Debbie Reynolds died Wednesday, one day after her daughter, Carrie Fisher, in a gut punch that made sense given the duo’s remarkably close bond. A mother-and-daughter pair who were genuinely taken with one another (they were neighbors until their deaths), Reynolds and Fisher spoke of their relationship often, through Fisher’s books and an upcoming HBO documentary about them, among other avenues. But there’s one Reynolds-Fisher appearance on a 2011 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show — where else? — that perhaps best shows the full scope of their bond, which may have seemed like the ultimate enviable mother-daughter relationship, but was always more complicated. Every facet is on display: Fisher’s lasting pain from a childhood formed among Reynolds’s professional and financial difficulties, the duo’s mutual pride for surviving in a business that tried to brandish them both, their shared ribald sense of humor, and even a touching musical performance of “Happy Days Are Here Again!†Watch Fisher and Reynolds, inseparable till the last, above.
