The most toxic mother-daughter relationship in our line-up is that of screen siren Joan Crawford and her adopted daughter, Christina, who would go on to become a TV actress. One of five children adopted by Crawford, Christina wrote a 1978 memoir titled Mommie Dearest, in which she branded the actress a violent, drink-addled abuser who was more concerned with celebrity than her family. The book spent 42 weeks at the top of the New York Times bestseller list. Christina said in 2008: "It was the hypocrisy of it that was so difficult. People fantasised about who or what I was; that I had this privileged, wealthy, film-star family life. I didn't have any of that." The damning portrait of Crawford is not universally accepted, though. Two of her other adopted children, twin sisters Cathy and Cindy, have insisted that their mother was a firm but loving parent.