Joan Crawford's Daughter Christina Is In Her 80s — A Look At Their Complex Relationship

Feb 03, 2022 by apost team

Joan Crawford has been remembered as an icon by her fans and many people in the entertainment industry. She was an actress who first got her start as a dancer before debuting on Broadway. Crawford constantly vouched for herself and worked hard to prove her worth as a star, embarking on her own self-publicity campaign and becoming nationally recognized as a flapper. In her acting roles, she typically played characters who were hard-working women, trying to find romance and financial success. 

It wasn’t long before Crawford became Hollywood royalty and went on to receive a plethora of awards and accolades. Although her career had some hiccups along the way, she proved her worth by continuing to act in both films and television series until the 1970s, when she withdrew from public life to live more reclusively until her death in 1977.

Crawford’s personal life was just as hectic as her professional career. She was married four times, with her first three marriages ending in divorce. Crawford also adopted five children, one of which was reclaimed by the child’s birth mother. Her children include Christina, Christopher, Cindy, and Cathy. Some of the children claimed to have experienced a tumultuous relationship with their adoptive mother, while the others say they did not have a similar experience.

After Crawford died, Christina wrote a memoir titled “Mommie Dearest,” detailing her relationship with Crawford. Crawford had known about it beforehand, but not what was going to be said about her. The book shocked the world with its revelations from Christina’s perspective about her relationship with her mother, showcasing a side to Crawford that many were unaware of.

As an actress, Crawford lived a pretty successful life. According to Vanity Fair, she starred in more than 80 films from 1925 until 1970. She won an Academy Award for her role in “Mildred Pierce,” a film about a mother with an ungrateful daughter. She also appeared in “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” opposite Bette Davis.

In her personal life, Crawford went through a series of trials and tribulations with her partners. She was married four times – three times to actors and once to a company president. Her first marriage was to Douglas Fairbanks Jr. from 1929 to 1933, her second was to Franchot Tone from 1935 until 1939, and her third was to Phillip Terry from 1942 to 1946. Crawford’s fourth marriage was to Pepsi-Cola president Alfred Steele. They were married from 1955 until his death in 1959, with Crawford taking a spot on the board following his death, according to Vanity Fair.

Throughout her career, Crawford had waves of successes and failures, as she became known as “box office poison,” but continued to land role after role. On top of that, she was nominated for countless awards during her lifetime, receiving many of them, including two Laurel Awards and one Golden Globe Award.

The actress was unable to have children, so she decided to adopt four children: Christina, Christopher, Cathy, and Cindy. Crawford and Christina had a troubled relationship. According to Vanity Fair, Crawford knew that “Mommie Dearest” was forthcoming but had no idea how it would actually portray her. “I think this book will be full of lies and twisted truths,” Crawford had said.

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Vanity Fair described the book’s portrayal of Crawford as an abusive mother who had no understanding of or feeling for her children and spent her attention instead of punishing them. However, Cindy and Cathy said “Mommie Dearest” left them feeling sad, embarrassed, and humiliated and that Christina’s portrayal of their mother was “unfair.”

Christina didn’t originally intend to write a tell-all, as she worked as an actress before obtaining a degree and a job in the communications field. According to the Guardian, Christina and Crawford attempted a reconciliation toward the end of Crawford’s life but didn’t go far.

Christina said:

“She was an alcoholic. She was ill. She was drug-addicted. And I think she just wasn’t playing with a full deck. And as soon as I left New York to go back to California to work, I completely lost context – not contact, but context with her, because I wasn’t physically present. Then she died.”

According to Vanity Fair, Christina and Christopher were cut out of Crawford’s will “for reasons which are well known to them.” Crawford left a trust fund to Cindy and Cathy as well as some close friends and also left money to her favorite charities.

Christina recalled being afraid during her childhood. “But on the other side of the equation, it’s fear from people who are afraid to speak up,” she explained. “Fear that they’re going to lose their job or that people are going to say something bad about them. If you were to ask me about one thing that embraces all of us, it’s the constant fear.” Nowadays, Christina says she lives in “acceptance” of what happened, as “it has been a long time.”

What do you think about Joan Crawford’s life and career? What do you think about Christina’s recounts of her relationship with her mother? Let us know, and feel free to pass this along to your loved ones as well.