Liza Minnelli achieved a lot during her six-decade career – including wining an Oscar, Emmy, and Tony Award – before retiring in 2022, but she has one major regret.
In Bruce David Klein’s new documentary Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story, the 78-year-old triple threat could be seen confessing on 20/20 back in 1980: ‘I desperately want a family. I really want a family.’
Liza suffered three miscarriages before the age of 34 – one with ex-husband #2 Jack Haley Jr. and two with ex-husband #3 Mark Gero – the latter of which left her ‘profoundly grieved’ after a 10-day stay at the Washoe Medical Center in Reno, NV.
‘I have a hiatal hernia, which I got when I was pregnant and they put me upside down trying to hold the baby — and the baby passed away anyway,’ Minnelli confessed to The Guardian in 2008.
‘But I got a hernia, so if I eat and sing like that, and all that muscle, it hurts!’
The four-time divorcée – who completed five stints in rehab for drugs and alcohol – once told SAGA of giving up on motherhood: ‘It’s one of my life’s true regrets.’
Liza Minnelli achieved a lot during her six-decade career – including wining an Oscar, Emmy, and Tony Award – before retiring in 2022, but she has one major regret
Luckily, Liza had an impact on her many godchildren, nephews, and nieces like 34-year-old Vanessa Jade O’Neil – the daughter of her half-sister Lorna Luft.
The late Allan Lazare was friends with Minnelli for 50 years and had been by her side ‘through all her emotional setbacks, like miscarriages.’
‘If she had to pick one thing that she’s disappointed in her life and that’s not being a mother,’ the periodontist said in the doc.
‘She would have been a great mother. She has so much to give. She’s been so wonderful with our children.’
The Hollywood native taught Allan’s daughter Lauren Ratner how to sing her famous song Liza with a Z when she was only six years old: ‘Our daughter was so proud to sing it, and she sang it all over the place for everybody.’
‘She would have made an incredible mother, and life wasn’t perfect,’ Lazare noted.
‘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’s childhood gal pal Mia Farrow added in the doc: ‘She’s godmother to my twins [Matthew and Sascha Previn], who are 50 now, and she’s never missed a birthday, anything.’
In Bruce David Klein’s new documentary Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story, the 78-year-old triple threat could be seen confessing on 20/20 back in 1980: ‘I desperately want a family. I really want a family’
Liza suffered three miscarriages before the age of 34 – one with ex-husband #2 Jack Haley Jr. and two with ex-husband #3 Mark Gero – the latter of which left her ‘profoundly grieved’ after a 10-day stay at the Washoe Medical Center in Reno, NV
Minnelli confessed to The Guardian in 2008: ‘I have a hiatal hernia, which I got when I was pregnant and they put me upside down trying to hold the baby — and the baby passed away anyway. But I got a hernia, so if I eat and sing like that, and all that muscle, it hurts!’
The four-time divorcée – who completed five stints in rehab for drugs and alcohol – once told SAGA of giving up on motherhood: ‘It’s one of my life’s true regrets’
Luckily, Liza had an impact on her many godchildren, nephews, and nieces like 34-year-old Vanessa Jade O’Neil (R, pictured in 2013) – the daughter of her half-sister Lorna Luft
The late Allan Lazare (R, pictured in 2005) was friends with Minnelli for 50 years and had been by her side ‘through all her emotional setbacks, like miscarriages’ saying: ‘If she had to pick one thing that she’s disappointed in her life and that’s not being a mother’
![The Hollywood native's childhood gal pal Mia Farrow (pictured) added in the doc: 'She's godmother to my twins [Matthew and Sascha Previn], who are 50 now, and she's never missed a birthday, anything'](https://chumzapp.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/1737935633_505_Liza-Minnellis-biggest-regret-was-not-having-children-after-suffering.jpg)
The Hollywood native’s childhood gal pal Mia Farrow (pictured) added in the doc: ‘She’s godmother to my twins [Matthew and Sascha Previn], who are 50 now, and she’s never missed a birthday, anything’
Liza’s friend and accompanist Michael Feinstein (pictured) said that even though she ‘wasn’t able to have children of her own’ she seemed ‘to have created her own family through all the children who came into her life and all the godchildren’
Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story hit IFC Center in NYC last Friday and hits Laemmle Theaters in LA this Friday before ‘expanding into other cities throughout February’
The 104-minute deep dive currently has a 95% critic approval rating (out of 19 reviews) on Rotten Tomatoes
Minnelli currently serves as producer of the off-Broadway show Drag: The Musical, which runs through June 1 at New World Stages in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood
But the LGBTQAI icon would not have any career had she not been the privileged nepo-baby of Hollywood belter Judy Garland and director Vincente Minnelli (pictured in 1947)
Minnelli’s friend and accompanist Michael Feinstein said that even though she ‘wasn’t able to have children of her own’ she seemed ‘to have created her own family through all the children who came into her life and all the godchildren.’
Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story hit IFC Center in NYC last Friday and hits Laemmle Theaters in LA this Friday before ‘expanding into other cities throughout February.’
The 104-minute deep dive currently has a 95% critic approval rating (out of 19 reviews) on Rotten Tomatoes.
The LGBTQAI icon – who still gets 145K monthly listeners on Spotify – currently serves as producer of the off-Broadway show Drag: The Musical, which runs through June 1 at New World Stages in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood.
But Liza would not have any career had she not been the privileged nepo-baby of Hollywood belter Judy Garland and director Vincente Minnelli.