blind.'
Unlike her raven-haired confidante, Reynolds was romantically unexperienced when she married Eddie Fisher in 1955. Taylor was a twice-married, once-divorced, mother-of-two at the time whereas Reynolds was a virgin until her wedding night.
After the breakdown of her second marriage to Michael Wilding, Taylor wed Michael Todd. The two couples became a close foursome, holidaying together and allowing their young children to play. It was during a holiday with Taylor and Todd that Reynolds, desperate to provide a sibling for Carrie, conceived their second child.
They named their baby boy Todd after their dear friend. When Michael Todd was killed in a plane crash in 1958, Taylor was devastated. To help her friend cope, Reynolds offered to care for her three young children and sent her own husband to live with her.
Within two weeks, Taylor and Fisher had left Hollywood for a trip together. It signalled the start of their affair and subsequent marriage and one of Hollywood's most salacious scandals to date.
Not even a day passed after Reynolds and Fisher's divorce until he made Taylor his bride in 1959.
Reynolds was publicly humiliated by the betrayal and spent a year caring for Carrie and Todd as a single mother before marrying Harry Karl. Fisher and Taylor were married for five years before she left him for Richard Burton who she would go on to marry twice.
Reynolds greets reporters outside her home after the news that Eddie Fisher has left her for Elizabeth Taylor in September, 1958. She told a pack of journalists that she still loved her philandering husband and that she was shocked by the whole ordeal
Reflecting on the betrayal in a 2010 interview with the Daily Mail, Reynolds told how she had been blindsided by their secrecy.
'I might not have been as surprised were it anyone else. But how it all happened was rather scandalous in that they didn't take more care to avoid hurting me. I understand when I look back on it. Who would pass by Elizabeth? No woman living was as beautiful as her.'
She and Reynolds were estranged until they crossed paths again seven years later on board the Queen Elizabeth. Eager to bury the hatchet since both had remarried, they each sent notes to one another's suites proposing dinner with their new husbands.
The rift was glossed over and the pair stayed friends from then on until Taylor's 2011 death. Reynolds, who never publicly dealt her friend any unkind words despite the affair, complimented her until she died.
They appeared together the 2001 film These Old Broads that was written by Carrie. Somewhat uncomfortably, Taylor's character steals Reynolds' character's husband in the film.
Reynolds said her friend, who was in ill health at the time, had only agreed to take part to make amends. 'I felt it was an attempt to make amends to Carrie and me for her part in my divorce decades before.’
In 1960, the mother-of-two married shoe magnate Harry Karl. He squandered her fortune through gambling and the pair divorced in 1973 after 13 years of marriage.
Her third husband was property developer Richard Hamlett. In her 2013 memoir, she described him as 'the devil'. The pair parted ways in 1996 and she never married again.
Carrie, whose battles with drugs and mental health are well documented, began rebelling against her charmed upbringing when she was a teenager and her relationship with her mother became frayed.
By the time she was in her early twenties, the pair had stopped speaking entirely.
Reynolds described it as a 'total estrangement' which left her heartbroken. Her daughter said she merely 'did not want to be around her'.
'We had a fairly volatile relationship earlier on in my twenties. I didn’t want to be around her. I did not want to be Debbie Reynolds’ daughter,' she told People.
Reynolds married shoe magnate Harry Karl in 1960 a year after being publicly humiliated by Fisher and Taylor's betrayal of her
Karl and Reynolds (left in 1965) were married for 13 years before she divorced him in 1973 for squandering her fortune. She married real estate investor Richard Hamlett (right together in 1991) in 1984 but divorced him in 1996
EDDIE FISHER: THE MAN WHO BROKE THEIR HEARTS
When Eddie Fisher left Reynolds Elizabeth Taylor in 1958, she was devastated.
He mercilessly demanded a divorce despite her religious reluctance to once and cruelly married Taylor four hours after it finally came through.
Taylor left him for Richard Burton after five years and she and Reynolds reconciled.
Fisher, on the other hand, was never able to live down the snub. He turned to drugs to get through performances and his bookings, once abundant, dwindled.
Fisher was absent for much of his children's upbringings and fell out off favor with fans for the way he had dumped Reynolds.
Carrie Fisher once described how she saw him more on television than in person.
They smoothed over their differences before his death in 2010.
After Taylor, he married actress Connie Stevens and the pair had two children; Joely and Tricia Fisher.
He outraged both his first and second wife in a memoir where he blamed them for the downfall of his career.
Carrie Fisher threatened to change her name to Reynolds as a result.
After his marriage to Stevens, Fisher married twice again.
Reynolds later admitted how she used to fear finding her daughter dead.
'There have been a few times when I thought I was going to lose Carrie. I’ve had to walk through a lot of my tears but she’s worth it,' she confessed to Oprah Winfrey in 2011.
In recent years, the pair were closer than ever. They lived near one another in Los Angeles and often joked about their dysfunction.
Reynolds was always proud of her daughter's success, worshipping her with the rest of the world for her performances as Princess Leia.
'People used to call her “Debbie Reynolds’ daughter,” now they call me “Princess Leia’s mother!”' she once rejoiced.
Reynolds continued to take on roles both in television and film until 2015. In the past year she has suffered a number of small strokes, her son revealed on Wednesday.
In 1992, she bought a casino hotel in Las Vegas where she too performed but sold it years later.
As news of Reynolds' stroke emerged on Wednesday, Joely Fisher, who is the daughter of Eddie Fisher and Connie Stevens, sent her well wishes.
She shared a photograph of the pair on the red carpet accompanied by three love hearts. In another post, she wrote: 'God speed mama'.
The announcement of her death brought on an onslaught of public grief and tributes from a raft of veteran and current stars.
Ellen DeGeneres lead messages of condolence for the pair's remaining family.
Fisher's daughter Billie Lourd emerged for the first time on Wednesday minutes before her grandmother's apparent stroke.
The 24-year-old, who is also an actress, was seen leaving her Santa Monica home with rumored boyfriend Taylor Lautner.
Carrie Fisher died at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on Tuesday.
Reynolds inducted Fisher into Hollywood royalty after a dazzling film career of her own. She is seen above in 1958 when Fisher, who died on Tuesday aged 60, was one
Reynolds continued to work while raising her two young children. She is seen above aged 27 on the set of Say One For Me in 1959. Carrie was two at the time and Todd was just one
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