Candy Spelling's Challenge to Tori: 'Call Me, Write Me'
April 14, 2009— -- After years of public family discord, Candy Spelling is reaching out to her daughter, Tori Spelling, on the Web. In a letter posted on Candy Spelling's Web site, the wife of late television producing legend Aaron Spelling and matriarch of a Hollywood dynasty, tells her daughter she's "stepping up."
"You haven't responded to my e-mails, phone calls and text messages," Candy, 63, wrote verbatim. "You say you look at my website, so I'm trying to reach you that way. I want to see you and your family – in private, like the 'normal family' you say always wanted."
Candy Spelling told "20/20" co-anchor Elizabeth Vargas that she hasn't met her granddaughter, Tori Spelling's 10-month-old daughter, Stella.
"I would love to be close to my grandchildren," she said. "I'm the only grandparent that's living. So, I'm it. And, I've never even met Stella."
In her online letter, Candy Spelling wrote: "I'm a mother who, like every mother, wants communication and a great relationship with you, my daughter, and your family. I'd love to work it out the way all families try to resolve issues. In private."
"I'm stepping up," she wrote. "Call me, write me, text me."
She posted the letter in anticipation of Tori Spelling's second book release today. In "Mommywood," mother-of-two Tori Spelling dishes about what it's like to be a celebrity mom, and she describes a dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship with Candy Spelling.
In one passage from "Mommywood" published in January on beverlyhills90210blog.com, Tori Spelling writes, "Mothers are supposed to think their children are gorgeous no matter what. What if I didn't? What if I'd inherited some mutated gene from my mother that caused us to feel nothing but disappointment in our offspring? Oh my God, was I destined to replicate the mistakes my mother made? Do all moms wonder what their children will look like? Or was I living in Mommywood?"
"Mommywood" arrives in bookstores two weeks after Candy Spelling's book, "Candyland." The two books were originally scheduled to be released on the same day.
Candy Spelling spoke out for the first time March 27th on "20/20" about her complicated and very public relationship with her daughter, actress Tori Spelling.
CLICK HERE to read an excerpt of Candy Spelling's book.
Candy Spelling says she doesn't know why her relationship with her daughter is so rocky.
Last year, Tori Spelling told "20/20" that her very wealthy mother was not taking care of her children and grandchildren financially. Candy Spelling says that this is categorically untrue and that her grandchildren -- Stella and 2-year-old Liam -- are well taken care of and have trust funds set up in their names.
"We've always taken care of our children extremely well," she said. "I'm not saying [Tori Spelling is] lying. I'm just telling you what I have done.
Tori Spelling has spoken out about what it was like growing up a member of the famed Spelling dynasty. She told "20/20" about her famous father and the disappointment she felt when he died and left most of his multimillion-dollar fortune to her mother.
"I think part of me, in the back of my head, maybe hoped it would be different?" she said. "I didn't want to be that girl who needed, or wanted, my dad's money but…you know, just hoped."
Candy Spelling wanted to share her side of the story.
In her new book, "Stories From Candyland," she speaks out about being a celebrity by marriage and a celebrity by motherhood.
"My mother always told me, 'Well, you know, you need to be seen but not, not heard.' And I realized I had a voice. And I needed to exercise that voice."
