Key Takeaways
- Phylicia Rashad said she grew up believing younger sister Debbie Allen was more beautiful, only to learn as adults that Allen had always felt the same way about her.
- Allen linked their insecurities to colorism in their family, recalling an uncle telling Rashad to drink “all the WHITE MILK” she could because of her darker complexion.
- Allen now serves as an executive producer, director, and cast member on Netflix’s A Different World revival, which earned a Season 2 renewal after reaching the worldwide Top 10.
Phylicia Rashad and Debbie Allen have spent decades building successful careers in Hollywood, but as kids, the sisters quietly envied each other for a reason unrelated to acting, dancing, or professional success. Rashad recently revealed that she spent years believing her younger sister was the more beautiful one, while Allen apparently thought the same about her.
On Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson's IMO podcast, Rashad was asked whether she and Allen ever experienced sibling rivalry. The former Cosby Show star said their relationship wasn't defined by competition, but she admitted struggling with comparisons about their appearances.
“I think if there was any competition that I felt, I always felt that Debbie was beautiful and I was not,” Rashad said.
Those feelings followed Rashad into adulthood, even as the sisters began establishing themselves in New York City. It wasn't until one Christmas, while sharing an apartment, that they finally realized how wrong they'd been about each other.
Despite agreeing not to exchange presents, both sisters had secretly purchased earrings for the other. During their holiday conversation, jealousy came up, and Rashad finally admitted what she’d carried since childhood.
“I said to Deborah that I had always wanted to be beautiful, like her,” Rashad recalled. “And she looks at me and says, ‘But you're the beautiful one! I was always trying to be beautiful like you!’”
“And then we broke down and started crying!” Rashad added.
Allen, however, said those insecurities didn't develop in a vacuum. She pointed directly to colorism within their own family, recalling an especially ugly remark directed at Rashad when they were children.
“We grew up with that foolishness, that colorism foolishness, because, you know, that brown paper bag foolishness,” Allen explained.
She remembered an uncle making a cruel comment while Rashad was drinking chocolate milk.
“Girl, you better drink all the WHITE MILK you can,” Allen recalled him telling her sister.
“And wow, that was so ugly. It was really ugly,” Allen continued, adding that she believed comments like that contributed to Rashad's insecurity.
But Allen also revealed that she had spent those same years admiring her older sister's appearance.
“Phylicia looked more like mama than me. And I wished I was always pretty like her. Always, always.”
Allen, who directed 83 episodes of the original series, returned as an executive producer, director, and cast member for the revival, which follows Deborah Wayne, the daughter of Whitley Gilbert and Dwayne Wayne. Netflix has already renewed the series for Season 2 following its worldwide Top 10 performance.
