Judy Garland welcomed her daughter Liza Minelli on March 12, 1946, beginning a family history that would later unfold in public photos, private strain and, decades on, a memoir account from the daughter at its center.

For readers searching Liza Minnelli now, the reason is simple: she revisited her childhood in her 2026 memoir, Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!, and described the role she took on at 13. Minnelli said she was her mother’s caretaker, calling doctors when Garland ran out of pills, and later told PEOPLE that the experience gave her more patience and made her a steady comfort to her mother. She also told Vogue Arabia that one of the biggest misconceptions about Garland was that she did not provide a happy childhood.

That family began with Garland’s second marriage, to director Vincente Minnelli, and expanded after she moved on and married producer Sid Luft on June 8, 1952. Lorna arrived on Nov. 21, 1952, and Joey followed on March 29, 1955. Garland and Luft stayed married for 13 years, the longest of her five marriages, while family photos traced the years between them: a 1947 Hollywood event in which Garland and Minnelli kissed their only daughter, a 1950 portrait of the family of three with a dog, and a 1951 image of 6-year-old Liza running into her mother’s arms.

The picture is warmer than the life behind it. Minnelli has said she was very happy, even as Garland’s substance abuse issues complicated the relationship. Garland also accused Luft of abuse, and a New York Times report quoted her as telling Edward R. Brand of the Superior Court, “He struck me many times. He did a lot of drinking.” Those details sit beside the family snapshots from 1957, 1958 and 1960, which show Garland with Lorna and Joey, then with all three children at home in Chelsea, London.

What makes the story linger is not just who was in the frame, but what Minnelli has decided to say about it now. The memoir does not erase the turmoil, and the photos do not fully explain the household that produced them. Together, they show a daughter who remembers both the care and the damage, and who is still trying to place her mother in a truthful light.