Joan took care of Franchot at the end of his life.

Joan was, without question, an alcoholic until a fall in 1974--combined with her Christian Science faith--made her quit drinking in January 1975.

She also came from a childhood of poverty, neglect, and abuse, very likely sexual abuse. She had no model of good parenting but grew up in an era when women weren't complete until they had children (and that's only a little better these days--it's still a widely held belief). And an era that believed in strict parenting and corporal punishment.

It doesn't excuse what she did, but it does explain it, and makes it exceptionally likely that what Christina says has truth to it, even if some of it is embellished or provably inaccurate in the fine details. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck...it's probably a duck.

Joan herself was questioned at Town Hall (and in other interviews) about being a strict parent, and she always admitted that she was, usually spinning discipline as a form of showing caring/love and that she was raising her children to be normal and mannerly/well-brought-up. She talks about the sleep safes (to strap the kids in bed) in her final book, My Way of Life.

Giving her the benefit of the doubt on some of her actions, I think she probably knew on some level that she ultimately wasn't a great parent, especially to Christina and Christopher. Those two children were just bad matches for her personality, which isn't the child's fault. Thus the boarding schools. She outsourced their parenting to the best places she could.

The twins were much more docile and compliant, plus Joan had mellowed a bit and her career wasn't in as dire a place. In 1940 when Christina was adopted, she was 35 or so and really winding down at MGM, with Strange Cargo. The second Christopher was adopted in 1943, the year she left MGM.

The twins were from 1947, the year after she won the Oscar (in March on 1946). She was on her Warner Brothers success streak, having had back to back hits with Mildred Pierce ('45) and Humoresque ('46). Possessed and Daisy Kenyon were her 1947 films, and she was nominated for Possessed.

She really wasn't anywhere near broke when she died, as Judy Garland was. Joan was more Hollywood "broke" (net worth of few million instead of much, much more, and a little cash-poor) and with the retreat from her public life seems to have become frugal and minimalist about acquiring new things, but still held on to as much of her old life as she cared to.

The first apartment downsizing from the Steele apartment to Imperial House happened in 1967, then the final apartment downsizing in the same building happened in 1973. Though her last public appearance was in 1974, she was still seeing people in person who were close friends in 1976.

Isn't it crazy we're still talking about her and hashing all this out, and that she's still (reasonably) mainstream, what with Feud and all?