When you've been in Hollywood as long as Liza Minnelli, you sure do have some great stories to tell.
Ahead of her milestone 80th birthday on March 12, the beloved Cabaret star is looking back on her storied life, and spilling some secrets.
She is doing so largely in her new memoir, Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!, out two days before her birthday.
© Getty ImagesThe memoir will, of course, include reflections on her intense relationship with her mother, Judy Garland, who shared her with her second of five husbands, film director Vincente Minnelli, who she was married to from 1945 to 1951.
Per People, in her book, she writes about how by age 13, she "was my mother's caretaker — a nurse, doctor, pharmacologist and psychiatrist rolled into one."
Judy died when Liza was 23 years old, aged 47, from an accidental overdose while in London, on June 22, 1969.
© Getty ImagesDocumented as Judy and Liza's complex relationship has been however, she brushes it off now, telling the outlet: "Everybody has problems with their mother? It ain't just me and you know it."
Judy's struggles with addiction were also well documented later in her life and following her passing. She was first exposed to drugs when, in her teenage years, while filming The Wizard of Oz, she took an assortment of pills to manage her weight, energy, and sleep, under pressure from MGM studio executives including Louis B. Mayer.
Liza also has had a well-documented struggle with substance abuse, which she also reflects on in her book, now that she is 11 years sober.
© Getty Images"If I can laugh, I can get through anything," she said, adding that her life is "amazing" now, and how she hopes her own candor helps others in their own battles with addiction.
© Penske Media via Getty Images"If I fell off the program, I'd go right back in and fight again," she maintained, emphasizing: "Don't give up. There's good out there."
Though Liza is the only child between Judy and Vincente, who died aged 83 in 1986, the Wizard of Oz actress is also survived by two children shared with her third husband Sidney Luft, who she was married to from 1952 to 1965, Lorna, 73, and Joey, 70.
