Hollywood legend Liza Minnelli reveals her regrets about her 16-month marriage to the late producer David Gest in her new book.
The couple’s lavish 2002 wedding—Minnelli’s fourth—was chock full of “politicians, movie stars, rock stars — you name it,” Minnelli writes in her upcoming memoir, Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!, but it concealed a dark relationship in which Minnelli said she was “his prisoner.”
In an excerpt published by People on Friday, Minnelli writes, “I clearly wasn’t sober when I married this clown.”
Minnelli, 79, is the daughter of Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli. In her book, she recounts her struggles with addiction, her relationship with her famous mother, and how she’s navigated fame. She married Gest at 56, after a decades-long, public battle with substance abuse. Gest, who was 48 at the time, would ultimately sue the star for spousal abuse, claiming that she’d attack him in drunk rages. Minnelli has denied those claims.
“Gest was a fast-talking, wheeler-dealer promoter who wore more makeup than I did,” she writes of the celebrity producer, then most known for producing Michael Jackson’s 30th September 2001 concert special at Madison Square Garden. The mega event is where Minnelli and Gest first met.
“Fast-forward to our $3.2 million wedding extravaganza on March 16, 2002. Michael Jackson was David’s best man. Elizabeth Taylor was my matron of honor,” she writes. “I found out that the freebies Gest couldn’t wrangle from the hotel and celebrities, he charged to American Express. My American Express card!”
“Boy, did he have a line: ‘Liza, you deserve to be the biggest star in the world.’”
The secret credit card charges weren’t the worst of it, Minnelli writes in the book.
“He didn’t just control everything I ate, from morning until night. He controlled the people I saw and spoke to on the phone. He screened my calls. In truth, I was his prisoner.”
Minnelli filed for divorce just 16 months later and never married again. Before Gest, Minnelli had been wed to musician Peter Allen, director and film producer Jack Haley Jr., and sculptor and stage manager Mark Gero.
“Ideally, I’d like to date an older, elegant man who speaks beautifully and is filthy rich,” she writes. “Then I’d like to date a 40-year-old guy who is passionate about something. I don’t care what. Then I’d like to date an 18-year-old, who I see twice a week and whose name I don’t know.”
As for her battle with addiction, Minnelli writes, “These days, if someone offers me a glass of champagne at a party, I thank them, and put it down without a sip. Medication is a different story. I still have lower back pain, and I do get anxious from time to time. But the drugs are now strictly controlled. And baby, there’s no going back.”
Gest died of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 62 in 2016.
