Instead, she alleges in her memoir that she was forced to sit in a wheelchair.

In an excerpt of her upcoming memoir Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! shared by People on Friday, Minnelli claims that the decision caused her to misread the teleprompter and trip over her words.

“I was inexplicably ordered — not even asked — to sit in a wheelchair or not appear at all,” Minnelli writes. “I was told it was because of my age, and for safety reasons, because I might slip out of the director’s chair, which was bullshit. I will not be treated this way, I said. I was heartbroken. I was much lower down than I would have been in the director’s chair. Now I couldn’t easily read the teleprompter above me.”

“How would you feel if you were wheeled out, against your will, to perform in front of a live audience, and unable to see clearly?” Minnelli continues.

The Cabaret actress claims that when she “stumbled over a few words,” Lady Gaga “didn’t miss a beat to play the kindhearted hero for all the world to see.” The “Abracadabra” singer was on stage during the 2022 ceremony to present the best picture Oscar alongside Minnelli.

“‘I got you,’ she said, leaning down over me,” Minnelli writes, adding that Gaga visited her dressing room and asked if she was OK after the incident.

My Minnelli Biography

“I looked at her and said simply, ‘I’m a big fan,’” Minnelli, who is the daughter of Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli, writes. “I learned this lesson years ago from Mama and Papa. At a moment of high stress, you stay gracious.”

“That’s a terrible word to use, but she only agreed to appear on the Oscars if she would be in the director’s chair, because she’s been having back trouble,” Feinstein said at the time. “She said, ‘I don’t want people to see me limping out there.’ She said, ‘You know, I want to look good. I don’t want people to worry about me.’”