Mia Farrow reveals she was ‘betrayed' by Bette Davis' daughter: ‘I lost all respect for her'

New York Post

05-06-2025

It was death of a friendship on the Iberian Peninsula.
Mia Farrow, 80, is getting candid on Bette Davis' daughter, B.D. Hyman's 1985 memoir, 'My Mother's Keeper.'
While speaking to Interview Magazine on Tuesday, the actress said she thought the memoir was 'a trashy book.'
6 Mia Farrow attends the 78th Annual Tony Awards Meet The Nominees Press Event at Sofitel New York on May 08, 2025 in New York City.
Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions
6 The 1978 film 'Death on the Nile.'
©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection
The 'Rosemary's Baby' star was close friends Davis, who died in 1989 at age 81.
'[Bette] had worked with my father when I was 12, and we were all in Spain, and she had a very disagreeable daughter named B.D. who was my age,' Farrow recounted. 'And Bette wanted to take her to every village and museum, but she didn't want to go anywhere. We were all staying in the same hotel. I, on the other hand, could barely not raise my hand to say, 'Can I come?''
Reflecting on the book years later, the actress, who starred in the 1978 film 'Death on the Nile' with Davis, stated that 'B.D. betrayed her mother in a horrible way, wrote a trashy book and stuff. So we've known each other since childhood but I lost all respect for her. I really loved her mother, by the way.'
6 Mia Farrow in December 1976.
Getty Images
Hyman, who is now 78, explained to People in 1985, 'I wrote the book because I love her and I want to reach her.'
'I could have written the manuscript and sent it to Mother and not published it. She wouldn't have read it,' she continued. 'She won't listen to anything she doesn't want to hear. She hangs up the phone or walks out the door. So I went the only route I felt would reach her: the public forum. What is seen by the world is the most important thing to Mother. This is essentially a public letter to my mother.'
However, things didn't go according to plan, as after the book went public, David disinherited her daughter.
6 Bette Davis and her daughter Barbara Merrill.
Bettmann Archive
In response, the Hollywood star wrote an open letter in her own memoir, 'This 'N That.'
'The sum total of your having written this book is a glaring lack of loyalty and thanks for the very privileged life I feel you have been given,' Davis penned. 'I hope someday I will understand the title 'My Mother's Keeper.' If it refers to money, if my memory serves me right, I've been your keeper all these many years. I am continuing to do so, as my name has made your book about me a success.'
Along with publicly feuding with her daughter, the 'What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?' alum also had a Hollywood archnemesis, Joan Crawford.
6 Bette Davis with her daughter Barbara.
Getty Images
'I wouldn't piss on Joan Crawford if she were on fire,' Davis once stated.
The two stars had a decades-long feud brought on by both professional and personal issues with one another. Crawford died in 1977.
One moment in particular was in 1935 when Davis fell in love with her 'Dangerous' co-star Franchot Tone. Unfortunately, Crawford got to him first.
During a 1987 interview with journalist Michael Thorton, Davis said, 'I have never forgiven her for that, and never will.'
6 Mia Farrow arrives for the Time Magazine 100 gala.
REUTERS
'He was madly in love with her,' Davis said. 'They met each day for lunch… he would return to the set, his face covered in lipstick. He was honored this great star was in love with him. I was jealous, of course.'
Crawford, meanwhile, said in her memoir 'Not the Girl Next Door: Joan Crawford: A Personal Biography,' that Tone 'thought Bette was a good actress, but he never thought of her as a woman.'