Liza Minnelli Tells All In Exclusive PEOPLE Interview: 'If I Can Laugh, I Can Get Through Anything'

Liz McNeilWed, February 25, 2026 at 1:00 PM UTC

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Liza Minnelli shares secrets from her new memoir, from tumultuous love affairs to what happened behind the scenes at the Oscars with Lady Gaga.

At 79, her humor remains intact. Asked what she learned after 4 marriages and she quips, "How much time you got?"

Now eleven years sober, she hopes her experience can help others and says: "Don't give up. There's good out there.”

An interview with Liza Minnelli is not like any other. There are the Warhols lining the hallway, first of all. Secondly, there’s the timing — somewhere around midnight just after PEOPLE’s cover shoot. Thirdly, of course, is the woman herself. The showstopper whose performances turned her into a superstar but whose sheer survival made her a legend.

At 79, the entertainer is finally surrendering her secrets in her new memoir, Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!, excerpted in this week’s PEOPLE. As she puts it, “If I can laugh, i can get through anything.”

Liza Minnelli's PEOPLE coverCredit: Greg Gorman

Minnelli, the only daughter of Hollywood legends Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli grew up in a Hollywood that no longer exists, where she recalls, “your next-door neighbor is Humphrey Bogart but it seems normal.”

By the time she was 13 years old, she writes, “I was my mother’s caretaker — a nurse, doctor, pharmacologist and psychiatrist rolled into one.” Within the decade, she was planning her mother's funeral after Garland died from an accidental drug overdose on June 22, 1969 — and on her way to becoming a sensation of her own.

Her beguiling turn as Sally Bowles in 1972’s Cabaret was just a warm-up for what came next: sold-out shows on Broadway, at Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall and EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony) status — a tireless run of sweat, sequins and sensational performances.

She outlasted her struggles: booze, pills, tumultuous love affairs, near-financial ruin and multiple trips to rehab. Elizabeth Taylor helped organize one intervention and “Uncle Frank” (as in Sinatra) loaned his Lear Jet twice to get her there.

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Liza Minelli with her eponymous WarholsCredit: Greg Gorman

Her bombshell memoir, based on over 10 years of interviews and stories, as told to her best friend pianist Michael Feinstein, is a treasure trove of singular stories.

As Feinstein puts it, “A day in the life of Liza is like a year in somebody else’s.” From her friendship with Princess Diana, to her passionate affair with her New York, New York director Martin Scorsese, to what happened behind the scenes with Lady Gaga at the 2022 Oscars — and throughout, her undying love for her parents.

Liza Minnelli in 'Cabaret' in 1972Credit: ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

With her 80th birthday on March 12, she's a bit frail these days after breaking her back in 2014, but her signature sass is ever-present. Asked what she’s learned after four marriages, she quips, “How much time you got?” As for her intense and complicated relationship with“Mama,” as she refers to her, she says, “Everybody has problems with their mother? It ain’t just me and you know it."

'Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!'

As honest as she is about the ups and downs, she hopes her candor about addiction will help others who struggle. Now 11 years sober, she says life is “amazing” and hopes her words remind others they are not alone. “If I fell off the program, I'd go right back in and fight again," she says. "Don't give up. There's good out there.”

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Kids, Wait Till You Hear This by Liza Minnelli will hit shelves on March 10 and is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”