Joan Crawford is a Hollywood icon!

Nothing can change that. 

The journey of healing from a tumultuous past is a jagged path, filled with suppressed emotions and the hope for closure. 

Imagine, then, the profound pain of a daughter who, after enduring a lifetime of abuse, finds herself face-to-face with her mother, 60-year-old legendary mother Joan Crawford, playing 24-year-old Christina Crawford’s role in a television soap opera.

This unique situation, seemingly innocent on the surface, struck the daughter’s heart with a deep sense of betrayal and reopened old wounds that had barely begun to heal.

Soaps’ Most Horrific Recast Ever, Revisited, Appropriately Enough, on Halloween

 The Haunting Shadows of Abuse

To truly comprehend the magnitude of the daughter’s anguish, we must first acknowledge the unrelenting weight she carried as a survivor of abuse. 

Growing up, her childhood was eclipsed by fear, cruelty, and neglect, as her mother – a renowned actress – pursued her own ambitions often at the cost of her daughter’s emotional well-being. The scars left by these abusive years remained invisible to the outside world, but ever-present within her fragile heart.

Joan Crawford: The Symbol of Motherhood

Joan Crawford adopted children due to her desire to become a mother. She faced multiple failed marriages and was unable to have biological children, which led her to pursue adoption as an alternative. She wanted to experience the joys of motherhood and provide love and care to children who needed it.

Joan Crawford adopted four children, Christina, Christopher, Cindy, and Cathy.  Joan Crawford’s on-screen persona epitomized the quintessential motherhood figure—an embodiment of love, nurturing, and unwavering support. Countless fans revered her for the very qualities her own daughter yearned for. 

Crawford often appeared with her children in the American 1950’s media, portraying herself as a devoted and loving mother. She frequently used her motherhood image to boost her public image and connect with her fans.  However, the irony did not escape the daughter’s notice;  behind the luxurious Hollywood silver screen’s facade, a harsh and unforgiving reality awaited. 

 Eldest daughter Christina wrote a memoir titled “Mommie Dearest,” which depicted her mother as an extremely abusive and controlling parent. The book and subsequent film adaption tarnished Joan Crawford’s public image and raised many questions about the authenticity of her motherhood portrayal.

 The Unsuspecting Collide

The line between fiction and reality blurred when the daughter discovered that her mother would be on the same soap opera (The Secret Storm, 1968). But  Christina was already playing that role. So how….? 

 60-year-old Joan Crawford was going to play a role that her 20-something-year-old daughter was playing on a soap opera. As Christina was becoming a young independent woman, Joan Crawford was embracing the dawning popular notion that women could “do it all and have it all”.

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But boundaries were crossed. Without discussion or permission. 

This unexpected collision of worlds released a whirlwind of emotions within Christina. Nowadays we might refer to that as being “triggered“.

She grappled with a profound sense of betrayal, as the person who had caused her so much pain now capitalized on their shared narrative. The world seemed to find entertainment in their mutual suffering-an aging Joan Crawford being pushed out of Hollywood and young Christina pushing to be let it. Women struggling against one another, fighting for their lives is very entertaining, right? 

Her mother would always be a Hollywood legend, an icon when icons really were icons, but did people think that Christina’s life and Christina’s art were so insignificant that her mother, could just step into her place? 

 Unveiling the Scars, Reopening the Wounds

 The wounds Christina Crawford thought had started to mend were, in fact, far from healed. 

Seeing her mother play a role that mirrored her own reality not only disregarded the daughter’s pain but subjected her to a 24/7 reminder of her darkest days. For many years Christina Crawford went on talk shows discussing how she felt minimized and unimportant. It seems it took nearly all of her lifetime for the wounds to heal if they ever did. 

She tried to put it all behind her and ‘move on’. Isn’t that the most overused advice given to abused children? But, at a time when she was beginning to establish herself as her own person and her own artist; her mother choosing to play a role that she was trying to define for herself brought back the trauma of her childhood. 

Can’t I Have Anything?

The anguish experienced by a daughter, already burdened by a past riddled with suffering, as she witnesses her own mother portraying her on a soap opera, can only be described as heart-wrenching. The betrayal felt in this peculiar situation cuts to the core, unraveling the delicate threads of healing. 

Christina Crawford‘s journey toward self-discovery and reconciliation faced an arduous road. It was a testament to human resilience that she sought solace amidst the shattered remnants of her relationship with Joan Crawford.

I do not condone the abuse on any level. As a young girl, I read the book and I cried. I watched the movie on television when it left the theaters and I cried.  My heart broke for that little girl, Christina. 

My heart saw Joan Crawford who had her own hauntings, that were made worse by sexism and misogyny. It all consumed her, and her innocent children who deserved so much better.  She was so wrong and made choices that inflicted pain on others for a lifetime.