Whatever Happened To Baby Christina?

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 12/9/11 at 6:16pm

Do you believe her?
A recent interview with Christina Crawford

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/10/11 at 9:44am

I don't doubt that there are two sides to every story. There are conflicting reports about what happened within that household. She has her supporters and her detractors, just like her mother does.

I will say this about the interview you linked to when Christina was asked why she was rereleasing the book, after many cynical answers about why celebrities back then and today adopt children specifically for publicity:

She is also, I think, very mistrustful. Many of her answers are delivered with a penetrating stare, a wariness in her voice. When I ask if money was a motivating factor for reissuing the book, she looks at me straight on for several seconds. 'The reason I am reissuing it is because it remains one of the only real, authentic stories of family abuse, and it is important it is continually available.'

One of the only "real and authentic stories?" Does she think she's the only one to have the problem? Or the only one ever to come forward? Something is really "off" in this statement from her.

There was also this:

In March a new biography of Joan Crawford cast Christina in an even less flattering light. Not The Girl Next Door by Charlotte Chandler included interviews with the actress herself in which she railed against her adopted daughter, accusing her of ingratitude. Cathy Crawford was quoted as saying that Christina 'had her own reality ... I don't know where she got her ideas. Our Mommie was the best mother anyone ever had.'

While I do think it's possible for one sibling to bear the brunt of of abuse from parents, it's not like Joan, according to Christina, stopped all the abuse when the twins came along. She didn't suddenly turn into a loving parent for the four of them, even if she treated the twins well. Christina has always claimed that the abuse lasted a lifetime. Even if her siblings were "late to the party," they would have witnessed some of it, no question about that. Yet they claim it didn't happen and wasn't there.

Who knows? My own grandmother was a good friend of Joan Crawford, during her Warner Bros. years. They socialized together in both L.A. and NY. My grandmother insisted it never happened when the book came out. I remember her saying that adamantly, and she was disgusted that Christina would write such a book. But I will add that my own father and his brother were abused in their home growing up by a sadistic nanny who took care of them when my grandparents were away (which was most of the time). I loved my grandmother dearly, but I believe if you don't know what's going on in your own house, how can you claim to know what's going on in anybody else's?