Billie Lourd’s grandma Debbie Reynolds shared some surprising words of wisdom with her before her death.
During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen on Thursday, October 1, the American Horror Story actress was quizzed about the best advice she ever received from Reynolds — and her answer was unexpected.
“Always get a facelift before you need one,” Lourd, 34, responded. “Important stuff.”
Host Andy Cohen agreed, “That’s really good.”
Reynolds died at age 84 in December 2016, just one day after the death of her daughter — Lourd’s mother — Carrie Fisher at 60.
Last December, Lourd remembered her mom in a touching Instagram tribute to mark nine years since the Star Wars icon’s death.
“It has been 9 years since my mom died. My daughter woke up earlier than usual this morning so we went outside together and she knowingly laid her little head on my chest,” Lourd wrote. (The actress shares son Kingston, 6, and daughter Jackson, 3, with husband Austen Rydell.)
Lourd continued, “She looked up at me with her big soulful eyes and said, ‘I love you mama’ and grabbed my face with her little chubby hands and kissed me. She does this pretty much every morning and dare I say, there is no better way to wake up and no ritual I love more. I told her how much her grandmomby would have loved her and she looked up at me and kissed me again.”
“Then we walked to breakfast with my dad [Bryan Lourd] and they ran around together like 2 old souls that have known each other forever,” Lourd wrote at the time. “Watching my dad with my kids is one of the greatest joys I’ve ever known. The kind of joy that makes your face hurt because you can’t stop smiling, the kind of joy that makes you feel like your life is a movie you thought only existed in movies. But then you take a step back and realize that it’s better than any movie could ever be.”
“Then I started thinking about how this joy wouldn’t be possible without my mom. This joy only exists because she existed,” she added. “So even though she is not physically part of this joy, she is part of the reason for it. Even though she is not alive she lives on through this joy. My grief takes on many shapes – today, right now in this moment, that shape is this joy I get to experience watching my kids with my dad. It could and will change shapes multiple times throughout this day because grief is never just one thing but right now I am relishing in this bittersweet grieful joy.”
Lourd concluded, “As my mom wisely said, ‘Nothing is ever really over. Just over there.’ My mombys life isnt really over. Just over there – in my kids and in this joy I’m able to experience because of her. Thank you momby. I will never stop missing you.”
