The Kids are All Right: A Memoir by Diana and Liz Welch with Dan and Amanda Welch

She told me she felt really badly about it.  She called me one afternoon, years ago. I had just written an article for Harpers Bazaar on the history of soap operas. It was my first national magazine article, published in November 1997, and the first lines were “My mother died three times.  We have two of them on tape. Morgan Fairchild shot her in the back on Search for Tomorrow…”    I did not know then that those same lines would be the beginning of The Kids Are All Right all these years later.

At the time, I had tried to get an interview with Ms. Fairchild, but her publicist told me she was “unavailable.”  I was sorry to hear that–I worshipped her as a child–that perfectly flipped blond hair, those always shiny lips, even off camera!  It was cool enough that my middle name was the same as her first, but we also had the same birthday–February 3rd!

I turned in the story without her in it and so was surprised, several weeks later, when the phone rang in my apartment in Chelsea, New York.  ”This is Morgan Fairchild,” the voice said on the other end of the line.  At first I thought it was a prank.  It was Dan!  He put a friend up to it!  ”Very funny,” I responded. I was not falling for it.

“I didn’t want to kill your mom,” the voice continued.  I recognized it–a mix of husky and high pitched all at once.  It was Morgan Fairchild. I nearly dropped the phone.

She had found my request in a stack her publicist sent her.  ”I insist on getting all the requests,” she explained, “so I don’t miss anything important.  Is it too late to be interviewed for Harper’s Bazaar?”  It was, but it did not matter, I spent the next 45 minutes talking to my childhood idol about my mom.   “She was so kind, so beautiful, so generous,” Morgan said.  ”When I learned that my character was going to shoot her, I could not sleep for weeks.”

Funnily enough, even though her character was the reason Mom’s ten year stint as Eunice was over, no one ever said a bad word about Morgan Fairchild in our house growing up.  We knew it wasn’t her fault!  But we also knew, all these years later, that it was a great first few lines of this story we are sharing with the world…

and on that note, tune in to Diane Rehm this morning at 11am!  All four Welches will be live on air talking about our childhood, our mom, the making of this memoir…  and without a doubt, Morgan Fairchild!