For a woman who once faced the gargantuan challenge of emerging from the shadow of an iconic mother (The Wizard of Oz star Judy Garland), Liza Minnelli has done an incredible job securing a solid legacy as an entertainer.
She’s won an Oscar (for the 1972 film Cabaret) and countless other accolades throughout her decades-long career. Some would even dare to say her achievements as an entertainer have matched — possibly even surpassed — those of her mother, who died in 1969 at age 47.
But according to some of her friends, the great disappointment in the life of the 78-year-old star has been never having the family she’s craved all her life.
“I desperately want a family. I really want a family,” she says to Geraldo Rivera in a vintage interview clip included in the new documentary Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June and is currently playing in select theaters.
After the clip, the documentary shows three headlines announcing various pregnancy losses for the singer, who was married and divorced four times.
“We have been with Liza through all her emotional setbacks, like miscarriages,” says Allan Lazare, who was friends with Minnelli for more than 50 years before his death in February 2024. In the documentary, Lazare is interviewed alongside his wife Arlene.
“If she had to pick one thing that she’s disappointed in her life and that’s not being a mother,” Lazare continues. “She would have been a great mother. She has so much to give. She’s been so wonderful with our children.”
He then goes on to describe the close relationship Minnelli has with his and Arlene’s daughter. “We have a picture when our daughter was 3 years old around a Christmas tree [with] Liza hugging her and then 35 years later, when our daughter had a 3 year old, we have a picture around that same Christmas tree.”
Adds his wife Arlene, “She taught our daughter when she was 6 years old how to sing [Minnelli’s signature song] ‘Liza with a Z.’… Our daughter was so proud to sing it, and she sang it all over the place for everybody.”
Mia Farrow, 79, who has been friends with Minnelli for most of their lives, also talks about the bond Minnelli shares with her children.
“She’s godmother to my twins, who are 50 now, and she’s never missed a birthday, anything.”
Minnelli’s longtime friend Michael Feinstein, 68, explains in the doc that maintaining a close relationship with the children of her friends has provided her with a degree of comfort. “Even though she wasn’t able to have children of her own, she seems to have created her own family through all the children who came into her life and all the godchildren,” he says.
But of course, as several of her friends acknowledge, the regret that she never had a chance to have a family of her own remains.
“She would have made an incredible mother, and life wasn’t perfect,” Lazare says. “But she moved on, and she’s become part of our family. I think that’s part of our attraction for her. We’ve kept this bond with sort of a family she didn’t have.”
Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story is currently playing in select theaters.
