Carrie Fisher Met Paul Simon During Her Affair With Harrison Ford
Carrie Fisher and Paul Simon had a whirlwind romance that lasted for 12 years. After their breakup, Fisher spoke fondly about Simon and blamed herself for the split. The actor opened up about their relationship in her 2008 memoir, Wishful Drinking.
Before she met Simon, Fisher was a young actor who just landed her breakout role in Star Wars. At the same time, she engaged in a secret affair with her co-star, Harrison Ford.
A look inside Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford’s affair
For 40 years, Fisher and Ford kept their affair a secret. During their relationship, Fisher was 19. In her 2016 memoir, The Princess Diarist, Fisher explained that she only had one boyfriend when she met Ford. Although the 33-year-old actor was married with two children, he kissed Fisher at a party while they were on location. From there, the actors started seeing each other for three months until filming wrapped.
“It was so intense,” Fisher told People. “It was Han and Leia during the week, and Carrie and Harrison during the weekend.”
Throughout the affair, Fisher harbored secret feelings for Ford. Because she thought the Indiana Jones star was “cold” and “inaccessible,” she kept a diary while on the set of the first Star Wars movie. In the journal, Fisher felt Ford would never be “satisfied” with her. She also fantasized about Ford leaving his wife once she realized she could make him laugh.
“This moment could really be a game-changer. Harrison could expectedly (but gently and responsibly) leave his wife. And after a barely noticeable, dignified amount of time, he would marry me (in an unsentimental, tasteful way.),” Fisher wrote. “We would subsequently astonish everyone- including ourselves- by remaining together for the rest of whoever died first’s life. And all because I dared to do an imitation of him, for him, in the pub one night!”
Carrie Fisher met Paul Simon while filming ‘Star Wars’
In 1977, Fisher met singer Paul Simon. When they first saw each other, Simon already had hits with his band, Simon and Garfunkel. According to Biography, Fisher and Simon shared an instant attraction for one another. Fisher described their meeting in Wishful Drinking.
“Years ago, there were tribes that roamed the earth, and every tribe had a magic person,” she wrote. “Well, now, as you know, all the tribes have dispersed, but every so often you meet a magic person, and every so often, you meet someone from your tribe. Which is how I felt when I met Paul Simon.”
Shortly after they met, Fisher and Ford’s affair ended. However, it’s unclear if meeting Simon changed Fisher’s views of Ford. After filming on Star Wars wrapped, Ford stayed married to Mary Marquardt until 1979.
Paul Simon was Carrie Fisher’s only husband
Simon and Fisher’s relationship intensified after they saw each other again on the set of Saturday Night Live. The couple dated off and on, and Fisher’s substance abuse issues reportedly became a problem for Simon. After six years together, the pair decided to part ways. During their split, Fisher didn’t blame her past for the breakup.
“It wasn’t like that at all,” Fisher told the Washington Post in 1987. “It was an issue, but it wasn’t the issue. There are so many things that make a relationship go wrong.”
After their first breakup in 1982, Fisher and Simon started to miss each other. They decided to get married in 1983 in a star-studded ceremony. However, the couple divorced in 1984.
“Poor Paul,” Fisher wrote in her memoir. “He had to put up with a lot with me. I think ultimately, I fell under the heading of Good Anecdote, Bad Reality. I was really good for material, but when it came down to day-to-day living, I was more than he could take.”
Fisher died in 2016 of cardiac arrest.
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