Liza Minnelli claims she was "ordered" to use a wheelchair when presenting with Lady Gaga at the 2022 Academy Awards

In a new excerpt from her upcoming memoir Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!, obtained by PEOPLE, Liza wrote: "I was inexplicably ordered - not even asked - to sit in a wheelchair or not appear at all. 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 b*******. I will not be treated this way, I said. My co-presenter insisted she would not go on stage with me unless I was in a wheelchair. 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? So when I stumbled over a few words, Gaga, who was at my side, didn't miss a beat to play the kind-hearted hero for all the world to see. 'I got you', she said, leaning down over me."

Minnelli said Gaga came to her dressing room later to check on her but she didn't confront her about the incident as she had been taught by her parents, Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli, that "at a moment of high stress, you stay gracious".

She wrote: "I looked at her and said simply, 'I'm a big fan.' I learned this lesson years ago from Mama and Papa. At a moment of high stress, you stay gracious.

"The winner for best picture that year was CODA. I loved the irony of the title for me. Writing my memoir would be my coda, my truth. There's always a rainbow - if you know where to look for it."