“The chairs, the nuns, the priests, the rabbis—everybody there,” she continued. “And they all said what they liked about me, thinking I was dead, and what they didn’t like about me.”
But the best response came from the entrepreneur's daughter Katie, whom she and husband Bill Higgins adopted in 2005. “She was only like 9 at the time,” Barbara—also mom to Tom, 31, with Bill—remembered, “and she said, ‘When do we get the money?’”
“But you know, everybody talked about me,” she added. “How many people, if anyone, do you know who hears what people say about them after they’re dead? I got to hear it all.”
And the TV star reiterated that her guests had no idea it wasn’t a real funeral.
“I could hear the gasps,” she said. “I had my eyes closed and I didn’t move a second. Everybody was aghast that I was dead. They really thought I was dead. And I laid there dead for ten minutes. It was great.”
And the reveal was just as good, as Barbara shared that she “got up and danced.”
“I looked beautiful,” she said. “I had my makeup done.”
While it was all a joke, some people outside of the party thought Barbara had actually died.
“The following morning I went down and my doorman told me I was dead,” she shared. “That it appeared all over social that I had died.”
“But I thought that was my best report card,” she added with a laugh. “Even the DJ was dressed as a priest. It was fun.”
Shortly after the party, Barbara had posted about her fake death, writing on Instagram at the time, “Surprise 70th!! I surprised my guests laid out in a coffin on Saturday.”
“After 90 friends and family paid their respects, I popped out of the coffin in a red Carolina Herrera gown to the Diana Ross song ‘I’m Alive!’, and danced the Tango,” she continued. “What the heck, you only die once, you might as well be around for it!”
For more hilariously candid celebrity confessions, keep reading.
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