Liza Minnelli Goes After Lady Gaga For 2022 Oscars Incident In New Memoir

Liza Minnelli is finally telling her side of one of the most talked-about Oscars moments in recent memory, and she’s not holding back. In her upcoming memoir, the legendary performer opens up about what really happened during her widely scrutinized 2022 Academy Awards appearance alongside Lady Gaga, claiming she felt blindsided, humiliated, and forced into a situation she never agreed to. The bombshell revelations are just one part of a deeply personal book that also explores Liza Minnelli’s childhood with Judy Garland, her struggles with addiction, and the life experiences that shaped her career.

Liza Minnelli tore into Lady Gaga and the Oscars four years after she was humiliated by her chaotic appearance at the awards show.

As a refresher, Gaga rolled Minnelli onstage in a wheelchair to present best picture at the 2022 Academy Awards, then leaned down and tried to get her to sing a song from her 1972 movie “Cabaret,” only for Minnelli to cut her off and say, “Hi, everybody!” The younger singer then whispered, “I got you,” which was caught on the mic and only fueled speculation about Minnelli’s health.

Now Minnelli has offered her own honest account of the onstage fiasco in her upcoming memoir, “Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!,” as told to Michael Feinstein and excerpted by PEOPLE.

Minnelli alleged that she “was inexplicably ordered, not even asked, to sit in a wheelchair or not appear at all.”

“I was told it was because of my age, and for safety reasons, because I might slip out of the director’s chair, which was bullsh-t,” she claimed. “I will not be treated this way.”

Minnelli revealed she was devastated by how events unfolded, particularly because the change impacted her ability to perform comfortably.

She was “heartbroken” by the turn events had taken, on top of which she “was much lower down than I would have been in the director’s chair. Now I couldn’t easily read the teleprompter above me. How would you feel if you were wheeled out, against your will, to perform in front of a live audience, and unable to see clearly?”

Minnelli then pointedly recalled that “when I stumbled over a few words, Gaga, who was at my side, didn’t miss a beat to play the kindhearted hero for all the world to see. ‘I got you,’ she said, leaning down over me.”

Following the presentation, Minnelli said Gaga approached her privately backstage.

Gaga asked, “Are you okay?” to which Minnelli replied simply, “I’m a big fan,” having “learned this lesson years ago from Mama and Papa. At a moment of high stress, you stay gracious.”

In the immediate aftermath of the Oscars, Minnelli’s close friend Michael Feinstein publicly claimed she had been “forced” into the wheelchair appearance at the last minute after initially agreeing to appear in a director’s chair due to back trouble.

The memoir also delves into Minnelli’s upbringing as the daughter of Hollywood icon Judy Garland and director Vincente Minnelli.

In one excerpt, she reflected on caring for her mother during Garland’s struggles with addiction. “At 13, I was my mother’s caretaker, a nurse, doctor, pharmacologist, and psychiatrist rolled into one,” she wrote, per PEOPLE. “I lost count of the times I called doctors to say she’d run out of pills. I’d say, ‘I’m a kid! Please fill my mama’s prescription!’”

She also recalled the constant travel of her childhood. “I’ll never forget the day she sat us down and gave Lorna and me a choice; Joey was less than 1 year old,” Minnelli shared. “We could stay in school in Los Angeles. Or we could come on the road with her. We’d be in and out of different hotels, schools (I’d eventually attend 22 of them), and cities. ‘When do we leave?’ we answered in unison.”

Minnelli also opened up about her own struggles with substance abuse following her mother’s death. “I cried for eight straight days. Stress and tension overwhelmed me. I was reeling, and a doctor prescribed Valium to help me relax just before the funeral,” she shared. “What began as a one-day blessing soon turned into a habit, then a full-blown case of addiction in the years ahead. It was a final gift, a genetic inheritance from Mama I could not escape.”

She also credited Elizabeth Taylor with urging her to seek help during a difficult period. “I’ll never forget the urgency in her voice and her words, ‘Liza, this disease is going to kill you if you don’t do the right thing,’ she said. ‘Please, no more lies. Look in the mirror and see what we all see. You look like hell, and you feel even worse. You’re not able to do this alone.’”

Minnelli ultimately sought treatment multiple times over the years, including a return to rehab in 2015 after recognizing warning signs in her own behavior.