THE HEARTBREAK CINDY WILLIAMS TOOK TO GRAVE
Never mended fences with TV pal Laverne
SITCOM legend Cindy Williams died torn with regret 41 years after the hit Laverne & Shirley following a nasty rift with friend and co-star Penny Marshall.
The 75-year-old actress, who starred on the sitcom from 1976 to 1982, died following a brief illness on Jan. 30, but a pal says “there wasn’t a day gone by Cindy didn’t kick herself for leaving the show the way she did and freezing Penny out a long time afterward.”
The Happy Days spinoff only ran for 20 more episodes after Cindy, who played the sweet Shirley Feeney to Marshall’s tart-tongued Laverne DeFazio, stormed off in a huff.
Some sources claim Cindy walked because she was pregnant with daughter Emily, now 41, her first of two kids with then-hubby musician Bill Hudson. But in 1977, Williams griped to TV Guide that Marshall’s character was getting all the attention.
Still, when Cindy became pregnant, Marshall desperately tried to get her to stay, saying: “I don’t care, Cin. Lay in bed the whole time and be the biggest pain-in-the-ass pregnant person you’ve ever seen.
“I’ll run around! Just take care of the dialogue.”
But Cindy left just two episodes into the eighth season insisting it was her choice while others claimed she was axed. Cindy sued and settled out of court. She and Penny stopped speaking.
“They wouldn’t put me through to her,” Marshall said. “I missed her not being there.”
The pair finally reunited for a 2013 episode of Sam & Cat on Nickelodeon before Marshall died in 2018.
“But Cindy regretted holding a grudge against Penny,” says the source. “It gnawed at her until the day she died!”