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When Jennifer Edwards landed her first lead position in Heidi, at age 10, her father, director Blake Edwards, had plenty of recommendation, however her stepmother, Julie Andrews, had only a few phrases. “I bear in mind her saying, ‘Have enjoyable,’ as I used to be getting on the aircraft,” Jennifer tells Nearer solely. “It was additionally, ‘Don’t neglect to have enjoyable.’ I assumed that was very applicable. Don’t take something too significantly.”
Generations of kids have watched Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins and wished she may very well be their good friend and confidante. Jennifer, 67, the daughter of Blake and his first spouse, costume designer Patricia Walker, grew up with Julie as an essential a part of her household. “My stepmother, Julie, was the rock for all of us,” says Jennifer. “ We love one another very a lot.”
After an opportunity assembly outdoors their shared therapist’s workplace, Julie and Blake teamed as much as work on the 1970 musical Darling Lili and fell in love. Jennifer remembers assembly Julie for the primary time at her dad’s house. “I had seen Mary Poppins like 5 instances,” she says. However as a baby of Hollywood, she not often felt starstruck. “I might stroll down the steps to Audrey Hepburn or Tony Curtis in the lounge,” she explains, including that she principally questioned concerning the nature of her father’s relationship with Julie. “He was introducing me to her, so it was like, ‘Is he critical about her?’”
He was! Julie and Blake, who had been each divorced with kids, wed in 1969 and created a blended household. “We had been so younger, it wasn’t troublesome to acclimate,” says Jennifer. “Julie’s organic daughter, Emma, was round 3. My brother was 5, and I used to be 7.”
Julie Andrews and Her Household Had been Glad at Dwelling
Jennifer spent a lot of her childhood in London along with her mom, however she visited her father and Julie for a number of months yearly. “Julie believed I ought to have high quality time with my dad. If we went out to dinner, she would make certain I used to be seated subsequent to him,” Jennifer notes. “She was very aware about not wanting me to really feel jealous of his consideration to her.”
The couple’s house life in Malibu, California, and Gstaad, Switzerland, was “very Ozzie and Harriet,” regardless of their fame. “It was essential to my dad and mom that we’d all the time have dinner collectively as a household,” Jennifer says. Within the night, they performed charades and did puzzles. Julie liked to learn to the kids earlier than mattress. She and a 10-year-old Jennifer additionally carried out the ballet Swan Lake collectively. “She performed the prince, and I performed the swan. It was simply hilarious,” recollects Jennifer. “She would elevate me and do all these loopy ballet strikes. We carried out it for my dad, brother and sisters, and so they all laughed. It was an awesome household time.”
Julie may very well be strict about manners and being tidy, however “not in an aggressive method,” says Jennifer, who provides that her stepmom was additionally extraordinarily honest. After getting the kids to vow to select up after themselves, Julie stated that in return she would cease swearing. “She has a potty mouth!” confides Jennifer. “Folks simply don’t anticipate that she is going to sound like a sailor generally.”
When Julie slipped and Jennifer caught her cursing, the actress requested what her punishment must be. “I stated, ‘I would like you to write down me a narrative,’” recollects Jennifer. That story turned Julie’s 1971 kids’s e book, Mandy. “She held her promise and even devoted the e book to me,” she says.
Rising up with Julie and Blake helped Jennifer fall in love with storytelling. Along with her life as an actress, her first novel, When Angels Cry, was launched in 2014 and is accessible on Amazon. The creator is readying a second novel for publication and credit her household for making her “fall in love with writing and studying.”
Julie Andrews Cherishes Being the Household Matriarch
Throughout their 41-year marriage, Julie and Blake created a powerful household unit, which additionally included their youngest daughters, Amy (who prefers Amelia) and Joanna, who had been adopted within the mid-Seventies. “One of many issues they agreed on early was that if my dad was making a film, she could be house,” says Jennifer. “And if Julie was doing a present, he wouldn’t work. They’d change off, so we all the time had a dad or mum in the home.”
Dropping Blake in 2010 at age 88 was exhausting on everybody. “It was a love story,” says Julie. “Success in our marriage was to take it sooner or later at a time, and so, lo and behold, 41 years later, there we nonetheless had been.”
Jennifer all the time admired the couple’s humor and respect for one another. “Their dedication was there from the start,” she says. “They each had good senses of humor, revered one another extremely and listened to one another. If one among them had a difficulty, they might sit down and actually hash it out.”
Immediately, their prolonged household is separated by miles however stays united in love. Julie and daughter Emma, 61, are East Coast based mostly, whereas Jennifer and her different siblings, Geoffrey, 64, Amelia, 50, and Joanna, 49, dwell out West. “We do household Zooms and emails, so everybody may be very a lot within the loop,” says Jennifer. Once they do get collectively, Julie revels in her position because the household matriarch. “She’s an awesome, nice grandmother, and she or he loves it,” Jennifer says. “You understand, she was one among 4 children, so she’s an previous hand.”
As for Jennifer, she stays grateful to have Julie in her life. “I discovered endurance from her,” she says. “And if there’s ever something improper, I might all the time go to her and speak about it.”
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