The Hollywood legends Carol Burnett and Julie Andrews have been best friends for over half a century. In a new interview, Burnett is opening up about their decades-long friendship.
Burnett Gushes Over Andrews
While appearing on Amy Poehler’s Good Hang With Amy Poehler podcast earlier this week, Burnett, 92, described Andrews, 90, as being her “chum.”
“We love each other, we are like — we’re sisters,” Burnett gushed.
Burnett and Andrews met back in the early 1960s when they were both appearing on Broadway. Burnett was starring as Princess Winnifred in the musical Once Upon a Mattress. Meanwhile, Andrews was appearing as Queen Guenevere in Camelot.
“She was a queen and I was a princess,” Burnett recalled. “Some friends, some mutual friends said, ‘You two oughta meet, because there’s a similarity there.'”
Burnett joked that they had a “blind date” when Andrews came to Once Upon a Mattress with some friends. Afterwards, they all went to a Chinese restaurant.
“And we never stopped talking to each other,” Burnett remembered. “The poor guys who are with us just sat there and listened. It was as if we were joined at the hip from the beginning.”
“And as always, she taught me some dirty words,” she added.
A few years later, Andrews skyrocketed to international fame when she starred in the 1965 classic The Sound Of Music. Though Burnett didn’t attend the movie’s premiere, she told Poehler that Andrews “used to send me dirty limericks when she was filming.”
“I wish I could remember it or even tell it,” Burnett said. “She did a whole parody on ‘These are a few of my favorite things.’ I mean, brilliant.”
Burnett and Andrews have also worked together multiple times over the years. They paired up for their first special together, the Emmy-winning standalone Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall, back in 1962. They then worked together on the specials Lincoln Center (1971), and Together Again (1989).
Watch Burnett talk more about her friendship with Andrews in the video below.
Andrews Praises Burnett
Andrews is so close to Burnett that she named The Carol Burnett Show star as godmother to her daughter Emma, 63. In a 2023 interview, Andrews discussed the strong friendship that she has with Burnett.
“From day one, we both seem to know and understand where each one of us is coming from. She’s wonderful to work with, and she’s loyal and kind, and it’s never changed. It isn’t that we speak every day to be truthful,” Andrews told People Magazine at the time. “But it’s the kind of friendship that the minute you meet up again, it’s exactly as it was.”
“She transcended a very tough childhood by finding the gift of laughter and she used that phenomenal gift of comedy to save herself and to make all of us much happier,” Andrews added of Burnett. “Sometimes, the characters she plays are not that loving, but she makes them so real. The humor is what is so brave, I think. Hugely brave.”
Burnett and Andrews are two of the most beloved living legends in the entertainment industry. That’s why it’s so nice to know that they’re such good friends in real life.
God bless you both, Carol Burnett and Julie Andrews!