LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: When George Lucas' masterpiece ‘Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope’ was released in 1977, cinema was changed forever, with the movie’s star cast largely winning over the audience’s heart. The science fiction masterpiece had plenty of never-before-seen cinematic elements, but it was the chemistry between Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher that drew the most public attention.
At that time, Ford and Fisher’s on-screen intimacy sparked rumors that they also has a certain chemistry simmering behind the scenes from the start, which was only confirmed in Carrie's final memoir. The Princess Leia star’s tell-all book ‘The Princess Diarist’ was released just a few months before her death in 2016. Fisher confessed in her memoir that she had a three-month-long romance with Harrison while filming the original Star Wars. At that time she was 19-year-old whereas the ‘The Expendables’ star was 33 and a married father of two.
'I was shocked by the fact that he fancied me'
In her memoir, the ‘Screams 3’ star recalled how their romance started on a fine evening when Ford had saved her from crew members with bad intentions at George Lucas’ 32nd birthday party. "I looked over at Harrison. A hero's face — a few strands of hair fell over his noble, slightly furrowed brow. How could you ask such a shining specimen of a man to be satisfied with the likes of me?” she wrote according to the Mirror. The actress described Ford as a ‘kind’ man who fancied her and won her trust.
Fisher continued by noting that "A tiny part of me felt like I'd won the man lottery, and here I was both counting and spending the money. I was shocked by the fact that he fancied me. I was a very insecure girl and had only had one boyfriend. I was so inexperienced, but I trusted something about him,” The actress later revealed that their romance was extremely ‘intense’. “It was Han and Leia during the week, and Carrie and Harrison during the weekend,” she told People nearly 40 years after their affair ended.
Why did Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher end their affair?
Before her tragic death, Fisher revealed that their romance was mostly sexual, telling Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford of The Today Show that it was more like a “three-month one-night stand”. The actress also revealed that she regretted the affair which was initiated by Ford whilst filming in London. “I wasn’t raised that way, but when you’re on location — this is something I discovered — everything is permitted,” Fisher said, she became "obsessed" with the actor and hoped he would leave his wife at the time, Mary Marquardt, for her. But that never happened as Ford was not serious about the affair with her.
“I’m sure that on our relative lists of priorities, as we went about filming, I might have ranked as high as number fifteen on his agenda, while Harrison was my number one,” she recalled. Following the first Star Wars movie’s release, Harrison went on to split from his wife Mary but he never rekindled his romance with Fisher. She also moved on soon and went on to marry Paul Simon in 1983 for a year. She then dated talent agent Bryan Lourd from 1991 to 1994. Their only child, daughter Billie Lourd, was born in 1992.
